Dun dun dun...
This cake has been haunting my dreams ever since I watched the Chef's Table: Pastry episode with Christina Tosi, the mastermind behind various creations such as cereal milk ice cream, compost cookies, and of course, this beautiful, funfetti explosion of joy. I watched that episode with no joke tears in my eyes, watching her live out her dream and bake her heart out every day. It's something that I too dream of, hence the reason for this blog! Inspiration sure gets things moving along.
Heads up: this cake is no easy feat. It took me about a week to gather all of the specific ingredients and supplies and the day of, it was ~5 hours to complete it all, not to mention leaving it to freeze overnight. All of the hard work was 100% worth it... because this cake is truly as good as it looks (if I do say so myself lol).
Let's get crackin! The recipe comes from the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook - pages 78 and 102-107 to be exact. This link from their website also has the recipe spelled out perfectly, so I won't reinvent the wheel! Heads up: if you are thinking you have enough rainbow sprinkles, you probably don't for this recipe. Stock up! :)
First things first, QUARTER SHEET PAN. This was confusing. I ordered one off of Amazon only to find a very tiny mini-sized one showing up on my doorstep. MAH bad. I ended up using a basic 9x13 Wilton cake pan instead and it worked perfectly. I sprayed the pan with non-stick spray and then put parchment paper on the bottom, and voila ready to go! Another good Amazon buy was a 6-inch cake ring. I ended up going with this one and so far, I love it. It will expand up to 12 inches - ya know, just in case I get the hankering for a monster cake someday ;)
Mixing the cake mix together was pretty self-explanatory. Those birthday crumbs, though, were a little bit trickier. Looking back, I wish I would have underbaked them a little so they weren't so hard and difficult to munch on afterwards. Either way, they still taste like glorious mini funfetti cookies so, whatevz!
Cutting out the cake rings and stacking them up inside the acetate ring had my heart POUNDING! I didn't want anything to crack or fall apart but I was happy to find that this cake is pretty dense and movable. Making the bottom layer of all the scraps worked out perfectly as well.
Last side note I would mention about assembling... LOAD on the icing in the middle! No fear! I was a little hesitant (mainly for fear of not having enough) and as you can see, it came out with some thin layers of icing and a boatload on top. Again, all together, it tasted delicious; but, I am for sure excited for round 2 of trying out this bad boy again! I also have some more Milk Bar classics lined up. Learn best by doing, they say! If that's not a phrase, it now is one.
Let me know if you have any more suggestions or recipes to try! I am game for any and all ideas :)
Ta ta for now!
Claire
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