How To Make A Milk Bar Cake

What To Know Before Getting Started

There are four elements to this cake. Don’t be intimidated or overwhelmed when you see the length of the recipe card though – each of the elements is actually pretty easy and straightforward if you take them one at a time.

• Funfetti Birthday Cake – This is the most involved layer and where you’ll spend the bulk of your time. The method of baking on a quarter sheet pan or jelly roll pan is different, but otherwise things are pretty straightforward if you have ever baked a cake from scratch before.
• Cake Crumbs – These crunchy little crumbles come together in just a couple of minutes and are baked until crunchy. They are then used as a filling between layers and for decorating the top. It’s a fantastic textural element that we love about this cake.
• Frosting – Nothing too unusual here except for the addition of some corn syrup to make the frosting extra smooth.
• Cake Soak – I feel so boujee using a cake soak but it’s just two ingredients meant to keep the cake extra moist and delicious.

Unlike typical cakes which are baked in round cake pans, this one is baked in a 10×15-inch jelly roll pan then you will cut out circles of cake and assemble in an acetate collar. So you need some additional tools that you might not already have on hand.

• One jelly roll pan
• 6-inch cake ring
• A sheet of acetate or acetate strips

You can probably find all of these at any craft of hobby store like Joann’s, Michael’s, or Hobby Lobby or at baking stores like Orson Gygi if you happen to live in Utah.

The Secret To True Hazelnut Chocolate Frosting

This frosting, which I borrowed from All About Cake‘s Banana-Chocolate-Hazelnut cupcakes is the icing on the cake here, literally and figuratively. It’s buttery and light, and the hazelnut praline paste adds a rich, sweet flavor that doesn’t make your teeth ache.

The only thing is… hazelnut praline paste is both expensive and hard to find. I couldn’t find it in any grocery store near me, and online it was going for almost $20 for 11 ounces, which meant that, even though I was doubling the batch, I’d have leftover praline paste, which I didn’t need.

So… I made my own praline paste. Exactly the amount I needed, with none leftover. And honestly, if you have the right tools, I think you should do that too. It’s really not that hard.

What is hazelnut praline paste? It’s hazelnut praline pulverized in a food processor until the nuts release their oils and it reaches a peanut butter-like consistency.

How to make hazelnut praline paste: First make, make hazelnut praline by toasting the hazelnuts and pouring caramel over them. Once it hardens and cools, break the hazelnut praline into pieces and send them on a trip through the food processor until it turns into a peanut butter-like paste. Store at room temp until you’re ready to use it. Boom.

You will need: A food processor and a silicone baking mat.

Time-Saving Tip: Just buy the pre-made stuff.

Healthy Ingredients In Birthday Cake Energy Balls

You might be wondering: how did I make an actually healthy version of one of Milk Bars best sellers? If youre new here, thats kind of my core motivation in life. But honestly, it took A LOT of batches to get these just right and plenty of internet research which led me to an epic discovery: that a teensy bit of almond extract almost exactly mimics that flavor of vanilla cake batter! Especially when you combine it with oat flour and an overdose of vanilla extract. Thus, the Birthday Cake Truffle Energy Ball was born! Heres whats inside:

• Cashew butter: I opt for organic, unsalted creamy cashew butter for these energy balls.
• Oat flour: gluten-free oat flour will keep these energy balls together and add plenty of fiber!
• Coconut sugar: a great, refined-sugar free natural sweetener for these birthday cake energy balls.
• Almond and vanilla extracts: as stated, the mixture of these natural extracts gives total vanilla birthday cake vibes.
• Dairy-free milk: just a splash of unsweetened plant-based milk will give these energy bites perfect consistency.
• Fine grain sea salt: this will help make the energy balls flavors pop!
• Organic sprinkles: give your healthy energy bites big birthday cake energy with organic sprinkles

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Special Tools And Equipment Used To Make The Momofuki Birthday Cake Recipe:

• 1/4 sheet pan: I use these to bake my birthday cake crumbs.
• 6 Cake ring: I used this to trim my layer cakes. I used the cake ring to neatly trim the cake layer edges revealing the soft, colorful cake beneath the golden sugar crust.
• 6 Cake pans: I baked the cakes in my pans because the 1/4 sheet pan I purchased is not exactly the same size as used in the cookbook. So the cake would not have baked properly.
• Acetate: I used 6.3 acetate to have one piece that was tall enough and not have to layer in two sheets.
• 6 springform pan: I built my cake in the springform pan because its easier to get the frozen cake out of the pan with this as opposed to building in the cake ring.
• 6 Cake round: I built my cakes on the cardboard round.
• Pastry brush: I used the brush to lightly glaze my layers with soak as opposed to drenching them. I did not want soggy cake, and I saw some soggy darn cakes on the internet where bloggers completely over did the soak.
• Large soup spoon: youll want a good sized spoon that you can bend the neck close to the spoon as this facilitates spreading the frosting inside the acetate architecture.

