It’s my sister @adjoa’s birthday in a few hours; and I’ve spent a bit of time trying to come up with the perfect gift.
We aren’t big birthday people, our birthdays were never really ‘celebrated’ even as kids – there were no parties, or cakes or ponies or tiaras.
Over the years we’ve managed to settle into a comfortable place where birthdays are commemorated handsomely without feeling like we’re making up for lost time.
We try to stick to the norm, although it doesn’t always work out – I was lost in a sea of cards this afternoon determined to find the perfect birthday card, none truly said what I wanted to say, they were either too syrupy, not germane, unfunny or downright depressing.
I went back to think on it at my desk, and later in the day… in lieu of a birthday card I went downstairs and got the new Kinfolk volume 3.

This malted milk cake isn’t a birthday cake per se; it’s a union of nostalgia items from my pantry.
The idea for this cake came to me a couple of weeks ago while discussing favourite childhood treats, I’m not sure where the conversation was headed but I remember thinking ‘what if we could take some of our favourite things from childhood and bake them into a cake’

And so we made ourselves a little cake with a bit of nostalgia baked into it; my mom’s soothing cup of hot Horlicks, those rare lazy hot afternoons we snacked on Maltesers, and the childhood decadence of thick custard puddings with spongy vanilla cake.

We wavered at the start… but then when we got a rich batter that tasted like salted caramel ice cream, we knew we were on to something.
A cake most deliciously light and fluffy, just sweet with that subtle malted milk flavour.
Perfect for that un-birthday dessert!

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Malted Milk CAke

INGREDIENTS

• 150grams (5.29oz) butter
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 flax ‘egg’ (1 tablespoon ground flax + 3 tablespoons of water, mix and set aside)
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 ½cups pastry/cake flour
• ¼ cup custard powder (I used Bird’s Custard Powder)
• ½ cup Horlicks
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Coconut Cream Frosting

• 1 can coconut milk, refrigerated overnight
• 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
• 2 tablespoons Horlicks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 share-size bag of Maltesers
• Colourful sprinkles (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease a medium round baking pan and set aside
3. In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy
4. Gradually add ‘flax egg’ and keep beating
5. Add in milk and vanilla extract and mix well
6. In other bowl, whisk together flour, custard powder, Horlicks, baking powder and salt
7. Gradually mix the flour mixture into the wet mixture
8. Pour batter into the greased pan and bake for about 35 – 40 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean
9. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and let it cool completely on a rack
10. While the cake is cools, open the chilled can of coconut and scoop out the fat (top white solid) into a bowl
11. Add the confectioners’ sugar, Horlicks and vanilla extract
12. Whip until light and fluffy, and use it to frost the cooled cake
13. Garnish/dot the top and sides of cake with Maltesers and add sprinkles

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