Chocolate Malt Cake #CakeSliceBakers

January 20, 2021

New year, new cake book! This year the Cake Slice Bakers are baking from Everyday Little Cakes by Candace Floyd. Apparently there are folks who struggle with leftover cake - not a problem we have with 2 teenaged boys in our house - so she's designed recipes for smaller cakes. The one I chose for January is baked in 2 6-inch pans instead of the 8-inch pans most recipes call for. And if you think two inches shouldn't make a big difference in size, let me tell you it does! A normal 8-inch layer cake is enough for our family for 2 meals, sometimes with a bit left over. The 6-inch layer cake was enough for one meal with a bit leftover. As my younger son pointed out, that just means I need to bake more cakes! To give some reference for size comparisons, in the picture below the cake is sitting on a standard Corelle plate.

When I saw the January choices, it was a no-brainer for me. Chocolate malt is one of my very favorite flavors, and chocolate malt balls one of my favorite candies. This cake mixes malt powder into the cake mix and the frosting, and has crunched up malt balls between the cake layers. The taste was amazing! Everyone loved it. The frosting tasted like a solid form of something you might drink at an old-fashioned soda fountain.

The only problem I had with the cake was actually with the frosting. I found that the frosting wouldn't stick to the cake (I've never had that happen). Finally, I scrapped most of it off, put it back in my mixer, and added very small bits of heavy cream until it was a more familiar texture. I don't know if the recipe just called for too little cream, or if we were having a particularly dry day. Clearly I'll have to remake the cake to find out.

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Little Everyday Cakes by Candace Floyd. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.