{momofuku milk bar birthday cake}

I have never been to Momofuku Milk Bar in NYC, but I have certainly dreamt about it ever since I received this book for Christmas.  Somehow I have had this book in my possession for almost a year without trying a single recipe from it and with our birthdays around the corner I decided I simply had to try one of the cake recipes.  I decided to start out with the infamous birthday cake recipe and immediately got going about ordering or locating all the ingredients and tools it requires.  The recipe doesn't require anything too crazy, but it did need some ingredients we don't normally have like citric acid or glucose as well as some tools such a cake cutter and acetate sheets.

The recipe is pretty straight forward and the most time consuming part is simply measuring out all the ingredients!  While the assembly looks difficult using acetate sheets to "build" the layers in, it is actually super easy- especially after you watch this video!  The best part of this cake is that you can make it up to two weeks ahead of time and store it in the freezer.

Oh and we haven't talked about the taste....it's amazing. I wish I had a better word to describe it, but amazing is really the most perfect word for it.  The nostalgic funfetti taste is spot on, but with an added richness and salty crunch from the "crumbs" added in to each layer plus the "milk soak" you add to each cake layer during assembly makes the texture so moist and decadent!

You can see the whole recipe here, but you should really just buy the book!

{cake crumb ready to go in the oven}

{wondering about those awesome sparkler candles?  you can buy em right here}