Just got this book, and will be working through some of it this month. It's a Christina Tosi book, and there are some interesting flavors in it. If anyone wants reviews of any of them, let me know. This book has almost all of the recipes that she offers at Milk Bar. Here is the menu. The book has good pictures as expected, and pretty full explanations. Her previous books have had some problems with the instructions and terminology, so we'll see how this one goes.

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on some of the recipes, as you go through them.

I'm thinking about starting with the Arnold Palmer cake then maybe doing a pumpkin cake or the dulce de leche cake.

Whoa! I didn't know she had a cake book...Adding that one to my Christmas list! Milk powder and corn powder have become must-haves in my baking cabinets.

K2T2 said:

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Whoa! I didn't know she had a cake book...Adding that one to my Christmas list! Milk powder and corn powder have become must-haves in my baking cabinets.

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It just got released at the end of October. It's not all layer cakes. There are a few bundt cakes, some layer cakes, and some of her cake truffles in it, so don't expect all layer cakes. You can, of course, mix and match your own combinations, though.

For people to pay $113 for a cake, they must be good...

Tried any of these yet?

I made the Arnold Palmer cake. I'll make a longer post about it later with pictures, but the husband said the tea was overpowering, so next time, less tea. i made it into a layer cake instead of the sheet cake. I'm planning on making the apple pie cake truffles this weekend.

I got this book this past weekend and started with the popcorn cake truffles. I was expecting something bright, buttery, salty, and corny, but it just kinda tasted like old soft stale popcorn. I didn't get that great high contrast salty and sweet interplay that so many of her other recipes have, but right now I'm writing it off as maybe just don't like popcorn flavored things (despite loving her corn cookies) or something. I'm starting on the pineapple upside down cake tonight, for a party this weekend. I love the bit about using boxed cake mixes to flavor frostings, and my aim this year is to bake through as much of this book as I can.

K2T2 said:

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I got this book this past weekend and started with the popcorn cake truffles. I was expecting something bright, buttery, salty, and corny, but it just kinda tasted like old soft stale popcorn. I didn't get that great high contrast salty and sweet interplay that so many of her other recipes have, but right now I'm writing it off as maybe just don't like popcorn flavored things (despite loving her corn cookies) or something. I'm starting on the pineapple upside down cake tonight, for a party this weekend. I love the bit about using boxed cake mixes to flavor frostings, and my aim this year is to bake through as much of this book as I can.

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The pineapple cake is on my list, but I'm going to have to change it up a bit as we don't like coconut. I keep getting hung up because whenever I want to make a fun cake, the husband requests the chocolate chip passion fruit cake from the Milk Bar book.

I made the compost cakes in mini form for our christmas baskets this year. They are good and not overly sweet. I love Christina Tosi. Watch her mind of the chef episode, its inspiring to see someone making it big with something they love. I had her sign my Milkbar book at a popup event she did in Austin. She looked shocked when I asked her to make it out to me, I don't think she thought a guy who looks like me could bake!

Keeper of The Spirits said:

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I made the compost cakes in mini form for our christmas baskets this year. They are good and not overly sweet. I love Christina Tosi. Watch her mind of the chef episode, its inspiring to see someone making it big with something they love. I had her sign my Milkbar book at a popup event she did in Austin. She looked shocked when I asked her to make it out to me, I don't think she thought a guy who looks like me could bake!

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I bought my Milk Bar and the Milk Bar Life books in Vegas. They were already signed. They said that she was there just a few days prior. I've found that all of her recipes don't really translate to a home baker, but once you figure out the recipes, they work.

If you are into cakes, check out Layered. It's a beautiful book and the recipes are great. Tessa Huff is another great cake baker.

BlueMiles said:

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For people to pay $113 for a cake, they must be good...

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yeah, I don't think I like cake enough.

schmendeler said:

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BlueMiles said:

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For people to pay $113 for a cake, they must be good...

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yeah, I don't think I like cake enough.

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That's why I make my own. Plus I think cake is one of those things that tastes much better in small batches rather than a big batch kitchen.

schmendeler said:

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BlueMiles said:

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For people to pay $113 for a cake, they must be good...

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yeah, I don't think I like cake enough.

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Man, people rave about my cakes. I can only assume they've never had homemade cake from someone who really knows how to bake or has a knack for choosing high quality recipes before. I mean, heck, I worked at Cake Junkie in BCS for a while, and even they used Duncan Hines box mixes!

@aggiespartan, Yeah, no coconut for me, either, I'm just using my favorite vanilla cake recipe - it's for a birthday bash, and coconut is too polarizing to risk!

K2T2 said:

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schmendeler said:

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BlueMiles said:

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For people to pay $113 for a cake, they must be good...

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yeah, I don't think I like cake enough.

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Man, people rave about my cakes. I can only assume they've never had homemade cake from someone who really knows how to bake or has a knack for choosing high quality recipes before. I mean, heck, I worked at Cake Junkie in BCS for a while, and even they used Duncan Hines box mixes!

