If you have never heard of Milk Bar Bakery you need to start your Googling now! I discovered it from watching Netflix – Chef’s Table: Pastry, Episode 1: ‘Christina Tosi’. Christina is my spirit animal! Feisty, sweet and full of fun! She truly is inspirational.
I decided for my birthday this year to recreate her bakery favorite – Birthday Cake – as a treat to myself. HUGE DISCLAIMER – I have never liked funfetti cake. There is something about it that just isn’t my style, but who could resist the bright colors of sprinkles – and it has a MILK CAKE SOAK and CAKE CRUMBS! So Happy Birthday to me!! I decided to go all in and recreate her colorful, sweet and fabulously fun cake.
Christina uses clear vanilla extract in her recipe, which she states gives the cake and frosting that boxed mix and canned frosting flavor, but homemade. I do agree with her that it gives that “extra” over-the-top vanilla flavor that is reminiscent of a box mix, however, this is WAY BETTER than a box mix and canned frosting. SO MUCH BETTER!
I looked over the ingredient list and had most items at home, but I did not follow the recipe to the letter. The recipe is a little long in how they have it written, as it includes assembly instructions, but it’s well worth the read to get to the “cake” of the recipe.
I eventually decided to make this batter into cupcakes so that I could share at work! They got rave reviews! I made a double batch of cake, which made 25 cupcakes, and a double batch of frosting, and I had six cupcakes that didn’t get frosted. I would definitely triple the frosting for cupcakes – as this cake is a “naked” frosted cake, so there isn’t a lot for piping – which is my favorite way to frost cupcakes.
Making cupcakes is less time intensive as they cool quicker and you don’t need some of the extras – acetate and a cake ring. Since I didn’t have all the ingredients, I made do with what I had, and it didn’t disappoint, so don’t let laking a few ingredients or hardware items stop you from trying something NEW. I didn’t have citric acid, grape seed oil and glucose, so I used light corn syrup instead of glucose and vegetable oil instead of grape seed. I omitted the citric acid.
I LOVE the crunch that the cake crumbles add to this cupcake, and the cute and simple decoration they provide! This cake and frosting really ticks all the boxes for me! It’s a soft and moist cake, with the sprinkles giving it a slight crunch of texture. The frosting is smooth and slightly tangy, and we’ve already given much love to the cake crumbles.
I highly suggest making this recipe just because – it won’t disappoint! Don’t let the recipe name “Birthday Cake” keep you locked in for baking it just for a party. Make this cake just because you want to smile or put a smile on someone else’s face!
First it was a red, white and blue swirled vanilla cake frosted with a simple vanilla buttercream, decked out with a fondant and buttercream logo.
Second was 24 Finding Dory cupcakes – 12 chocolate, 12 vanilla, frosted with vanilla buttercream, topped with cute candy decorations (Pop Rocks, Starburst coral and fondant seaweed, and sticker characters from the movie.
Third was a chocolate and peanut butter explosion cake! Chocolate cake frosted with peanut butter buttercream topped with chocolate ganache and chopped up peanut butter cups.
For the Key Lime Curd:
For the Cinnamon Cupcakes:
After letting my cupcakes cool, I used a large piping tip to hollow out the center of my cupcakes to make a good size whole for the curd to go into. I then piped a generous amount of frosting on top and sprinkled with gold luster dust for a pop of color and pizazz. These are birthday cupcakes after all!
My oldest turned 12 a few days ago. After talking about Christmas and trying to make present wish lists, we got on the topic of how much stuff we really have and how a lot of it doesn’t get used. We are those parents that have in years past gone through all the girls things and gotten rid of stuff to make room for all the birthday and Christmas presents that would make their way into our home. So, long story short, my oldest daughter decided for her birthday she wanted to have friends come over and watch a movie, play, eat popcorn, candy and cake (of course it had to look like a box of popcorn!), and just have a fun time. She also decided that she didn’t want her family and friends to give her gifts for her birthday. She wanted them to give her money, that she would then purchase gifts for The Angel Tree at our local Walmart. So she called her grandparents and told her request for her birthday and we made sure on all her invitations for her friends to let them know she didn’t want presents, but for them to help her in making her birthday wish a reality.
After one busy day preparing, one evening full of laughter and giggles, she came away with $280 graciously given by family and friends to spend on others for Christmas.
The next day we put out the invite to join us shopping for The Angel Tree and thankfully one of her friends was able to go! She and her friend picked out several tags and we went on the hunt to find the items. The first tag the girls saw I think really make an impact on them – it was for a Christmas dinner for a family of four. My daughter was so saddened that a child’s wish for Christmas – instead of cool toy – was merely a family dinner. They each grabbed one. They were able to purchase cologne, many toys, a car seat, a children’s play kitchen, two gift certificates for Christmas dinners and a child’s “couch” that unfolds to become “bed.” The entire time we were in the store, not once did they look at other toys on the shelves or make comments about items that they would like or want. The mission was clear – give to others.
At the register Kailee was proud to pay for all the items in their very full cart. I realized at check out that I had forgotten to throw a roll of tape in my purse so that we could attach the tags to each gift. I asked they clerk if she thought the service desk would lend us tape and was assured they would. As we stood in line at customer service a clerk came over and asked if we had a few items for the Angel Tree because she could help us with them. Her mouth dropped when she was told that the entire cart was for The Angel Tree and Kailee explained about her birthday request. The clerk immediately gave Kailee a big hug and thanked her and her friend, Olivia, for being so kind-hearted. We then went to pick up a few groceries and while we were in line paying for my items, the same clerk came up and asked to borrow the girls. They followed her back to the service desk where they were praised for their good deed by several employees – it truly was a group effort that made this possible!
Have Sweets, Will Share. 