Chocolate Malted Milk Cake
Dear SOS: This is an urgent request for the recipe for Chocolate Malted Milk Cake and icing that you published in the 1990s. I have moved back to Canada, and I dream of this cake all the time.
Pat Bayes
Vancouver, B.C.
Dear Pat: This recipe calls for sour milk, or clabber, made by combining the milk and cider vinegar. Pasteurized milk does not clabber the way unpasteurized milk naturally would. But a modern version of sour milk can be made by adding 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk. (This works too as a substitute for buttermilk.) Use whole milk, rather than nonfat, in this recipe.
Cake
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter 2 (8-inch) square pans and dust with cocoa powder.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler set over, but not touching, simmering water. Cool.
Cream together the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at time, beating well after each addition. Blend in the vanilla.
Stir together the cake flour and salt. Combine the cider vinegar and milk and let stand 1 minute. Blend the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the soured milk, mixing well. Add the melted chocolate, blending thoroughly.
Dissolve the baking soda in the malt vinegar in a bowl large enough to accommodate foaming of the mixture. Add to the batter, mixing well. Divide the batter equally between the pans.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, 30 minutes. Cool the cakes in the pans 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely on wire racks.
Chocolate frosting
Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler set over, but not touching, simmering water. Cool.
Combine the butter and powdered sugar in a food processor. While processing, add the milk, vanilla and melted chocolate through the feed tube. Blend until smooth and creamy. (Makes about 2 1/3 cups.)
Assembly
Place 1 cake layer, top-side down, on a serving platter. Spoon about 1/3 cup of the frosting onto the layer and spread evenly to the edge. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts. Place the other layer, top-side up, on the frosted layer. Frost the sides of the cake, then top, covering completely.
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