My fondness for New York's Momofuku Milk Bar is well-known, what with my recent visit last fall, and repeated attempts at their Crack Pie at the behest of annoying friends who are more than happy to allow the dish to live up to its name.
Resident chef Christina Tosi came out with a cookbook based on Milk Bar's most memorable recipes late last year. Additionally, Williams-Sonoma recently introduced boxed mixes for their three most popular cookies.
Despite the recent introduction of the cookbook - or perhaps because of it - recipes for most of Milk Bar's most recognizable items are already available online for free. I was interested by Tosi's stripped down, almost naked approach to cakes:
Tosi's recipes are well-known for being intensive, requiring several stages, and generally being a pain in the ass. How she manages to keep that place in a constant stream of cakes, cookies, and whatever else and still remain a going concern is beyond me; but given that I have the luxury of only making her stuff when the urge strikes me or when someone manages to successfully annoy me enough, it doesn't bother me.
I decided to take on the Milk Bar's birthday cake. Linked is a good step-by-step and the recipe. Ironically, in this recipe, Tosi attempts to as closely replicate a boxed mix and frosting as much as possible with a homemade item.
I'm not going to spell out a step-by-step here because it's drawn out and complicated, and completely surpasses my laziness quota for the day. The link above does a pretty comprehensive job. But here's a few key steps:
Several of Tosi's recipes, including this cake, as well as her blueberries and cream cookies, start with crumbs, which are more or less a crunchy, condensed version of whatever it is you're making.
Her cakes are 6", so to facilitate both the unique look as well as the unusual size, the cake is cooked in a big sheet from which three 6" rounds are cut.
To keep the shape of the cake while assembling, it's built within an acetate form and then frozen prior to serving.
A better look at the assembly...
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...and the final product. Overall, it starts with a cake round, which is soaked in a mixture of vanilla and milk, then a layer of icing, then crumbs, and more icing; repeat once more, and finish with a last round of cake and layer of icing. More crumbs on top for decoration.
The recipe says to "cut it neatly with a chef's knife". You would need some serious Shun motherfuckers to cut this cake cleanly; the crumbs are crunchy as hell, so it's awkward to cut and more or less falls apart on the plate. But the presentation is striking, if not terribly polished, and it tastes pretty good. Maybe not worth the overall effort, but good. I'd like to try her recipe for blueberries and cream cookies next; I had those from the Milk Bar when I was in New York, and it was my favourite of the cookies they had available that day.
Making progress on my dorky embroidery project. True to the purpose of an embroidery sampler, I'm getting a lot better at each technique, to the point where I've actually gone back and ripped out a couple of the earlier letters to do them over.
Resident chef Christina Tosi came out with a cookbook based on Milk Bar's most memorable recipes late last year. Additionally, Williams-Sonoma recently introduced boxed mixes for their three most popular cookies.
Despite the recent introduction of the cookbook - or perhaps because of it - recipes for most of Milk Bar's most recognizable items are already available online for free. I was interested by Tosi's stripped down, almost naked approach to cakes:
Tosi's recipes are well-known for being intensive, requiring several stages, and generally being a pain in the ass. How she manages to keep that place in a constant stream of cakes, cookies, and whatever else and still remain a going concern is beyond me; but given that I have the luxury of only making her stuff when the urge strikes me or when someone manages to successfully annoy me enough, it doesn't bother me.
I decided to take on the Milk Bar's birthday cake. Linked is a good step-by-step and the recipe. Ironically, in this recipe, Tosi attempts to as closely replicate a boxed mix and frosting as much as possible with a homemade item.
I'm not going to spell out a step-by-step here because it's drawn out and complicated, and completely surpasses my laziness quota for the day. The link above does a pretty comprehensive job. But here's a few key steps:
Several of Tosi's recipes, including this cake, as well as her blueberries and cream cookies, start with crumbs, which are more or less a crunchy, condensed version of whatever it is you're making.
Her cakes are 6", so to facilitate both the unique look as well as the unusual size, the cake is cooked in a big sheet from which three 6" rounds are cut.
To keep the shape of the cake while assembling, it's built within an acetate form and then frozen prior to serving.
A better look at the assembly...
...and the final product. Overall, it starts with a cake round, which is soaked in a mixture of vanilla and milk, then a layer of icing, then crumbs, and more icing; repeat once more, and finish with a last round of cake and layer of icing. More crumbs on top for decoration.
The recipe says to "cut it neatly with a chef's knife". You would need some serious Shun motherfuckers to cut this cake cleanly; the crumbs are crunchy as hell, so it's awkward to cut and more or less falls apart on the plate. But the presentation is striking, if not terribly polished, and it tastes pretty good. Maybe not worth the overall effort, but good. I'd like to try her recipe for blueberries and cream cookies next; I had those from the Milk Bar when I was in New York, and it was my favourite of the cookies they had available that day.
Making progress on my dorky embroidery project. True to the purpose of an embroidery sampler, I'm getting a lot better at each technique, to the point where I've actually gone back and ripped out a couple of the earlier letters to do them over.
