Chocolate Malt Layer Cake (MMB)

If you strongly enjoy this post, I encourage you to read the entries on the two other MMB cakes I have attempted: Apple Cake and Arnold Palmer Cake.  I've made the latter of the two cakes 3 times so far.

I made this cake for my 30th birthday this year and my friends and family all judged this handsdown as their favorite cake so far.  With no further ado, I present the MMB Chocolate Malt Layer Cake:

• 1 recipe Chocolate Cake
• 1 recipe Ovaltine Soak
• 1 recipe Malt Fudge Sauce, warm
• 1/2 recipe Malted Milk Crumb
• 1 recipe Charred Marshmallows

Full Bday glory.  No, it is not the neatest Chocolate Malt Layer Cake on the face of the planet.

Some crazy part of my mind thought I needed Rich Chocolate Ovaltine instead of just Chocolate Malt.  That crazy part of my mind was wrong.

Malted Milk Crumb

• 1 recipe Milk Crumb
• 60 g Ovaltine, malt flavor (3/4 cup)
• 90 g white chocolate, melted (3 ounces)

If you really want to see me Milk Crumb, click here.  Otherwise, here's a sort-of mise en place.

Malted Milk Crumb mise en place.

Toss the milk crumb with Ovaltine.  The toss it with the white chocolate until it's enrobed and not sticky anymore.

Malt Fudge Sauce

• 60 g 72% chocolate, chopped (2 ounces)
• 80 g Ovaltine, malt flavor (1 cup)
• 5 g molasses (1 teaspoon)
• 1 g kosher salt (1/4 teaspoon)
• 200 g glucose (1/2 cup) [Or you can sub 35 g of corn syrup like I usually do]
• 40 g sugar (1/4 cup)
• 110 g heavy cream (1/2 cup)

Malt Fudge Sauce mise en place.

You're supposed to let it sit for a full minute after you've brought the liquid to a boil and pour them in the bowl of chocolate.  I got a little excited and stirred too early for a seconds.  Afterwards, whisk until glossy.

Chocolate Cake

• 115 g butter, at room temperature (8 tablespoons [1 stick])
• 300 g sugar (1 1/2 cups)
• 3 eggs
• 110 g buttermilk (1/2 cup)
• 40 g grapeseed oil (1/4 cup)
• 4 g vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)
• 1/4 Fudge Sauce (38 g [3 tablespoons]) [Malt Fudge Sauce is a variation of Fudge Sauce]
• 155 g cake flour (1 1/4 cups)
• 70 g cocoa powder, preferably Valrhona (1/2 cup)
• 6 g baking powder (1 1/2 teaspoons)
• 6 g kosher salt (1 1/2 teaspoons)
• Pam or other nonstick cooking spray (optional)

Chocolate cake mise en place.

Cream sugar and butter for 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the eggs and cream for another 2 to 3 minutes.  I can't remember if I took this before or after you stream in the buttermilk, oil, and vanilla and paddle until twice the volume.  BTW, I finally made the rational decision to use real buttermilk this time around.

Add the fudge sauce and mix until fully incorporated.

On very low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix until barely incorporated.  Spread out into a quarter sheet pan.

Bake the cake for 30-35 minutes at 350.

Charred Marshmallows

• 150 g mini marshmallows (2 3/4 cups)

Marshmallows in my trusty quarter sheet pan and my brand-spanking new kitchen torch.

Really "char them to hell and back" and then pop them in the freezer for 10 minutes for easier handling.

ASSEMBLY TIME!!!

Mise en place minus the cake.

Punching out the cake layers.

Tap the cake scraps into the bottom layer.  Oh I forgot to line the cake ring with acetate before starting yet again?  Well, doy!

Brush liberally with Ovaltine soak.

Spread 1/5 of the malt fudge sauce on.

Half the malted milk crumb.

1/3 of the marshmallows.

Another 1/5 of the sauce.

Repeat once more and then top with the perfect cake layer.  Spread the remainder of the fudge sauce on and then the rest of the marshmallows.  As you can see I forgot the final layer of marshmallows until several hours after I had thrown this baby in the freezer.

The verdict: Perhaps the gooiest, creamiest, chocolatey cake around.  Perhaps the chocolate cake to rule all chocolate cakes.  Plus, I've always loved Whopper candies.

Normandy Chicken Fricassee (EP)

• 1 chicken (about 3 1/2 pounds), cut into 8 pieces (2 legs, 2 thighs, and 2 breasts, halved), skin removed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup diced (1/2-inch) carrots
• 2 medium onions, cut into 1-inch dice (1 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 cup diced (1/2 inch) celery
• 2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped (1 teaspoon)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup dry white wine (such as Chardonnay) [I guess I used a Chenin Blanc Viognier]
• 1/2 cut water
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup frozen baby peas
• 2 tablespoons Calvados or applejack [I used the applejack I bought for the Duck and Apples dish]

Mise en place.

Browning the chicken pieces.

Add the carrots, onions, celery, garlic, parsley (what parsley?  hahah), thyme, and bay leaf.  Cover and cook for five minutes.  Add wind and water, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

I made my first beurre manie which is a paste one makes of equal parts flour and butter.  The combination of fat and butter is not a novel one to me since I've cooked a roux a handful of times, but it's sort of cool to do something for the first time.

Remove and reserve the chicken.  Add beurre manie, whisking steadily.  Add cream and peas and bring to a boil and then a 1 minute simmer.  Off heat, stir in the Calvados and taste for seasoning.

This was quite good.  As a classic French dish, it doesn't have much of a chance to really wow me, but this wasn't a bad dish at all.  It'd be nice to eat off a dinner plate, but we didn't have the luxury at that time.
The vegetable were a little less than tender, but overall, I executed this well.  It came together effortlessly after the prep.

Jerked Pork (WBR)

• 10 scallions
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 or 2 habenero (Scotch bonnet) chiles, stemmed, seeded, and minced
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice, more or less
• 1 boneless pork shoulder (picnic or Boston butt), about 6 pounds

Combine the first six ingredients and enough lime juice to make a paste.  Poke a bunch of holes into the shoulder and rub and poke that stuff in.  Couldn't find habaneros sadly when I was shopping which is kind of heretical, but I did the best I could with some jalapenos.  Marinate preferable overnight.

I realized afterward that I probably shouldn't have been so particular about trimming off the fat (considerable) from the shoulder.  Well, duh; part of this was still edible after 4 hours at 300, "basted" occasionally with merely lime juice.

The result served over coconut rice (Basically rice cooked with coconut milk.  It involves slightly different technique than the normal way and it's kind of foolproof I think).

Of course most of the meat was barely edible, but we made do with some Bulls' Eye Sauce for moisture.  I'm curious enough to do an ATK version of this.  Maybe even the charcoal grilled with that smokes wood and allspice berries to mimic the traditional way of smoking it over pimento wood (aka wood from the allspice tree).