This is a ridiculous cake for ridiculous times. This past weekend marked 50 days into the Michigan stay at home order. Other than a daily walk around the neighborhood, the kids have not left the house for 50 days: no school, no church, no stores, no friends, no sports, no driving practice.
I’m still going to work seeing kids, and doing all the shopping. No one else at home has been to grocery store to see the dystopian scenes of empty shelves, people wearing makeshift masks and face shields, directional paths to walk through the stores, and 6-foot markers everywhere.
Sometimes, the ridiculousness is too much–like the couple I saw this weekend wearing bras as facemasks, and welding face shields—trying to make a decision on what box of tea to buy. Sometimes it’s just so sad– watching the elderly walk warily around stores, struggling to reach an item and feeling like you shouldn’t help.
Many items are in short supply, but one thing we have plenty of right now, is time. We have time to learn sourdough bread that takes 3 days, time to take a week making the nine components in a single bowl of Ivan Orkin’s Shio Ramen, time to learn how to juggle and play the harmonica. Time to watch Netflix, and Disney Plus, and PBS. Plenty of time.
And time is all you need to make this cake. Christina Tosi’s Milk Bar Birthday Cake has to be the most Instagrammable Cake in America, but it’s not a technically difficult cake to make. You could completely mess every layer up, and it will still turn out fine. You just need time to order the oddball supplies, time to make the components, and time to let it sit.
If you’ve never heard about this cake, take a few minutes to watch Christina Tosi talk about her theory on cake. If you have Netflix, it’s worth watching her entire episode on Chef’s Table. Because you’ve got time right now.
The even crazier thing about this cake, and pretty much everything else sold in Milk Bar, is her transparency. She posts the recipes for everything in the bakery. She’s like the Penn and Teller of bakers. She openly shares her secrets, and somehow the magic is stronger.
So if you can eat dairy and egg, just head over to the Milk Bar website and follow her directions. If you can’t…then stay tuned for a dairy-free and egg-free version–a milk-free Milk Bar Birthday Cake–if you will.
So what do you think? It’s a really cute cake. It’s sweet, and salty, and crunchy, and homey. It has a Netflix episode devoted to it. You have time to order up the supplies from Amazon and putter around in the kitchen. And if you’re worried about gaining that COVID#19 pounds…it’s only a little 6 inch cake.
This is the perfect cake to celebrate….something. I don’t know what. Celebrate all the celebrations we’ve missed.
Have I made my case on why this is the perfect time to make this cake? Ok, let’s go!
First off, you’re going to need to order some supplies, because this stuff is not normal. 1.) 1/4 sheet pan 2.) 6 inch cake cutter 3.) 4 inch acetate cake collars 4.) Glucose Syrup 5.) Citric Acid
Secondly, you’re going to need some slightly odd ingredients from the grocery: 1.) Sprinkles 2.) Cake Flour and 3.) Grapeseed oil.
You could swap out canola oil, but why not try something new? I found grapeseed oil in the olive oil section of my grocery. It’s a spacy green color, but doesn’t taste green.
The rest of the ingredients are pretty basic pantry items.
There are 4 components to the cake: the actual cake layer baked in a 1/4 sheet pan and cut into the round shape, the addictive crunchy cake crumbs, the cake soak, and the frosting. You can make all these components at your leisure and store them in the fridge until you are ready to assemble the cake.
Once you assemble the cake, it freezes for at least 12 hours and then it thaws in the fridge for about 3 hours before eating.
And if it weren’t enough…this cake actually tastes better with time. The first day, it’s great. Well actually, it’s ridiculous. It’s so sweet and silly, you mostly just laugh at it and yourself for making it.
But the next day around coffeetime, when the need for another taste of the sweet bomb starts haunting you, and the salty-sweet crunchy bits have soaked up some vanilla cake soak and the cake layers start melding into the tangy cream cheese frosting…oh man.
In that moment, the stay-at-home order is just a little easier to bear.
Print
Milk Bar Birthday Cake
- Yield: 6 inch cake
Description
This is a dairy-free and egg-free version of the famous Milk Bar Birthday Cake, it also happens to be vegan. The cake has 4 components that are listed as individual recipes below. Make those 4 components and come back here for instructions on cake assembly. Or, head over to the official Milk Bar Recipe Page for building instructions.
Ingredients
- #1 Birthday Cake
- #2 Birthday Cake Crumbs
- #3 Birthday Cake Frosting
- #4 Birthday Cake Soak
Instructions
- Using the 6-inch cake cutter, cut the quarter sheet of birthday cake into two 6-inch rounds. The remaining “scraps” will be used to make the bottom cake layer, so don’t eat them all.
- Clean the cake ring, and place it on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Line the inside of the cake ring with a strip of the acetate cake collar.
- Layer the cake scraps inside the ring, press down gently to make a flat even layer.
- Spoon half of the Birthday Cake Soak over the cake layer and let it absorb in.
- Spread 1/5th of the frosting over the cake.
- Sprinkle 1/3 of the cake crumbs, press down.
- Spread another 1/5th of the frosting.
- Top with a cake round and repeat the process: rest of the cake soak, frosting layer, crumbs, frosting layer.
- By now, the cake is reaching near the top of the acetate cake collar, so you’ll have to add another circle of cake collar to increase the height. Just cut another length and tuck it in.
- Add the final cake round and the rest of the frosting. Decorate with remaining cake crumbs.