S To Make The Corn Cookie Dough Base

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She Writes Recipes That Celebrate The Low Brow Treats Her Mom And Family Loved As She Was Growing Up And Enjoying Rural Life Her Version Of A Birthday Cake With A Cake Crumb Topping And Rainbow Sprinkles Are The Epitome Of Home Baking

For someone to make it to NYC, work in the biggest, trendiest restaurants in the city and still retain that love of everyday American flavors and foods scores major points in my book.

I purchased the original Momofuku Milkbar Cookbook on Amazon as a used Library book. I had checked it out from my library to read, and when I didnt want to return it, I knew I needed my own copy. So finding my own version of a library book felt like a tremendous win.

I made the cake using all the tools and ingredients that Tosi has in her original recipe. So many people are above using the shortening and clear vanilla that are an integral part of the Milkbar recipes. I cant tell you how many bloggers I visited before I made this cake myself to get a feel for the process, and nearly all of them made this as an all butter cake with real vanilla. Im sure its a good cake, but.

To that I have one thing to say. Youre missing the whole point.

Why would you go to all the work and follow the instructions to make a specialty cake, and then not follow the recipe? It boggles my mind. Honestly people, if you arent using her ingredients, you arent making her cake.

No shade, but it seems incredibly arrogant to me. So my version is her version, and I recreated her original recipe to the greatest extent of my ability. I loved the final result.

The Milkbar Birthday cake recipe may feel intimidating as heck at first glance, but its really just a layer cake with a couple of fillings.

How To Make Funfetti Cake Layers

Preheat the oven to 350°F and lightly spray three 6 inch layer cake pans with pan spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter and sugar until smooth. Add in the eggs and vanilla and whisk until fully incorporated.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Mix half of the dry ingredients into the egg mixture, then add in the buttermilk. Once incorporated, add in the remaining dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Then gently fold in the rainbow sprinkles!

Pour of the batter into each cake pan . Bake at 350°F for 20-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Place a cooling rack on top of each cake pan and invert. The pan should slide cleanly away. Let the cakes cool completely to room temperature before trimming.

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Order Of Mocha Hazelnut Layer Cake Assembly:

• Layer 1: Cake Break the remaining cake into chunks, and press it into the bottom of the cake round. Don’t be shy here. The cake scraps don’t have to be pretty but they do have to support another three layers of cake and frosting. Press ’em in, tear the cake pieces into chunks, crumble them up, and really push them in firmly. Once the cake comes out of the cake ring and you remove the acetate sheets, that bottom layer still has to support the weight of a cake above it. You want a firm foundation!
• Layer 2: Coffee Soak Use a spoon or a pastry brush to liberally douse the cake layer with of your coffee soak. The coffee soak will help the scraps stick together and keep the cake moist.
• Layer 3: Chocolate Ganache Half of the ganache goes on here. It’s a pretty thin layer, spread it as evenly as you can across the surface of the cake.
• Layer 4: Hazelnut Crunch Half of the hazelnut crunch mixture goes down here this one’s a bit harder to spread so try to get it in an even layer as best you can. I like to make sure I have it around the edges so that there’s a visible ring of it on the exterior of the cake.
• Layer 5: Chocolate Hazelnut Frosting of the chocolate hazelnut frosting goes down next. If you made this a day or two in advance it will firm up in the fridge. Loosen it by putting it back in your mixer bowl and beating it at medium speed for 3-4 minutes.

Insert the second cake round .

And that’s it! You’re done.

Whipping Up The Super Fluffy Frosting

Lisa Kaminski/Taste of Home

Whats a good cake without an equally amazing frosting? To make Christinas trademark birthday frosting, start by combining two sticks of softened butter, a half cup of vegetable shortening and four ounces of cream cheese together in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat this on medium-high speed for about three minutes. This will start to build the fluffy foundation of this frosting.

Then, with the mixer set to low, stream in three tablespoons of corn syrup and two tablespoons of vanilla extract. Once added, turn up the mixer to medium-high and let it go to work! After three minutes, it should look nice and shiny.

Give your bowl a quick scrapeyou want everything well combinedadd in your powdered sugar, salt, baking powder and citric acid. Mix this on low until combined just to avoid that dreaded sugar cloud. Once incorporated, crank up the speed to medium-high until the frosting is bright white and incredibly fluffy.

If youre like me, those last two ingredients might throw you for a loop. When it comes to the citric acid, it adds a bit of tartness that cuts through all that sugar. You can find it in the canning section of some grocers. If you cant find it, I wouldnt sweat it too much! As for the baking powder, I was stumped. Our food editors suspect it helps prevent the syrup from crystallizing.

