Malteser Merry Christmas Cake

Deck the cake with Maltesers and chocolate - fa la la la la ...oh, in hindsight, there are lots of things I ought to have done before decking this cake with Maltesers and chocolate ganache!!!! Ah, well, we live and we learn.  I have added some "in hindsight" tips for you in case you are planning to make this.

It is an easy cake - you just have to think practically!  Being a non-cake person, I do not foresee the imminent problems but now that I have made it, I can tell you the best way to do this!

A spectacular cake decked up with everybody's favourite chocolate and covered in more chocolate and if that was not enough, even more chocolate just in white for the Christmas pudding look.

Recipe credit: https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipes/malteser-christmas-cake-recipe/a6khwx7c

Ingredients:

·         1 1/2 cups brown sugar

·         1 cup milk

·         190 g butter

·         1 1/4 cups self-raising flour

·         3/4 cup plain flour

·         3/4 cup cocoa powder

·         4 eggs

·         300 g dark chocolate melts

·         125 ml thickened cream

·         30 g butter

·         465 g Mars Maltesers

·         200 g white chocolate melts

Method: 

1.      Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Grease the inside of your pudding steamer with butter.

2.      In a large bowl put the brown sugar, milk and butter and melt it all together in the microwave.

3.      Now whisk in the dry ingredients: flours and cocoa. Mix the eggs together in a jug and whisk them in too.

4.      Whisk until it's all combined. Pour it into your steamer and put it in the oven (no lid) for 40 minutes. Check it after 40 minutes and turn the heat down to 170˚C.

5.      Cook for another 10 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Let it cool completely before adding the ganache.

6.      To make the ganache, melt the dark chocolate, butter and cream together in a water bath. Leave it for about 15 minutes to set and thicken.

7.      Cut the bumpy top off your pudding cake, so that you can flip it over and decorate it down side up.

Hindsight tip 1: Place cake on cake board before you pour ganache or the ganache will cool and your cake will be stuck to the place with an unsightly puddle.

8.    Place the cake on a board and then place the board in a plate.  Now pour the ganache over the cake. Cover the cake completely.  Since I did not do this, the ganache pooled down to the bottom and I had a tough time prising the cake out of the plate!  You can see it in the next picture!

9.      Before the ganache cools completely, start adding the Maltesers. Begin in the bottom and work around the cake, placing the Maltesers in a row and working up towards the pointy end. It did not work for me to start from the top and work towards the bottom.  Not sure why.

Hindsight tip 2: Work with the Maltesers starting from the bottom, around and slowly working your way to the top.

10.  Put the cake in the fridge to chill for at least two hours.

11.  Once the cake is chilled, melt the white chocolate melts in a hot water bath.   Leave it to cool to room temperature before you pour it over the cake (otherwise all the Maltesers will melt.)

12.  Once the chocolate is just at room temperature (don't wait too long or the chocolate will start to set hard again) pour it over the top of your cake so that it looks like the custard on a Christmas pudding.  As you can see, I managed to get the cake out in one piece and put it on a board in a big platter.  But some of the Maltesers fell off and I had to stick them back on again.

13.  Finish it off with holly from a Christmas decoration.  I used fresh pineapple guava leaves with the berries.

Merry Christmas to you and your family from the Kitchen Anugraha team!