Since joining “the motherhood” I’ve had to get acquainted with my mixing bowl. I’ve never been a great baker of cakes, but seemingly the minute you become a mother, someone thrusts a whisk into your hands and asks you to bake two dozen fairy-cakes for some occasion or other.

My go-to cake has been a Victoria Sponge and my Vicky-Sponge is generally pretty well received, but I have failed in my attempts to make a good chocolate version, until now that is. There was always something missing, a lack of depth of rich chocolateyness and I couldn’t figure out why. I was sent a jar of Rayner’s Classic Malt Extract to try, my first port of call was to tentatively add it to a chocolate sponge cake, and by Jove I’d cracked it!

My easy chocolate malt cake recipe is by definition easy, quick to throw together in a cake emergency and tasty enough to offer the Vicar for tea. It probably won’t win any prizes for innovation or decoration, but it’s a delicious stand alone cake, or it works well with a dollop of ice cream and some fruit.

Easy Chocolate Malt Cake

Serves 8
A real simple, really tasty chocolate sponge cake with an undercurrent of malty richness.

Ingredients
4oz sugar
4oz butter or margarine
2 medium eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons Bourbon cocoa powder
2 teaspoons Rayner’s Malt Extract
4oz self raising flour
Splash of milk

Instructions
Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Stir in the eggs, baking powder, cocoa powder and malt extract, mix until well combined. Gently fold in the self raising flour, add a small splash of milk if the mixture is too stiff.

Pour the cake batter into a lined loaf tin.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 190 for 30 minutes, check if it is cooked through and if it is remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Note: I was sent a jar of Rayner’s Classic Malt Extract free of charge to use in a recipe. All images and opinions are our own.