Birthday Cake No. 26

For the second holiday season in a row, Rat Zero ushered Covid into our home. Isolation from each other not only ruined our holidays, it also put in jeopardy our traditional yearend jubilee celebration of CC#2’s birthday. No homemade cake this year?

A scrumptious fruit tart from Whole Foods Market was a more than sufficient stand-in on the actual birthday. But we did manage to overcompensate on January 3 with a chocolate extravaganza that took two days to make and turned out to be insanely rich and chocolaty and yet with the perfect sweetness for our palate. The inspiration came from Momofuku Milk Bar’s Chocolate Malt Cake, a whimsical three-layered chocolate cake piled high with roasted marshmallows, Ovaltine malt milk crumbs, and drippy malt fudge sauce. I made this cake many years ago but as CC#1 pointed out, it was so cloyingly sweet that it was quite unmemorable. However, CC#2 cannot forget the addition of Ovaltine malt crumbs and charred marshmallows which add so much richness and interests to this cake.

My mission this year, Covid be damned, is to make the perfect version of this cake with vastly reduced sugar. To do that, I cut down sugar in every step of this recipe. I also substituted Cooks Illustrated Ultimate Chocolate Cupcake recipe for the chocolate cake with a 50% reduction of sugar. It was a sensation!

Chocolate Malt Milk Crumbs:

• 3/4 cup nonfat dry milk powder

• 1/4 cup all purpose flour

• 1/4 brown rice flour

• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

• 1 tbsp sugar

• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

• 6 tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

• 5 tbsp Ovaltine Milk Malt

• 1 tbsp cocoa powder

• 3 1/2 oz white chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 275°F. Line large rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Combine milk powder, flour, sugar, cornstarch, and coarse salt in medium bowl; toss to mix evenly. Add butter; stir with fork until clusters form. Spread mixture evenly on prepared sheet. Bake until crumbs are dry and crumbly but still pale, about 10 minutes. Cool Milk Crumbs completely on sheet.

Mix Ovaltine Milk Malt with cocoa power and add to Milk Crumbs. Use this combination instead of Ovaltine’s Chocolate Malt mix to reduce sugar.

Melt white chocolate in microwave oven at 15-second intervals, mix each time until well melted. Drizzle over Milk Crumbs and mix well.

DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 week ahead. Store in airtight container.

Chocolate Malt Fudge Sauce:

• 1 cup + 1 tbsp Ovaltine Malt Mix + 1/3 cup cocoa powder to make up a low sugar chocolate malt mix

• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (70% to 72% cacao), chopped

• Pinch of coarse kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon molasses

• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

• 50g light corn syrup

• 15g sugar

Combine first 3 ingredients in medium bowl. Combine molasses, cream, corn syrup, and sugar in small saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves.

Pour cream mixture over chocolate mixture in bowl. Let stand 1 minute, then stir until smooth. Whisk until sauce is glossy, about 1 minute. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 week ahead. Cool completely. Cover and chill. Rewarm just until pourable before using.

My sauce came out too thick with 1/2 cup cream called for in the original recipe so I kept adding more cream to thin the sauce. The goal is to have a sauce that drizzles rather than coming down in goblets.

Chocolate Cake (doubled recipe for 3 round cakes)

• 6 oz semi or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

• 2 oz cocoa powder

• 1 1/2 cup hot espresso coffee

• 8 1/4 oz bread flour

• 5 oz sugar

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 12 tbsp vegetable oil

• 4 large eggs

• 4 tsp apple cider vinegar (or white vinegar)

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees.

Line two 9-inch cake pans with parchment liner (with a little vegetable oil at the bottom to hold the paper in place), butter and dusting side of pan with flour. Do the same to a spring form pan as the third cake pan.

Place chocolate and cocoa in medium bowl. Pour hot coffee over mixture and whisk until smooth. Set in refrigerator to cool completely, about 20 minutes. (I did this step at room tempreture with no harm done)

Whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl. Whisk oil, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla into cooled chocolate-cocoa mixture until smooth. Add flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

Divide batter evenly among 3 cake pans. Bake until cakes are set and just firm to touch, 15 to 17 minutes (start checking at 13 minutes, as you may or may not be able to evenly divide the batter). Cool cakes in pan on wire rack until completely cooled, about 1 hour.

Cake Assembly

• 1/2 cup whole milk

• 3 tbspoons Ovaltine Malt Mix

• 2 cups mini marshmallows

Stir milk and Ovaltine in small bowl. Poke many holes in the cake layer baked in spring form pan, and brush cake with generous 2 1/2 tablespoons Ovaltine-milk mixture. Let Ovaltine-milk mixture soak into cake. Drizzle 1/3 cup malt-fudge sauce over cake; spread evenly over top. Sprinkle 1/2 cup chocolate-malt crumbs over sauce. Drizzle 1/3 cup malt-fudge sauce over crumbs. Scatter 1 cup mini marshmallows over.

Place springform cake pan on top third oven rack, and broil for about 1 minute until marshmallows turn brown. Don’t leave cake in for too long and watch the marshmallows like a hawk as they burn easily!!!

Invert second cake from cake pan and place on top of the first layer of charred marshmallow, top side down. Brush cake with with second cake layer, Ovaltine-milk mixture, malt-fudge sauce, chocolate-malt crumbs, malt-fudge sauce, and marshmallows.

Remove third cake from pan and place cake, top side down, atop marshmallows on second cake layer. Brush with remaining Ovaltine-milk mixture (assembled cake will rise well above edge of pan). Cover cake with plastic wrap; chill overnight. Cover and chill fudge sauce.

Run thin knife around sides of pan to release cake. Remove pan sides. Place cake (still on springform pan bottom) on plate. Rewarm sauce just until pourable. Pour over top of cake, allowing sauce to drip over edges. Mound handful of marshmallows in center of cake. Using kitchen torch, toast marshmallows. Sprinkle remaining malt crumbs over cake.

Let cake stand at room temperature 3 hours before serving.

Notes: The springform pan from William Sonoma is the best I ever used. This cake seems complicated because it requires multiple parts to be premade prior to assembly but it is not fussy. Take your time to do this in two days and it all comes together easily and it looks like you did a ton of work!