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About Momofuku Milk Bar Birthday Cake

If you have not heard of this Milk Bar cake, let me explain to you what it is about. So, Milk Bar is a chain of dessert and bakery restaurants founded by chef Christina Tosi. Tosi owns the chain with the Manhattan-based Momofuku restaurant group.

Whats special about Momofuku Milk Bar Birthday Cake?

• They are baked in a quarter sheet pan, then stamped out with a 6-inch cake ring to make three layers of cake.
• The cakes are not frosted on the sides.
• The cakes include complimentary crumb recipes that are sandwiched between the layers.
• The birthday cake takes inspiration from the funfetti cake and tub of frosting that sits on the aisles of the grocery stores. Christina Tosis goal is to replicate the flavors of her favorite funfetti cake mix and capture all the nostalgia and feeling that we had in the past.

Momofuku Milk Bar Birthday Cake consists of 4 parts:

• Birthday cake vanilla rainbow-speckled cake
• Birthday cake crumb sweet and a little bit salty crunchy morsels with strong imitation vanilla flavor
• Birthday cake frosting smooth and silky white cream cheese buttercream with strong imitation vanilla flavor
• Birthday cake soak vanilla milk to make the cake moist

How To Get Perfect Cake Layers

There are a few tricks that will help you get perfect, even layers this copycat Milk Bar birthday cake!

First, you need good nonstick cake pans and pan spray. I use three 6×2 inch Fat Daddios layer cake pans and I love them!! It’s super important to get actual layer cake pans because the sides are perfectly straight! It’s a little annoying because this means you can’t stack them, but your layers will have perfect sides! With just a tiny bit of pan spray, the cakes just slide right out and never stick! For pan spray, I love both Everbake Pan Spray and Baker’s Joy!

Next, is trimming your cake. This can be a little tricky, but it’s super easy once you do it a couple times. Let the cakes cool completely to room temperature, then take a large bread knife and very carefully slice off the very top of the cake so that you have a perfectly even layer. I like using a big bread knife because it’s sharp, serrated, and long enough to go through the entire layer at one time.

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If You Want To Read About Some Other Great Food That You Can Order To Your Home From Online Check Out:

• Giordanoâs Famous Deep Dish Pizza:Giordanos, famous for their stuffed deep dish pizza, is one Chicagos most popular pizzerias. This cheese, cheese, and extra cheese deep dish pizza is one of the best pizzas you will ever eat. Is Chicago too far away to travel to? Guess what? You dont have to travel to Chicago to try it. They will deliver it right to your door!
• Hughes Home Maid Chocolates:If you didnt know about Hughes Home Maid Chocolates store, you would surely miss it. It is hidden among the residential houses on 1823 Doty Street in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Since 1940, this little house has been handcrafting some of the best chocolates you will ever eat in its downstairs basement!
• Portillos Chicago Style Hot Dogs & Hot Beef Sandwiches: Portillos is the best place for an authentic Chicago-style hot dog. They top their hot dogs with mustard, pickles, sport peppers, tomatoes, and chopped onions. Then they serve them in a steamed poppy seed bun. How delicious is that? Their juicy Italian beef and spicy Italian sausage sandwiches are wicked tasty also!

Recommended Reading: Quick Shepherdâs Pie Recipe

Day : Make The Passion Fruit Curd

However, note that the passion fruit curd can be refrigerated for up to 1 week! Unfortunately, it cannot be frozen as it tends to separate when thawed, ruining the curds texture.

To make the passion fruit curd, youll need to do the following:

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How To Assemble The Milkbar Birthday Cake Recipe:

Day One:

• Make the Birthday Cake Crumbs: they mix and bake pretty quickly. So make them first and let them cool on the tray while you make and bake your cake layers. Once cooled, store them in an airtight container.
• Mix and bake your layer cakes: The original recipe calls for baking the cake batter in a sheet pan and then turning out the sheet pan and cutting your cake rounds using the 6 cake ring. My sheet pan was quite a bit smaller than the 10×13 size called for in the cookbook. So I baked my cakes in the 6 cake pans I always use. I prepped my cake pans as usual and measured about 350 grams of batter per tin. I baked at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Another tip is to measure all your ingredients using the gram measures provided by Christina. Its how she developed and makes all her cakes. I figure if the pastry chef says use the grams then Im using the grams. Its not hard to switch from cups to grams and once you do you will wonder why you waited so long. Once the cakes are baked and cooled, put them in an air tight container and pop them into the fridge for over night.
• Mix the cake soak: This is literally adding a little clear vanilla extract to the buttermilk so no big deal. But measure your milk and combine it with the flavoring so it can sit and steep over night in the fridge.

Day Two: