Hollie's Malted Milk Birthday Cake

Hi everyone, it's Hollie here! My birthday was last week, and as per my own tradition I picked out a birthday cake to bake for myself from one of my favourite food blogs, La Pêche Fraîche. Baking your own birthday cake might sound a little on the sad side, but I love a bit of baking; any excuse to get my KitchenAid out and whip up something tasty and I’m there! This year’s cake turned out pretty good, maybe even my best one yet, so Mat asked me to share the recipe and introduce it myself.

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Malted Milk Birthday Cake. Adapted from original recipe by La Pêche Fraîche, makes a 4 layer 6-inch cake or a 2 layer 8 or 9-inch cake -

Malted milk cake:

340 grams all purpose flour

50 grams cornflour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
scant
1 teaspoon salt
113 grams unsalted butter, softened

100 grams shortening (such as Cookeen or Trex in the UK)
350 grams granulated sugar

60 grams malted milk powder (I struggled to find this exact product in my area, but used Original Ovaltine, not the
chocolate flavoured, which is mainly malted milk powder and it worked out just fine)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

3 egg whites

120ml buttermilk, cold

240ml water, cold

Vanilla Italian meringue buttercream:

6 egg whites

3 drops white vinegar

350 grams sugar

big pinch salt

6 tablespoons water

660 grams butter, diced

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

drop red gel food colouring, if desired

Directions:


Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and grease and flour four 6 inch pans or two 8 or 9 inch pans.
Place flour, cornflour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer (with a flat beater attached) and stir to combine.
Add in the softened butter and shortening a few tablespoons at a time, mixing until a flour-fat paste forms.
Stir together the sugar and malted milk powder/Original Ovaltine, then add to the flour paste, stirring slowly at first, then beating until fluffy.
 Whisk together the vanilla, egg, egg whites, buttermilk, and water in a jug, then add to the batter, stirring very, very slowly at first, then increasing speed to beat at high speed for 30 seconds.
 Batter should be thick and creamy by this point; if it is a tiny bit curdled, don’t worry about it.
 Pour into your prepared pans and bake for 35-38 minutes (but keep your eye on them), until springy in the centre and a tester comes out clean. 
Allow to cool completely, then trim and level as needed ready for assembling your cake.

Meanwhile, make the frosting: place egg whites and vinegar in the bowl of a stand mixer (with balloon whisk attached this time).
Place sugar, salt, and water in a small pot on your hob.
Begin to heat the sugar mixture on high as you whip the whites on medium speed.
 When the syrup reaches 118 degrees C (be super careful here), your egg whites should be at firm soft peaks (almost hard peaks, but not dry).
Drizzle the syrup into the meringue with the mixer running; whip on high until cooled to body temperature (approx. 37 degrees C).
Beat in butter one or two tablespoons at a time.
Beat mixture on high speed until thick, glossy, and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
 If buttercream is too soft, refrigerate for 20 minutes.

To assemble the cake, stack your layers with 1/2 - 2/3 a standard US cup frosting between them.
Use about 1 cup of frosting to crumb coat and level out the cake; freeze for at least 30 minutes.
Finish the cake with the remaining frosting as desired, I used pretty much all of it on the rest of the cake and finally go ahead and add your sprinkles if you’re using them!

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I topped my birthday cake off with long white cake candles and popped it on my gran’s cake stand as a finishing touch. It’s a showstopper cake this one, and it does take a fair bit of effort too, but rest assured it’s definitely worth it! Hope you enjoyed my first post! Find Hollie on Instagram here.

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