Bundt cakes always look impressive. But, as we’re so often reminded via GBBO, “Style without substance” is no good. Fortunately, this cake has more than mere style. It has a firm moist texture and a lovely depth of flavour – malty & chocolaty.

Makes: One medium* size cake (cuts into about 12 pieces)

Time (approx.): 30 minutes hands on. 50 minutes baking + cooling time. 30 minutes decorating.

Level: Not too difficult, but make the effort to prep the tin thoroughly

Need: A bundt tin (see gallery below for size)

* The mixture didn’t fill my bundt tin, so in brackets after each ingredient I’ve suggested – in red – new increased measurements that I intend using soon, but haven’t done so yet. Feel free to have a go and let me know.

Ingredients

175g/6oz butter, softened, plus extra for greasing (225g)
225g/8oz caster sugar (275g)
½ tsp almond extract (¾)
3 tbsp cocoa powder (40g – 50g)
2 tsp baking powder (3 tsp)
175g/6oz plain flour (225g)
30g/1oz malt powder. E.g. Horlicks (45g)
Pinch of salt (same)
75g/2½oz ground almonds (90g – 100g)
3 large eggs (4)
2 tbsp milk (40ml – 50ml)
50g/1¾oz dark chocolate chips (75g)
100g/3½oz crumbled maltesers (about 50 maltesers) (125g)

To decorate

50g/1¾oz white chocolate (same)
15g/½oz unsalted butter (same)
Some maltesers* – ideally milk and dark chocolate (they also do white ones, but maybe only at Christmas) (same) N.B. I coated some milk maltesers in white chocolate; they looked reasonable. Also Dr Oetker sell small gold chocolate balls about the same size as maltesers.

* There are 50 cavities to be filled

Method

Prep: Thoroughly brush the bundt tin with melted butter and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. (If there’s space in our fridge, I butter my tin the night before I bake.)

1. Heat the oven to 180°C / fan 160°C / 350°F / gas 4.

2. In a large bowl, cream the butter & sugar together until light and fluffy. Stir in the almond extract.

3. In another bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, baking powder, flour, malt powder, salt and ground almonds.

4. Beat the eggs into the creamed butter, one at a time, adding a spoonful of the flour mixture each time. Then fold in the remaining flour mixture and stir in the milk. Gently stir in the chocolate chips and crumbled maltesers.

5. Spoon the mixture into the prepared bundt tin and tap the tin on a work surface to release any trapped air. Bake for about 50 minutes then test if it’s done, using a skewer inserted into the deepest part. If it does not come out dry, the cake may need 5 – 10 minutes longer in the oven.

6. When baked, leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack.

7. To decorate, first decide how you want to place the maltesers in the “cavities” of the cake and lay them out ready and to-hand. The bundt tin in the photos had 50 cavities that I wanted to fill.

8. Melt the white chocolate and butter together in a bain marie.

9. Either use a piping bag with the melted chocolate and pipe some into each cavity, adding a malteser as you go, or carefully dip each malteser into the melted chocolate before placing it in a cavity. Finally, I dusted mine with icing sugar, but then thought it looked good without – you can decide.

Gallery 1

Gallery 2

I hope you enjoy this lovely cake. If you want more cake recipes click this link, or have a look at my site for lots of other great recipes, both sweet and savoury. Below are a few that I’d love you to try:

Golden Chocolate Cake