Milk Bar Birthday Cake Review

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What Is Milk Bars Return Policy

Milk Bar Birthday Cake Unboxing and Tasting

Milk Bar makes perishable treats which unfortunately arent returnable. Can you imagine all the things that could possibly go wrong with you trying to send a cake back through the mail? It just wouldnt work, nor would it be sanitary.

The only situation that the company does issue refunds is if something was wrong with your order. In the rare case that this does happen, all you need to do is get in contact with the brand and let them know. From there, they may request photos of the affected order, and give you the option of a refund or replacement.

What Is Milk Bar

Christina Tosi opened the first Milk Bar in 2008.

Famed pastry chef Christina Tosi opened her first bakery in New York City in 2008, selling inventive, offbeat treats like Compost Cookies , Cereal Milk Soft Serve , and the cult favorite Milk Bar Pie.

More than a decade later, Milk Bar now operates bakeries in New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, and beyond, and ships its baked goods all over the country. Packaged cookies have also started popping up on shelves at nationwide retailers.

Besides her cookies and soft serve, some of Tosis most popular creations include delightful layer cakes and cake trufflesbites of cake coated with a super-thin layer of chocolate and rolled in sand, which is a super fine mix of sugar, flour, and baking powder.

Here Is The Video Review Of My Milk Bar Cakes:

I was very impressed with the Milk Bar Cakes. I definitely would order them again. I think the price was very fair. If you purchased all of the ingredients required to make the cake, you probably wouldn’t save much in making it yourself. However, you would save yourself a lot of time and effort. Also, even though it looks small, a little slice of cake goes a long way. I ordered 6 inch cakes and the two cakes together fed a large group of people. Next time I would love to try the Strawberry Lemon Cake and the Popcorn Cake. They both look fun!

If you end up trying the Milk Bar Cakes, let me know. I would love to hear how you liked them. Also, if you end up making one yourself, tell me how it went. I have no desire to put forth that kind of effort, but I would love to hear if your cake turned out as good as the Milk Bar Store’s cakes!

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Taste And Texture: Frosting

In the Netflix episode, Christinas rationale for not frosting the sides is that its simply unnecessary. Now as a passionate cake-lover, I thought this would be appalling. Frosting is easily the best part of the cake, right?

Well, most cakes.

This concern was addressed head on, and Im happy to report that the many layers of cake make up for the lack of outer layer frost. However, be warned of the misleading use of CREAM CHEESE in this not-so traditional birthday cake.

Expecting the usual vanilla buttercream that everyone pairs with a birthday cake, I was thrown astray when I finally determined the root of the bitterness my mouth was experiencing. The light use of cream cheese in Milk bars frosting was certainly not something I anticipated . And while Im a huge fan of cream cheese frosting, I have strong opinions about it belonging on a white confetti cake. Should this cake ever be made in my kitchen, it will be frosted perfectly white with some sort of vanilla buttercream .

Thus, due to the sheer unpleasant surprise of the tang in this frosting, Ive scored it 2 out of .

Milk Bar Strawberry Shortcake Cake My Familys Thoughts

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Strawberry Shortcake Cake but on a whole new level: vanilla cake layered with silky sweet cream frosting, thick, tangy ribbons of strawberry jam, and buttery shortcake crumbs.

Milk Bar Strawberry Shortcake Cake! Look at all those layers on top so beautiful with all those layers showing and not hidden. *Drools*

Why Not The Birthday Cake?

I think Milk Bars birthday cake is one of the most attractive naked-layered cakes. There are several photos in the Milk Bar cookbooks and I kept staring at the birthday cake images. Ive made the milk bar birthday cake before and tried a slice from an actual Milk Bar location . My daughter loves strawberry so we decided to try out Milk Bars delivery and ordered the 6 inch milk bar strawberry shortcake cake.

Ordering Process and Shipping

The ordering process was fairly easy. They recommend selecting a date a couple days before you need the cake in case there are delivery mishaps. I ordered the cake to ship to my parents place because we will be having the cake there, and the cake arrived on the day we selected so they placed the cake in the fridge or freezer till that day .

Packaging

I did not unpack the cake, unfortunately however, I was told that the box was rather large in comparison to the cakes size. Above photo shows the cake wrapped up. The layers are visible!

Math, Servings, and Nutrition

Pretty Good Delivery

Unwrap That Acetate Paper!

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Where To Buy Milk Bar

Milk Bar has bakeshops in major cities across the US including New York, LA, Las Vegas, Boston, and DC that you can visit anytime you want a swirly cone of your favorite frozen treat or fresh-baked cookie.