- Place the whole cake in the freezer for 12 hours to set. It’s ok if you leave it in the freezer for weeks!
- About 3 hours before you plan to serve the cake, remove it from the freezer. Pop it out of the cake ring, and peel off the acetate cake collars. Let it defrost in the fridge for 3 hours or a few days.
- Enoy!
Notes
If you want to read the official instructions, head over to the official Milk Bar Birthday Cake Recipe site.
This cake is a lot of up-front work, but it can sit in the freezer for weeks before serving, pretty cool.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Milk Bar Birthday Cake– #1 The Cake Layer
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 1 sheet pan 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This is a dairy-free and egg-free adaptation of The Cake Layer of the Milk Bar Birthday Cake, it also happens to be vegan. Make sure you’re using a 1/4 sheet pan, otherwise this will be a disaster, the cake batter will overflow the pan or be too thin.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups cake flour (I use Swan’s Down)
- 1 t. baking powder
- 3/4 t. baking soda
- 3/4 t. kosher salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups dairy-free milk
- 2 t. cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup grapeseed oil
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 Tablespoon clear vanilla extract
1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Line a 1/4 sheet pan with parchment paper, it’s ok if the paper hangs over the edge. It will help you lift the cake out later.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
- Whisk the wet ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl.
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well, don’t overbeat though.
- Fold in half the sprinkles, and blend carefully. Don’t whisk, or you’ll break the sprinkles.
- Pour the cake batter into the sheet pan, and top with the remaining 2 T. of sprinkles.
- Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the top is browned and set.
- Lift out of the pan with the parchment, let it cool on a rack. If you’re not going to assemble the whole cake soon, just freeze the whole slab of cake.
Notes
I used grapeseed oil because I’d already purchased it for the Cake Crumbs, but you can use canola oil or another vegetable oil if you’d like.
I use Betty Crocker Rainbow Sprinkles, they come in a big tub.
I’ve stopped spending money on pure vanilla extract. It’s terribly expensive, and taste tests by food snobs even prove you can’t tell the difference between vanilla extract and vanilla flavoring in baked goods. I have some fancy vanilla beans I use for marmalade, but I bought a huge jug of McCormick’s clear vanilla extract for baking. But that’s just me. You can do what you want.
I used kosher salt in this recipe, specifically Diamond Crystal salt that I buy in big boxes at the restaurant food supply store. If you’re using regular table salt, you might want to use 1/2 teaspoon instead.
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 25
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Milk Bar Birthday Cake– #2 The Cake Crumb Layer
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 2 cups 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
I would make these cake crumbs even without the cake. They’re so good for snacking and sprinkling over ice cream.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 3/4 cup cake flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 T. rainbow sprinkles
- 1/4 cup grapeseed oil
- 1 Tablespoon clear vanilla extract
Instructions
- Heat oven to 300°F.
- Combine the sugars, flour, powder, salt and sprinkles in a mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until combined.
- Add the oil and vanilla and mix with the paddle. It will form a large soft dough, then start to separate into smaller clusters. Once it’s forming the little round clusters, you can stop.
- Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for 15 minutes until golden brown.
- Cool, then break into chunks and store in an airtight container.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 15
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Milk Bar Birthday Cake–#3 The Cake Frosting Layer
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 2 cups 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This frosting tastes just like the tubs of frosting from the grocery store…sweet, tart, a little salty. I suppose you could skip the glucose syrup or citric acid, but the weird ingredients are what make this fun.
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons dairy-free margarine
- 1/4 cup shortening
- 1/4 cup dairy-free cream cheese
- 1 Tablespoon glucose syrup
- 1 Tablespoon corn syrup
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- pinch of baking powder
- pinch of citric acid
- 1 T. clear vanilla extract
Instructions
- Beat the margarine, shortening, and cream cheese together in a mixing bowl with the paddle attachment until creamy.
- Beat in the glucose syrup and corn syrup until smooth.
- Add the powdered sugar, salt, baking powder, citric acid and vanilla extract.
- Mix until creamy and fluffy. If it seems really runny, you can add a little more powdered sugar.
- Store refrigerated for a week.
- Cook Time: 10
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Mixed
- Cuisine: American
Milk Bar Birthday Cake–#4 The Cake Soak Layer
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 1/4 cup 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This simple vanilla milk cake soak covers a mulititude of sins. If your cake is too dry or crumbly, or falls apart during the build…the cake soak puts it all back together.
Instructions
- Mix the milk and vanilla together in a small bowl. Store refrigerated until you build the cake.
- Cook Time: 5
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Mixed
- Cuisine: American
You are amazing! This is beautiful. And hopeful. I think my senior(!) and I need to attempt this as a way to celebrate.
Hope you all are well. Thank you for all you do. <3
Thank you for this!! We are out of town because my son had surgery and his birthday is today, I used this recipe and we just celebrated! It’s so delicious and despite not looking as pretty because I didn’t have the cake cutter etc it tastes amazing!!
I just made this for a friend’s socially distanced birthday gathering – everyone there said it was the best cake they’ve ever had! Thank you so much for this recipe, I will definitely be making it again.
This looks amazing! I plan on making this for my sister’s 30th birthday. Her birthday is in a month. Could I keep it in the freezer for 3 weeks? Also, how tall is this cake when assembled? I want to purchase a cake box for it for easy transport. Thanks for sharing this recipe!