Ingredients
For the cake:
- 150g soft light brown sugar
- 100g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 175ml milk
- 15g butter
- 2 tbsp Horlicks
- 175g plain flour
- 25g cocoa, sieved
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
For the icing and decoration:
- 250g icing sugar
- 1 tsp cocoa
- 45g Horlicks
- 125g soft unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp boiling water
- 2 x 37g packets Maltesers
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170ºC. Butter and line two 20cm loose bottomed sandwich cake tins with baking parchment.
- Heat the milk, butter and Horlicks powder in a saucepan until the butter melts and it is hot, but not boiling.
- Whisk together the sugars and eggs. When the eggs are light and frothy, beat in the hot Horlicks mixture and then fold in the flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.
- Divide the cake batter evenly between the two tins and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. By which time the cakes should have risen and will spring back when pressed gently. Leave them to cool.
- Once the cake is cold, get on with the icing (you can use a processor to mix the ingredients and so that you don’t have to sieve the icing sugar).
- Put the icing sugar, cocoa and Horlicks in the processor and blitz to remove all the lumps. Add the butter and process again. Add the water and process until you have a smooth butter cream.
- Use half of the butter cream to sandwich the two layers of cake together and then ice the top with what is left. Stud the outside edge with a ring of Maltesers (to make a crown) or in whatever pattern you like.