Momofuku Milkbar Cake Dupe Revisted

Long ago…a year ago…I made a Momofuku Milk Bar Birthday Cake dupe. I left that post up (here) for posterity. It was rough. I said it. It was rough.

But, it did look visually striking.

For a party this weekend, I thought I’d give it another try, but with all of the collective wisdom that I have in my pocket now.

This is the original recipe from Bon Appetit, but I recommend we just put that aside for now. I’ll update you on how to make a better cake. Some of it involves that original recipe, and some steps don’t.

Part One: Bake the Cake

I recommend using whatever general white cake recipe you usually like that could make two 9-inch round cakes, but make sure to add a quarter cup of sprinkles (I love sprinkles). If you want it to taste close, you want something that’s got corn syrup in it. That’s the real secret. I used a recipe out of my Fannie Farmer Cookbook, but this one looks pretty similar. The OG recipe recommends baking this thing in a sheet pan and cutting it into rounds. I didn’t do that. I baked two 9-inch rounds, then sliced each one horizontally so my finished cake will have four layers. You could keep it in just two if you’re nervous about the construction, or bake in four pans if you’re worried about the cutting. The cake from the original recipe is way too fragile, so I recommend just picking a different recipe.

Part Two: The Crumbles

Part of what makes the Momofuku cake a Momofuku cake is the crumbly cake bits that go on top and between every other layer. I ended up using the Bon Appetit recipe because this part turned out fine last time. If you’re using a gas oven, I recommend turning the oven down about 25 degrees compared to using an electric oven.

Part Three: The Frosting

I prefer a homemade frosting to a can, so that’s what I did. I did a double batch of this frosting recipe. The key here is to just whip the shit out of this. I liked the nice clean white look of this frosting, and it was a good consistency even at room temperature, so it would be good to sit out at a party for a couple of hours. I also want you to know that the secret to the extra tang that’s in the frosting is to replace one ounce of the butter with one ounce of cream cheese, and add a splash of lemon juice. If you’re going to take my original advice and just buy some frosting, my recommendation is to whip the canned frosting in a mixer until it about doubles in size. This will get you a closer consistency to real buttercream.

Part Four: The Assembly

This is the hard part. Everything is better when it’s kind of chilled. If things aren’t going well, it’s probably because they’re getting too hot, so stick everything in the fridge for a bit.

Keeping that in mind, I started with fridge-temp cake and frosting. The crumbles are essentially indestructible, so whatever for them.

I lined the sides of a springform pan with acetate. You can buy this from a store like Michael’s, a cooking supply store, or the magic of the internet. As I noted before I had two rounds, each sliced in half for a total of four cake layers, each about a half inch-ish thick. In the bottom of the pan, place the first of the layers. Then, you want to get it wet. This is what makes your cake from -okay- to professional. You can use milk (the original recipe does this, or sugar water (simple syrup, or something thinner). I ended up using the milk again because the cake was already fairly sweet, but simple syrup would also be delicious.

Then I added a layer of the bright white fluffy frosting. Because this will be inside the cake, it should be pretty thin. It also doesn’t have to be flat, just even. It’s getting covered with cake, so it doesn’t have to be pretty. Next up, I added some sprinkles and also the cake crumbles we made earlier. Then, put another layer of cake on top, add a little milk, frosting, and crumbles. Repeat until you run out of cake.

Part Five: Finishing Touches

For the top of the cake, I added another nice layer of icing and then got extra fancy. I arranged the cake crumbles and added sprinkles to the top. Fancied it up. The acetate makes the edges nice and smooth so it takes a lot of the guesswork out of making it look good. When the top was to my liking, I popped the pan out of the springform and peeled away the acetate. The last thing that I did was putting on this cake topper that I made (featuring inspiration from Pinterest. (Do you want to know how I made that? I could post that…)

This cake was both easier and tastier than my other attempt. It was much taller, but I was so much happier with the result. I hope if you’re looking to make your own Momofuku Milk Bar Birthday Cake that will help you on your journey!

Let me know — have you tried to replicate a restaurant layer cake? What would you have done differently?

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