Since not all of us are lucky enough to live near a Milk Bar, delightfully, the brand ships to pretty much all US zip codes through MilkBar.com. And due to such popular demand, you can even find select items available at Amazon, Whole Foods, and Target, though these items differ from what youd find in the bakeshop.

One: Make The Cake Crumbs

These are surpringly easy and can be made up to a week ahead of time. Just dont snack on them all week before you get to the cake assembly! Trust me it will take willpower.

Start by combining the dry ingredients- sugars, flour, baking powder, salt, and sprinkles

Then add the oil and vanilla. The mixture will become moist and crumbly.

Then spread the mixture onto a baking sheet. I lined mine with parchment paper, but you could use a silicone baking mat. You want to break up the crumbs with your hands.

Once during baking, and then once they cool you want to break up the crumbs a bit. The crumbs will still be soft when you take them out of the oven but will crisp up as they cool.

The cake crumbs can be stored up to a week ahead of time at room temperature in a container or frozen up to a month.

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Milk Bar Chocolate Malt Cake

Are you a chocolate lover? If you are, this is your kind of cake! The Milk Bar Chocolate Malt Cake is a chocolate cake with malted fudge, malted milk crumbs, charred marshmallows, and malted chocolate frosting! One of my biggest hesitancy for purchasing chocolate cakes is that they are typically dry. This one is not. The Milk Bar Chocolate Malt Cake has a layer of “ovaltine soak” that keeps it very moist. Each cake bite offers a gooey, crunchy, rich, decadent chocolatey fudge flavor. The cake is truly a chocolate sensation in your mouth. If you can’t get enough of chocolate, then this is the cake for you!

Why You’ll Love This Cake

Milk Bar Cake Review- Milk Bar Birthday Cake and Milk Bar Chocolate Malt Cake

Besides that fact that we are talking sprinkles and cake, here are a few reasons to try making the Milk Bar birthday cake at home!

  • Easy substitutions. The original recipe calls for some unusual things like citric acid and glucose. But since most home bakers don’t have those on hand, I opted to replace them with common or at least easily accessible options instead.
  • It’s a showstopper. Bring this out for any occasion and you’ll hear oohs and ahhs of delight.
  • No fussy decorating. If you don’t have frosting or piping skills and your cakes look “rustic” or “homemade” , then this cake gives you the advantage because it’s supposed to look that way!

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Take An Online Baking Class

Milk Bar previously held in-person baking classes for $95 a person at select NYC, DC, and LA store locations, but classes shut down due to the pandemic. Now, you can for $249 and learn how to develop your own original recipes from Tosi herself.

For a free alternative, send them Milk Bar’s most popular recipes to recreate at home. You can thank us later when you’re digging into a homemade Compost Cookie.

How Do I Make A Milk Bar Cake Ahead Of Time

I get it. This cake is not for the faint of heart. So here is a breakdown of the components and their make ahead schedule:

Cake crumbs: Up to a week ahead of time. Store at room temperature. You can also store these in the freezer for 1 month.

Cake: You can store this, cooled and wrapped, in the fridge up to 5 days.

Frosting: Store in the fridge up to 1 week ahead of time. Bring to room temperature before using.

Whole Cake Assembled: Store in the fridge, covered up to 5 days. Freezer, covered, up to 2 weeks.

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How Do You Get Perfect Cake Layers

There are a few tricks that will help you get perfect, even layers!

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!! Its super important to get actual layer cake pans because the sides are perfectly straight! Its a little annoying because this means you cant 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 Bakers Joy*!

Next, is trimming your cake. This can be a little tricky, but its 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 its sharp, serrated, and long enough to go through the entire layer at one time.

And of course freezing the layers! So after youve let the cake layers cool completely and trimmed them. Wrap each layer tightly in plastic wrap in place in the freezer overnight. Dont take them out until right before you start assembling the cake! This allows the frosting to slide on smoothly and prevents any crumbs from getting in the frosting.

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New York New York What A Strange Marvelous Crazy Wonderful Place

Milk Bar Birthday Cake

New York City: there is no place quite like it. Right now, Maria and I both live in suburbs of major cities, and Sophie lives further outside the city in farming country. All of us are, on a day-to-day basis, so far removed from so much of humanity. The sheer number of people in NYC is astonishingand not just how many people live on the island, about 1.6 million, which is an enormous number itself, but also the non-residential traffic onto the island, which ranges from another 1-2 million or more each day. Thats a lot of people.

