This cake. This glorious malted chocolate bundt cake. It is as rich, decadent and lovely as it looks. And while January for a lot of people is detox, diet, and get healthy month, ya need to keep a little perspective, and a little balance. And by that I mean, Don’t eat the whole cake, have a piece and share the rest with others.

As a kid, I was a chocolate milkshake fan all the way. I did not care for malts at all. My sister and my dad loved all things malted…milkshakes, candies and other treats. But now, like them, my grown up self LOVES malt.

What even is malt?

Malted milk powder is made with three main things – evaporated whole milk, barley and wheat flour. My first real experience with malt was candy, as I am sure it was for most of you, as in WHOPPERS.

But malt is also widely used in milkshakes. Adding malt to milkshakes gives it an extra creamy element, that I can’t really explain, you just have to try it to understand. And you can gain this understanding by trying this – the absolute best chocolate malt recipe, in my opinion,

Malt is a little sweet so it really is a great addition to desserts to kind of elevate them and create something different.

Can I add malted milk powder to any dessert recipe?

I don’t actually know – lol. I do know that when adding malted milk powder to things you do have to keep in mind that it is sweet, so you’d have to reduce the sugar in something that is already pretty sweet.

In making this cake, I first went with my tried and true chocolate cake recipe. I just added malted milk powder to it, and it was much too sweet for my liking. It lost all its rich chocolate flavor and only tasted like sweet (I know that is not a flavor, but you get what I mean). So the next two times I made this, I played with the sugar level until I cam up with something that I think is perfectly balanced – sweet and rich chocolate.

Since I think every bundt cake should be dripping in some kind of shiny delicious sauce, this cake is draped in a fudge glaze. I pretty much would drink this glaze and not be sad about it. But a powdered sugar dusting would work just fine.

Malted chocolate bundt cake

Ingredients

For the cake

2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup malted milk powder
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk see note
1 cup hot water

For the fudge glaze

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/3 cup heavy or whipping cream
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons packed dark-brown sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup of bitter or semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350, and grease up a bundt pan real good.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, malted milk powder, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Add egg, oil, and buttermilk all together and whisk well. Add the hot water and whisk until the batter is smooth, it will be runny - that is ok. Pour into the greased bundt pan. Since this is a runnier batter, lightly tap the pan on the counter - this will bring any bubbles to the top and get rid of them.
Bake for 55 - 60 minutes. The cake will be pulled away from the sides, and a toothpick inserted to the center will come out clean. Let it cool completely and make the glaze.

To make the glaze

Combine the butter, cream, brown sugar, corn syrup, cocoa, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Simmer on low, stirring, for 3 to 5 more minutes after everything has melted, then remove from heat and stir in espresso morsels and chocolate. Stir in vanilla.