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We sold our house so I’m hosting a KitchenAid giveaway and sharing my take on the Milk Bar Birthday Cake!

We did it! We sold our house!! We closed the day after my birthday and bought our farm the day after that (which explains the lack of blog posts in the last week or so). This will definitely be a week I will never forget and to celebrate, I thought I’d do a little giveaway for my readers. One fan will walk away with a brand new KitchenAid stand mixer! Since I’m not 100% sure of when I’ll be able to post again, I’m going to run this giveaway for a few weeks.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I am also celebrating the (late) anniversary of my blog! Thank you all for the support you have shown, I never would have imagined a year ago I would be where I am today. For my birthday/sold our house/blog anniversary treat, I decided to make Milk Bar’s Confetti Birthday Cake. The first time I saw it was in NYC when we were there when we stumbled into Milk Bar by accident. I was immediately hooked.







Milk Bar’s Birthday Cake is a naked funfetti cake layered with frosting and has these amazing cookie crumbs for a little added texture. Each layer is doused in birthday cake soak to keep the everything super moist. The original is made in a 6″ round mold but I decided to make two mini ones instead. I used my English muffin rings and acetate to hold it all in while it had a chance to set up in the freezer. This cake is fairly time consuming so I ended up making it over a 2 day period to keep from going crazy. It can definitely be done in a day but if you don’t have to then why put yourself through all that stress (and having to do all those dishes!).

I made a couple of other changes since I didn’t want to have to go to the store for extra ingredients. I swapped out the clear vanilla extract for vanilla beans, the cream cheese in the frosting for mascarpone and since my grapeseed oil had soured, I used coconut oil (and it actually turned out perfect). One last thing, the frosting calls for glucose and corn syrup and since I wasn’t about to buy a whole bottle of glucose solely for the purpose of making this recipe, I just used all corn syrup instead without any issues.

Day 1: make the crumb

The crumb is one of my favorite elements of the cake. It is mostly cake flour mixed with sugar and oil until it comes together to make these little clumps that are then baked off in the oven.

My KitchenAid made this step a breeze. I simply put the ingredients in the bowl and let the mixer do the work for me. I did end up adding a touch more oil because they were too dry and weren’t forming the clumps that you see.

I noticed the crumb on the real Milk Bar birthday cake were almost perfectly round but I totally couldn’t achieve that. I’m not really sure what I could have done differently to make them into little balls. Mine looked more like little rocks but hey, I still like them just as much. I want to see how many of you are actually reading this post and who are here just to enter the giveaway. For 5 extra bonus entries, comment below your fondest birthday memory. These scrumptious little nuggets go into the oven for about 20 minutes to crisp up and once they are done and cooled can be stored in an airtight container until you make your cake.

Since I made these cake crumbs two days ahead of time, I seriously couldn’t help myself from constantly snacking on them. My suggestion is to make a double batch because they are hard to resist!

Make the Funfetti Birthday Cake Layers!

Time to use the trusty KitchenAid again and it’s definitely needed for the batter. You have to create an emulsion with the buttermilk and oil so that the shortening, butter, and sugars can “hold” them without the cake batter separating (or what’s also known as breaking). This is done by setting the speed to low and slowly drizzling in the buttermilk and oil mixture. I just happened to get a phone call right in the middle of this process and prayed that it wouldn’t mess up while I talked to our lender. Thankfully, everything was just fine.

I read a couple of other bloggers who made this same cake recipe and they had trouble with the batter overflowing from the quarter sheet pan. To compensate for this, I simply reserved about 2/3 cup of batter (and ate it lol). Please tell me I’m not the only one who doesn’t have an issue with eating a small bowl of cake batter. I actually think it tastes better than the cake itself!

Assembly!

Once the cake has come out of the oven and has had a chance to cool, flip it out onto a board and cut it into whatever size cake you want to make. My cakes were about 4″ round and I was able to easily get 6 of them. The best part of this step were the scraps – there were SO many!

I forgot to take pictures of the frosting (or if I did, I have no idea where they are because everything is packed up). It’s just like any other frosting for the most part. Whip the fats, add the powdered sugar in two batches and done. I secured acetate paper around my ring molds and began the stacking process – cake layer, milk soak, frosting, crumbs, repeat. A tip that I learned from the cake’s creator, Christina Tosi: Bend a tablespoon to make the frosting easier to spread evenly. You can also use the same spoon to add the birthday cake soak.

Once the cake is assembled, it’s best to stick it in the freezer for a while so that the frosting can firm up. Since it’s mostly butter, it will set up nicely. Peel off the acetate and let come to room temp then enjoy by yourself, hidden in a closet – just don’t forget the milk!

Enter to win a KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer in the color of your choice!

Make sure you’re following me on social media so you don’t miss the winner announcement on 07/10/2016!

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HUGE CONGRATS to BETSY B! You are our winner!!

Thank you all who entered and shared this giveaway, it was a huge success! Be on the lookout for more giveaways coming up and hopefully (with your continued support) next year’s anniversary giveaway will be even bigger!

KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer Giveaway

Here’s Milk Bar’s original recipe if you would like it.

https://milkbarstore.com/main/menu/recipes-and-how-tos/#birthday layer cake

Modifications that I made to the original include:

Swapping out the clear vanilla extract for actual vanilla beans and vanilla bean paste.

Used corn syrup in place of the glucose (total of 2 tablespoons) in the frosting

Substituted mascarpone cheese for the cream cheese in the frosting

Substituted coconut oil for the grapeseed oil in the birthday crumbs and in the cake.

Sweepstakes begins 06/10/2016 at 9:00:00 PM EST and ends 07/10/2016 at 11:59:59 PM EST. Winner will be emailed within 12-24 hours of sweepstakes end. Please respond to winning e-mail within 48 hours or prize will be forfeited and a new winner will be chosen. The KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer (ARV $349.95) will be mailed to the winner from Williams Sonoma via Erin at FaithFoodFamilyFun. Prize is sponsored by FaithFoodFamilyFun. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. There will be one (1) winner. Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. Winner selected using Gleam Random Winner Generator. All prizes will be awarded. Must be 18+ and US ONLY (lower 48 states). No purchase necessary. Winner may be asked to provide proof of identity. Winner’s name will be posted in the Gleam Giveaway Widget and on Facebook at FaithFoodFamilyFun. Sweepstakes is in no way associated with KitchenAid, Williams Sonoma, Milk Bar, Facebook (or any other social media platform). VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.