Chocolate Malt Cake = Nandos CopyCat

This is one cake that we used to order for every colleague's birthday  back when i was working !! Chocolate Cake from Nandos. I tried a lot of recipes trying to replicate the cake. I will not say i succeeded in doing it, but i can say that i did pretty well, veryy similar to the chocolate cake thats available at Nando's.

I found this recipe on a blog by buddingbaketress. However to achieve icing similar to nandos, i made a few changes.

And if you havent tried Nandos cake yet, dont worry, this one is equally good. You dont need to benchmark this against some other cake. Its great on its own. A very moist, soft and delicious cake.

The major ingredient in this cake is "Malt chocolate powder". Like, Milo, Ovaltine, Horlicks. The packaging will state "malted drink". Unfortunately you cannot use Nesquik, Cadbury drink etc, because they arent MALT. Please dont use Pediasure, Complan etc - lol

I had shared this recipe earlier in one of the very famous Karachi cooking groups on facebook and a lot of ladies tried this out, testifying how similar it is to Nandos or those never tried the nandos one termed it as an amazingly delicious cake! On my own facebook page, a very dear friend, Mehreen, tried this out and was quite delighted with the result

Please do try this out. It is super easy. No rocket science, trust me!

Sour cream is available in big stores in Pakistan, however if you cant find it, you can replace it with yogurt. Serves the same purpose. Or, you can take one cup cream add 1tbsp lemon juice and let it stand for 10-15 mins, sour cream is ready.



RECIPE:

Chocolate Cake:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 cup Chocolate horlicks Or Ovaltine Or Milo or any malted milk powder
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Chocolate Malt Frosting
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup thick cream OR tetra pack cream
1/2 cup malted milk powder
3 cups icing' sugar
4-5 tbsp cream cheese

Preheat oven to 180c. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans.

In the bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a small bowl, combine milk and malted milk powder, stirring to dissolve. Add milk mixture, oil, and eggs to flour mixture, beating at medium speed until smooth. Add sour cream and vanilla essence, beating just until combined. Pour batter evenly into prepared pans, and bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans and let cool completely on wire racks.

To make the frosting, in a large bowl, beat butter and cocoa powder at medium speed with a mixer until creamy. combine cream and malted milk powder, Add cream mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed to combine. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar(icing sugar) and cream cheese until smooth.

Spread frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. This cake tastes great when slightly cooled. So do pop in the refrigerator after you have done the icing.