Henri Turned 10 this month and the celebrating has been at a feverish pitch for weeks. It is a big year when your little baby hits double digits and becomes a tweenager. On his actual birthday we celebrated with our family. He wanted to rent the movie Grease (one of his babysitters was recently in the play at the high school), have sushi and eat chocolate cake! It sounded like a fantastic idea to me. After 20+ years I’d forgotten about some of the racy content in the movie, which they edited out of the high school play, Oooops! Luckily we were watching at home and could fast forward through the more “educational” scenes!
The chocolate cake he chose was amazing. I used my Devil’s Food Cake recipe and topped it with Dorie Greenspan’s Chocolate Malted Buttercream. A bunch of chocolate shavings made it look festive, but it was so simple to put together.
Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Malt Buttercream
Find the full recipe at the end of this post.
1/2 recipe of Devil’s Food Cake (baked in an 8 by 3-Inch cake pan for about 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean)
Chocolate Malt Buttercream by Dorie Greenspan in Baking: From My Home to Yours
Prepare and cool the Devil’s Food Cake
To Prepare the Buttercream:
In a double boiler melt the chocolate and 1/2 of the brown sugar.
Stir together the malted milk powder, cocoa and boiling water in a small bowl. Once the chocolate has melted add the malted milk mixture and whisk gently until smooth. Allow to cool to room temperature.
In a mixing bowl cream together the butter and remaining 1/2 of the brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the salt and vanilla. Turn the speed down and add the cooled chocolate mixture to the butter. Scrape down the bowl and continue mixing. Slowly add the confectioner’s sugar and mix until smooth.
Cut the cake into 2 or 3 layers. Fill the layers with the malted buttercream and then cover the outside with more icing.
using a chefs knife you can make the chocolate shavings from a large block of chocolate. The backside of the chocolate is generally smooth and if you just scrape the blade against the chocolate it will curl up into shavings.
Cover the top with the shavings and serve at room temperature.
This cake actually got better after a day, the icing was smoother and the flavors popped out more, just cover and leave it at room temperature.
The next party was a sleepover with Henri’s buddies from school. They came over, we went to see Star Trek and then they came back to the house for cake, ice cream and a mostly sleepless night! Henri designed T-shirts to give to the kids and wanted me to make a cake to match. He and Charlie had so much fun designing the shirts they decided to start a T-shirt business, more to come on that! This cake was a marbled yellow cake inspired by Shirley O. Corriher’s Magnificent moist Golden Cake in BakeWise with his favorite cream cheese icing.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1/2 recipe of Devil's Food Cake baked in an 8 by 3-Inch cake pan for about 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean
Chocolate Malt Buttercream
- 6 oz bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped
- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup Malted Milk Powder
- 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup boiling water
- 8 oz 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
- pinch salt
- 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar sifted
Instructions
- Prepare and cool a half recipe of Devil's Food Cake.
Frosting
- In a double boiler melt the chocolate and 1/2 of the brown sugar.
- Stir together the malted milk powder, cocoa and boiling water in a small bowl. Once the chocolate has melted add the malted milk mixture and whisk gently until smooth. Allow to cool to room temperature.
- In a mixing bowl cream together the butter and remaining 1/2 of the brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the salt and vanilla. Turn the speed down and add the cooled chocolate mixture to the butter. Scrape down the bowl and continue mixing. Slowly add the confectioner's sugar and mix until smooth.
- Cut the cake into 2 or 3 layers. Fill the layers with the malted buttercream and then cover the outside with more icing.
Chocolate Shavings
- Using a chef's knife you can make the chocolate shavings from a large block of chocolate. The backside of the chocolate is generally smooth and if you just scrape the blade against the chocolate it will curl up into shavings.
- Cover the top with the shavings and serve at room temperature. This cake actually got better after a day, the icing was smoother and the flavors popped out more, just cover and leave it at room temperature.
Wow wow wow! Omgoodness I’ve never wanted chocolate cake so badly before!
I hope your son had an amazing birthday! I certainly know he had one amazing cake.
mmmmmm to everything
That cake is almost as gorgeous as Henri!
Hi Steph,
I think I liked the cake better the second day because the consistency of the icing was nicer. The brown sugar melted into the chocolate a bit. it does have a slight grain, but certainly not enough to adversely effect the icing.
You could make the frosting the day before and let it sit, unrefrigerated until you are ready to decorate the cake.
Enjoy, Zoë
Oh yum. It’s no wonder Henri is grinning away … I would too. This looks delish and I’m having a choc craving right now.
That looks amazing!! Does adding brown sugar maket he frosting grainy?
I’ve been wanting to make a chocolate malted cake for a while. This looks great and so soes Henri!
Happy Birthday!
This cake is so decadent and beautiful. Gorgeous chocolate shavings on top. Happy b-day to your son! Cheers!
Beautiful cake!
wow. that cake looks so decadent and delicious! nice cake stand, too!
Henri is so handsome! Cute T-shirts. I would love a piece of that chocolate cake right about now!
Wow – Henri’s 10. I remember when he was born. Wish him a Happy Birthday for me. Oh, and the cakes look beautiful.
Congrats to Henri! His cake looked yummy 🙂 Thanks for the step-by-step, I find those very useful! good job at the chocolate curls, I have yet to master those bad boys!
It looks so tall! How’d you do that out of one 8″ round? LOVE malt.
This looks just wonderful. I saw it on tastespotting and was intrigued by the butter cream. Your photography is gorgeous. Happy Birthday Henri.
Hi Matthew,
Yeah, the full recipe will fill two 9×2 cake pans. I’d double the icing, just to make sure you have plenty to fill and decorate the cakes. You may have a bit left over, but just freeze it and you can use it later for cupcakes or just to eat with a spoon! 😉
Thanks, Zoë
If we keep the whole Devil’s Food recipe will that make two normal cake pans worth? Would we then double the icing recipe?
Just in time! My gf birthday is in about a weeks time. Now I have to gather some cake pans. This looks excellent!
My goodness, what a fabulous birthday. So fun! And Henri, what a charmer.
Happy Birthday to Henri! These look delicious.
I love the fact your 10 year old wanted sushi! You’re raising him right
Your son is so creative – I love his design and putting them on T-shirts is such a perfect idea. And the cakes look yummy too! Juanita
Lovely cake! Looks nice and rich! Love the t-shirt too, such a handsome boy!
I have that book too, but till now i have not made this cake and now you are tempting me to make them, they look so so delicous, wish i had a huge slice.
These cakes look fantastic! YUM! The chocolate shavings are gorgeous, and I love the second cake (cream cheese frosting is one of my favorites!). I recently made a cream cheese frosting and added some bourbon (more adult than kid… Very tasty! Henri is truly lucky! Can’t wait to try out the recipes!