As a child, the excitement for birthdays built up for days, weeks before the event. Birthday party invitations were like golden tickets to a guaranteed morning or afternoon of unadulterated fun. There were games, prizes, presents, jelly and ice cream, all the crisps and biscuits you weren't allowed at home, BIRTHDAY CAKE and the token party bag to take home with you at the end of it all. Birthdays were celebrated, and over the years this kind of extravagance has petered, saved only for very special birthdays – 18th, 21st, 30th... But I think all birthdays are special, and when your day comes around, you deserve an absolutely top-notch cake.
It was my dad's birthday on Sunday and I made him the Milk Bar Chocolate Malt Cake. Back in 2016 I visited Milk Bar in New York – a seriously amazing, amazing place, and I didn't even realise HOW amazing when I wrote about it two years ago, but it really is. This is the first recipe of theirs I have tried and although there are lots of different parts to prepare (sponge, malt crumbs, malt fudge sauce, frosting – it took me about five hours), assembling it all was super easy and really fun.
Christina Tosi's style of baking is such that you bake one sheet cake and cut out two cake rounds with a circular tin. Acetate is used to assist in the stacking and layering of each component, and makes it easier to take the cake out once it's been frozen for at least 12 hours, but I couldn't find it anywhere (and didn't have time to order online) so I used baking parchment, which worked just fine.
The malt crumbs were my favourite part. These crunchy nuggets taste like malted milk biscuits and white chocolate maltesers – DIVINE. I would make these and eat them as a snack on their own, they're so delicious. Having said that, the inclusion of glucose syrup in the fudge sauce was enlightening. It gave it a proper fudgey texture – exactly how fudge sauce should be, obviously, but even better.
Dad loved his cake and so did the rest of my family. Of course, it's sweet, butter-laden and absolutely over the top – but that's exactly why it's so great, and perfect for as special an occasion as a birthday.
Have you been to Milk Bar, or tried any of their recipes? Let me know in the comments below or tweet me @wnwrote. Compost cookies are next on my list!