And you feel it. Every square inch of the city is packed to capacity. Buildings are piled on top of each other, street after street after street, with hundreds of thousands of people wandering to and fro. You can feel in the air the history of the placeso many things have happened, so much has been created and built, so much destroyed, so many lives lived. Hopes and dreams. Suffering and loss. So many stories to be told.

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Tell More Me About This Cake

This gorgeous birthday cake features three layers of funfetti cake. In true Milk Bar style, its made using one sheet pan, rather than multiple round cake pans . Ive used my favourite buttery, Funfetti Cake recipe, that produces a soft and fluffy vanilla cake every time.

Next, is that vanilla buttercream. But while I love my regular buttercream frosting, weve made it even more special by swapping milk for Greek yogurt. The real Milk Bar recipe has cream cheese in the frosting, so this is our easy way of getting that similar tang. Another secret ingredient in our frosting is a hint of baking powder. Believe it or not, this helps make the lightest, fluffiest frosting ever. This frosting is so good, youll find yourself licking the bowl clean.

The secret ingredient in our frosting is a hint of baking powder. Believe it or not, this helps make the lightest, fluffiest frosting ever.

And then theres those crunchy, crispy cookie crumbs. These little funfetti shortbread crumbs take only minutes to make but they enhance the sweet, buttery, vanilla flavour profile were going for here. And they provide a unique textural element to the cake. Were obsessed with them .

Tips For Making This Momofuku Birthday Cake Recipe

  • Use the correct pan: I read other blogs stating they had issues making this in the incorrect pan and having the cake bubble over. You need to use a 10×15 jelly roll pan.
  • Make Ahead: Use the times above to figure out how to break down this process. And dont forget this cake has to freeze for 12 hours, and then defrost a full 3 hours in the fridge before serving.
  • Vanilla Extract: Worth the splurge. The flavor really was true to that vanilla cake mix flavor. Of course you can substitute the regular vanilla, but be aware the cake and frosting will have a darker hue.
  • Frosting: I doubled the amount based on other reviews. Some suggested using 1.5x the original recipe called for. So you may have some leftover.
  • Oil: I did not use grapeseed oil either. You can replace that with another neutral tasting oil such as vegetable or canola.
  • Glucose syrup: I did use this in my frosting and helps to make it smooth. But if you dont have it, you can replace with more corn syrup but it can make your frosting sweeter than intended and texturally not the same.
  • Salt: I used table salt, so I adjusted this amount in the recipe for what I used. If you are using kosher salt you will need to increase the amount slightly.
  • Citric Acid: I didnt use this either but used lemon juice instead. But that little bit of acidity does help to balance the frostings sweetness.

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Milk Bar Birthday Cake Review: Bottom Line

Milk Bar turns classic American treats into unique sweet creations and deliveries them directly to your door. Desserts include birthday cakes, cookies, ice cream, pies, and more.

We love their fun, unique take on the classics and creative seasonal flavors. We also like that they have gluten-free options and that you can schedule your delivery and add a gift note.

And while our Milk Bar birthday cake tasted wonderful and was a fun surprise, it was on the expensive side, especially when you add in the shipping cost. With that said, the 6 cake could easily feed 12 people, bringing the cost per serving under $5.

If you are looking for a fun, unique birthday cake or looking to send a sweet treat to someone you love, Milk Bar is a good option. SHOP NOW > >

Enjoy!

Looking for more birthday cake and dessert delivery? Check out our Dessert Directory for a full list!

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What Is The Momofuku Birthday Cake

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A funfetti cake thats light and fluffy. With sprinkles abound. Soaked in a vanilla milk. Slathered in a creamy dreamy vanilla buttercream frosting.

And the best part

Cake crumbs. Dont worry we will get to the crunchy cake crumbs. And it all comes together into one blissful bite that I am still dreaming about. I actually made this cake months ago for my amazing Fiances birthday. He is a funfetti fiend and loves a good boxed mix. I wont judge. I still love him. But I wanted to make him one from scratch.

Ok this cake is a bit of a labor of love. Hey Im all for making some awesome easy desserts when the time calls for it. Nothing wrong with whipping up some easy Chocolate Fudgeor maybe someOld Fashioned Peanut Butter Fudge but then some occasions call for an epic cake like this one.

This cake is a bit different for a few reasons:

And this cake promised that it tastes just like those boxed funfetti mixes we all hate to love. It delivers. On so many levels. And then some. In fact, it blows a boxed cake mix out of the water. Yes I will be making this cake again.

Is it time consuming? Heck yes. Is it worth it? Every calorie laden, drool worthy bite.

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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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