Mom's Halloween Birthday

It is my Mom's birthday. On Halloween, I know. We actually like having her birthday on Halloween because it gives us a good excuse when we are trying to get out of another brutal Halloween party. This way we can hand out candy to the cute little kids, and then turn out the lights and watch a movie when the older, more obnoxious 'trick or treaters' come around. This year A & J opened their home to the party. A good idea because they are in a new neighborhood with lots of young families so we had adecent turn out of cute little kids. It also gave A a chance to practice her baking skills with me as we attempted my mom's birthday cake. I say attempt because I hate making layer cakes. I never end up with an even looking tower. It's always lopsided or one layer is careening off the top.

To stack the deck in my favor, I chose a cake from my beloved Paula Deen. Her cakes look amazing, are easy to prepare and I am sure cannot fail. This specific one is out of her Christmas Baking 2007 magazine which mom picked up for me in the States. I have poured over this magazine so many times that I probably know where every recipe is in it. The cake turned out really well with nice, even layers. The icing tasted really yummy the night we made it and was ten times better the next day. I think I will use it on cupcakes in the future. The layers of cake were light and moist and did not rise up with too much of a dome so the cake stayed flat. Next time I will partly freeze the layers first before icing as it was a little difficult with them slightly warm. I used the Pam Baking spray again and the layers fell out of the pan perfectly.

When we sliced the cake open, it looked so even and delicious. It tasted even better. The cake went a long way. It is quite rich and half the cake fed 9 people generously. Looks like alot of work, really wasn't. Oh, and the orange and black balls on top are malt balls, Halloween edition. Ciao!

Chocolate Malt Cake
Paula Deen's Holiday Magazine
Ingredients for cake:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 cup malted milk powder - such as Ovaltine
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Malted Milk Balls for garnish

Ingredients for icing:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup cocoa
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup malted milk powder
5 cups powdered sugar

Directions for Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 - 9" cake pans.
In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder.
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 with an electric mixer until smooth.
Add sour cream and vanilla, beating until just combined.
Pour batter evenly into pans, and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool and then remove from pans. Spread icing between layers and on top and sides of cake. Garnish with malted milk balls.

Directions for icing:
In a large bowl, beat butter and cocoa powder at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.
In a small bowl, combine cream and malted milk powder, stirring to dissolve. Add cream mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed to combine. Gradually beat in icing sugar until spreadable.