Chocolate Malteser Cake

I’ve been feeling the Nigella urge for a while now. My plan was the Tropical Chocolate Cake, but then I was looking through the book with the girls and when E heard that the Tropical Chocolate Cake had pineapple (Nigella says it works), she strongly objected. We all liked the picture of the Chocolate Malteser Cake, so that’s what I made yesterday.

This time I followed Nigella to the letter. I let the ingredients get to room temperature. I sifted the cocoa. I used 8-inch pans. I baked it for exactly 25 minutes. It came out perfectly. When I frosted it and put on the “ramshackle crown” of malted milk balls, it looked just like in the book. (Here’s someone else’s picture, and mine looked like that too!) (And in the process of finding that, I discovered the Nigella Forum and its Chocolate Cake Hall of Fame photo album--though I think these people may be a little too Nigella-oriented for me, or perhaps I should say, a lot too Nigella-oriented…)

So how was it? Quite tasty. A bit rubbery, but not to the point of being a problem, just something to notice. None of us really liked the malted milk balls (edited to add that S liked the malted milk balls), however they were mainly decorative, and the touch of malt powder in the cake and the largely malt-flavored butter cream (with a touch of chocolate) were lovely. I don’t know why I’m not working up more enthusiasm, but we really did like it. Perhaps that’s it: we really liked it, but I wouldn’t say we loved it.

Where does it rank on the scale? Well, I really can’t imagine anything is going to knock Chocolate Gingerbread out of first place, though I’m quite aware that my affection for it may have a lot to do with it being my first. And Quadruple Chocolate Loaf Cake is still holding on firmly on a close second. But Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake is still at the bottom (though E still insists it’s the best), and I’d say the Chocolate Malteser Cake topped the Chocolate HONEY Cake to come in third--at least the next cake.

Edited to add: The Nigella Forum has requested that I remove all links to their site because they are a private group, which I don't quite understand, given that they are on the internet, but I'm happy to oblige.