Loving Maltesers
So this weekend I made another Malteser cake and realised that I am currently slightly obsessed with how great Maltesers are for decorating cakes. Not only do they look brilliant, they also add an extra taste and texture dimension to the cake itself. And you can eat them while you’re decorating…
One of the great things about blogging is that I now have a record of how and why I have made certain things. While thinking about this post and looking for photos, I discovered that I have actually learnt a lot over the past few months. My decorating skills have improved, I consider things a lot more carefully, I plan better and I have discovered far more artistic “ability” than I ever thought I had.
And while I have been baking for years, now that I have this blog I am approaching baking in a more structured and considered way and learning all the time. And learning not just about baking itself, but about what I can do with it and what it means to me. All of which is great for me, but what about you?!
So I thought you might like to know what I have learnt about decorating with Maltesers.
I started off just using them as a border:
Bunny Cakes!
When I made these Bunny Cakes I felt the bunnies needed to be in the centre of “something”. They needed something to keep them safe. What better than a Malteser fence? So the next birthday cake I made had a similar border but it was an”adult” cake despite the Maltesers, due to the more sophisticated strawberry sprinkles, and, I think, because of the contrast between them and the cream and chocolate colouring:
Maltesers again
Now that I think about it, it would be perfect with truffle chocolates instead of Maltesers. I can feel a new favourite decoration coming on…
When it came to making my son’s birthday cake I wanted to make it as chocolatey as possible and chose to decorate it with Maltesers and Flakes. This was my first attempt at putting Maltesers around the sides of the cake and it’s a lot easier than you might think.
Chocolate Birthday Cake
These are the things I have discovered:
♦ Bear in mind that a smallish cake will look bigger when you have finished decorating it, and it’s quite rich so a little goes a long way!
♦ Make sure you have a decent layer of buttercream for the Maltesers to anchor themselves in. Also be sure to keep some buttercream to one side as you may need extra.
♦ If you find you don’t have a thick enough layer, drag the Malteser through some more buttercream and use that to stick it to the cake. Don’t just hope for the best. You can see that one of the Maltesers was falling off and I didn’t notice until I looked at the photo properly. Clearly not enough icing!
♦ Leave a slight gap between the bottom row of Maltesers and the base of the cake. Otherwise when you come to move it, ones on the bottom row will be more likely to fall off.
♦ Start with the bottom row and do the entire bottom row before moving up. Continue row by row up the cake and try to put each Malteser directly above the one below.
♦ Try to work as quickly as possible as the icing will start to dry out and it will get harder to stick them on. If necessary you can spray the icing carefully and lightly with a water mister, or spread on a little more icing.
♦ When you have finished the sides don’t be afraid to use your hands all the way round the cake to make sure the Maltesers are well stuck on.
♦ If you have left a small space between the base and the bottom row you shouldn’t have a problem transferring the cake to a stand or a board with either a cake lifter or a couple of fish slices (I keep meaning to get a cake lifter, much safer!). If you lose a few Maltesers when you move it, just stick them back on.
♦ Don’t underestimate how many Maltesers you will need! I don’t think I had enough for a fourth row for Linus’ cake, but it would have looked better with a proper top row, like this one I did for his friend Benjamin:
Chocolate Malteser birthday cake
I think you can see the progression in my decorating skills with this one! I had a much clearer idea of what I was trying to achieve when I started this one and I think it really shows.
And why hadn’t I thought of using Maltesers as a topper before?
So the next time I got to make a Malteser cake (I swapped it for a sports massage, I have the best friends!) I thought I would try some different sprinkles on the top and see if I could get a bit of colour in:
Malteser Cake with Coloured Sprinkles
You can see on this one I decided yet another row of Maltesers was necessary, and ditched the Flakes. Not because I have anything against Flakes, I think at the time I had forgotten about them until it was too late! I forgot to put any glitter on the topper, which still upsets me…
I divided the top up into four with the Maltesers because the cake was for an 8th birthday: 2 candles in each quarter. But you can divide it up however you like and this weekend I made a cake for a ten year old so I divided the top into five and this time the topper had ten Maltesers instead of eight:
Malteser overload!
