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.
Mmm I haven’t had a good, full-fledged chocolate cake in so long! This looks perfect!
Love the fancy cake. So much more than I could ever put together!!
But I love the t-shirt cake even more. What a fun idea to have your son design t-shirts and give them out. Love that!! And a cake to match? Brilliant 🙂
I have my son’s bday cake on my blog right now, but it’s not so fancy!!
I just finished making the devils food cake and buttercream frosting for my son’s 9th birthday today! It turned out amazing! (If the crumbs and licked frosting beaters are anything like the real one, my kids give it a thumbs up!
Beautiful! I will try your recipe:) Delicious~
Happy Birthday! Felice Cumplano!
Hi Laura,
I used 1 egg + 1 egg yolk for the 1/2 recipe.
Enjoy! Zoë
The full recipe for cake calls for three eggs. So the half recipe calls for 1 1/2? Can you round up or down on this?
The smooth sides look so nice with the rough topped chocolate shavings.
So funny that you guys watched Grease 🙂
That looks really yummy,I will try your reciepe but use our Dove Chocolate Discoveries Chocolate.
I hope he had a very Happy Birthday !!
Join my Team Of Chocolate Lovers,become a Dove Chocolatier.
Two fabulous cakes! I’m so impressed. I wish I could have a slice of both. Happy bday, Henri! Sorry that I’ve been an absent commenter; I just finished up my law school exams and am finally getting around to my google reader.
WOW Zoe…indeed plate licking good! FUN FUN FUN!!
Both cakes look wonderful. It looks like your son inherited your creative genes.
Hi Matthew,
How exciting that you want to learn more about cake baking. It is a wonderful skill. If you search the categories section of the website under “cake” you will find many helpful hints on all kinds of different cake styles, including decorating and assembling.
Thanks! Zoë
This post inspired me to write the following:
I’ve got zero cake making experience aside from boxed mixes(thus no pans or stands or covers or ways to transport. What I’m wondering is if you can do a post in the future on easy but impressive cake piping techniques and cake making tips?
Or point to some good sites that are thorough about it.
What a great birthday cake. I just wish that my mother would have utilized me more in the kitchen when I was younger.
At d Bar we are playing with agar agar. I have tried 2 different brands. Do you have a preference? I am struggling with the formed cubes setting.
Happy Birthday to Henri! Both cakes look absolutely amazing. To think I had boring ‘fruit flan’ when I turned 10! 😛
Henri – you ROCK! Nice cake – and the t-shirts have been washed TWICE from use in our house! When can I get mine?? I am a medium…I’ll pay you in cash, dude! 🙂
Looks awesome, as always! xxoo J
What a celebration! Henri is a charmer, happy birthday to him! I love the Devil’s Food Cake and yours looks so sophisticated (especially the chocolate shavings)! How can I resist that much chocolate?? For great chocolate recipes, also check out Dove Chocolate Discoveries’ website. Yummy!
Ooh… yum! Now I know what kind of cake I’ll be having for my birthday… thanks and happy belated birthday to Henri!
The cake looks amazing! And your son is adorable! 🙂 What a cute smile!
Nice cake…love the decoration. And your son is very cute.
Cute pic of your son and his cake! looks like it was a hit. That chocolate cake is droolworthy! OMG beautiful:)
That looks delicious!
Lovely cake!! Happy Birthday to your Henri…he has such a charming smile….
What lucky dude!!! Your creation looks so delicious. I’ve making chocolate cupcakes with colorful gummy decoration for my lil’ boy’s birthday for the past two years. I will do it differently next. Thanks!
Hi Zoe. Thanks for sharing this recipe. It looks like a wonderful combination and I can’t wait to try it, especially since I recently got some malt powder from King Arthur Flour. I also got a chuckle out of your Grease “review.” We had a similar experience when we went to see it in the theater with friends a few years ago. We were astounded with the “adult” themes/content that we had no recollection of from when we first saw it in high school 30 years ago. Funny how being a parent can change your perspective! Thanks again!
Emilie