This is a much larger cake, as you can see from how much smaller the Maltesers seem, but the concept is exactly the same. I found some bright blue sprinkles and glitter for this one and even managed to fit Leo’s name on in sugarpaste. Happy Birthday, Leo!
So these are my tips for decorating cakes with Maltesers – do you have any to share?
Maltesers from Above!
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Categories: Baking, Birthday cakes, Cakes
lovinghomemade 
Great post 🙂 … yummy looking too!
Thank you!
Fabulous and brilliant tips and I think your photos are wonderful too (love Maltesers and will definitely try decorating a cake with them, I have never seen the white ones but I will look for them) I once deocrated a cake with white chocolate buttons and it looked a bit like a decomposing dalek, less said the beter…)
Thank you very much – am now trying to visualise a decomposing dalek… Thinking it probably actually looked brilliant though!
What a clever way of decorating cakes. Looks really pretty!
Thank you very much!
Hi
Your’re cakes are great! What did you use for the balloon effect?
Hi, thanks very much. You need what is essentially floristry wire but is sold by cake decorating shops. I just pushed the maltesers onto the end of the wire. Then you tape the bunch together at the bottom with floristry tape. You need a plastic “posy pick” which you push down into the cake and you put the wires into that. It hides the floristry tape and keeps the wires bunched together and pointing in the right direction. That way you can take them out when you need to transport or store the cake. Hope that is clear, I’m not brilliant at describing things!
What recipe do you use for the chocolate cake. The maltesers and flake cake is the one I’m interested in doing for my sister’s birthday next week.
Hi, thanks for stopping by. My favourite is victoria sponge – for a four egg cake I would use about 75g of cocoa powder, replacing that weight of flour with the cocoa. Otherwise you could just add the cocoa as extra and use a splash of milk, it’s still a good cake. Hope that helps
I particularly love the maltesers on wires. Gives it a bit of an edge to others that I have seen
Thank you very much – I like the way you can do the same number as the age (although you clearly need to stop at a certain point!).
Great post lovely! Mmm, I haven’t had maltesers for ages but I used to be addicted to them! I might have to buy a bag and give some cake decorating a go. Though… I do think that more might end up in my mouth than on the cake! How do you resist the temptation?! 🙂 x
Thank you – eating them is one of the main problems! I really don’t want to eat chocolate first thing in the morning so it’s always useful to decorate them then!
The one with the flake and maltesers I’m hoping to make this week, how many layers of cake do you use? 🙂
Hi, it sort of depends on the size of the cake and how much you like the buttercream. Sometimes I make one large cake and cut it into two or three layers. However this type of decoration works really well with two or three layers baked separately: just make sure you level the middle one a little if you do three. And I always weigh my layers before they go in the oven just to make sure they are even but that might be a step too far! Thanks very much for the question and enjoy your cake!
This is the perfect answer for my Malteser munching Mum-in-Law! She’s coming to stay for Xmas and she’ll be totally blown away when she’s presented with this fantastic cake! Of course I will have to have a practice run first……. any excuse for a choccy fest!! Thank you for a brilliant idea!
Hope you enjoy it, you can’t beat chocolate cake and maltesers!
Do you sell yourcakes
I make cakes for friends and family if they ask me to but I don’t do it as a business. I am hoping to sometime soon though.
Hey there jjust wanted to give you a quick heads up.
The text in your post seem to be running off the screen in Internet explorer.
I’mnot sure if this is a formatting issue or something tto
do with internet browser compatibility but
I thought I’d plst to let you know. The design look great though!
Hope you get the issue resolved soon. Kudos
Thank you
That’s it! Now I’m going to decorate my camera with Maltesers. I already did my cat. And my wife. Not surprised you’re discovering an artistic talent… must say, Leo’s cake looks even better than the first one (five spokes really works).
The progression is obvious. I’m now, at last, prepared to validate you on LinkedIn as a world leader in Vertical Malteser Security. So there’s that.
Your cakes look amazing. I’m going to try and make one with the maltesers on wires. Hope you don’t mind me asking but what gauge florists wire do you use and what size posy pick? Thank you.
Thank you very much. I tend to use the thinnest gauge I can get away with and as maltesers are very light I would probably use a 24 (or thinner). That means a small posy pick should be fine, even if you use florist tape round the bottom of the wires. Hope that helps and thank you for your comment!