@aggiespartan, Yeah, no coconut for me, either, I'm just using my favorite vanilla cake recipe - it's for a birthday bash, and coconut is too polarizing to risk!

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Sadly, a lot of people use box mixes and sell them for high prices. It's an ongoing debate in all of the cake groups that I'm in. Personally, no matter how nicely it's decorated, I wouldn't sell a boxed cake, and especially not for the prices that people are charging. Some people doctor box mixes, but I use quality ingredients from my flour, to y sugar, to the vanilla. I just don't think you get the same quality. And I do think there is a quality drop when you are making 50 at a time opposed to 2 or 3.

I think part of the reason, at least for wedding cakes, is that no one gives a damn how it tastes; it's all about how it looks. So bakers skimp on the cake itself to keep the cost down somewhat. Plus you have to factor into the cost that you're dealing with a wedding cake, a bride, and possibly a mother who may lose their collective **** if it isn't perfect.

HTownAg98 said:

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I think part of the reason, at least for wedding cakes, is that no one gives a damn how it tastes; it's all about how it looks. So bakers skimp on the cake itself to keep the cost down somewhat. Plus you have to factor into the cost that you're dealing with a wedding cake, a bride, and possibly a mother who may lose their collective **** if it isn't perfect.

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It depends who you talk to. Taste was very important for me.

I actually really like her writing style in the cookbooks. I like the useage of grams for everything because I don't like to use measuring cups, I do everything on the scale. That being said, when I am planning to make a recipe from her books I always check it a week in advance to make sure I have enough time to make it and get the ingredients if they are obscure.

HTownAg98 said:

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I think part of the reason, at least for wedding cakes, is that no one gives a damn how it tastes; it's all about how it looks. So bakers skimp on the cake itself to keep the cost down somewhat. Plus you have to factor into the cost that you're dealing with a wedding cake, a bride, and possibly a mother who may lose their collective **** if it isn't perfect.

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Taste way outweighs the looks for me, too. As many nice things are said about how pretty it is before it's cut into, I'll get twice as many nice things said about how it tastes, and will constantly hear about how much someone liked how a cake tasted weeks, months, even years later. I don't remember the pretty things, I remember the tasty ones.

Reporting back!

The short of it: The pineapple upside down cake was a success, and loved by all! It's likely I won't make it again, not because it was difficult, or wasn't good, but pineapple just isn't really my favorite. I really enjoyed the frosting - subtley pineapply, tangy, and not too sweet. The poached pineapples pair with the crunchy crumbs really well. I'm glad a friend who like a type of cake I'm not super into has a birthday so I could try a recipe I likely would have skipped over, or just picked and chose components of.

One thing I would have liked was some sorta of toasty caramelizey component. When I think of PUD, I think pineapple, maraschinos, and that cooked sugar on top. There wasn't really anything to pick up that warm sugary flavor.

The long of it: I swapped out the coconut cake for my favorite vanilla cake recipe. There's a vegan vanilla cake recipe in the back of the book, but I decided to forgo it so at least one component of this thing I'd never made before and was serving to people for the first time without trying it was tried and true.

The cake soak is great - although, I swapped out the milk and buttermilk for equal volume of coconut milk and teensy squeeze of lemon juice. The coconut milk worked extremely well. 10/10 will soak again.

The cake crumbs - if you're not down with cake mix + butter, I'm not down with you.

The poached pineapple - scented the house amazingly. Two cardamom pods was the perfect amount to just get that warm from the pods, and not a whole pile of flavor.

The frosting - is an emulsion! It's turns out super smooth and soft, so not pipable by any means (but why would her frostings be), but it's really really good. Not too sweet, subtley pineapply, a little tangy from the citric acid. The cake mix wasn't as huge a part of the flavor as I had though it would be, but it got the pineapple + cake thing across. I'm an American buttercream girl, so this was an interesting change to what I'm used to.

Caveat: All recipes are veganized (aka, I use Earth Balance instead of butter, coconut milk instead of milk and buttermilk, and accidentally vegan cake mix in this recipe).

I made this cake for my wife's birthday and she loved it. Not sure I ever had a meringue based buttercream before, but would definitely make again. Not over the top sweet like some frostings.


https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/7x7ajg/funfetti-cake-recipe

But how is your sponge? Is it dry? Did you let it rise enough?

I made the sesame pound cake last night. I like having Tosi recipes that only have two components, I can do that on a weeknight!

I like it - the crushed sesame brittle melts on the inside of the loaf, and caramelizes on the outside of it. The parts where the sugar melted towards the inside of the cake were a tiny wee bit gummy. The flavor is definitely sesame, but it's a nice warm, soft, brown sugary sesame.

It's very likely that I'd make this again - it works well as a breakfast treat and as a dessert or snacky treat. It's super easy, and I'd definitely serve it at the end of a hummus/falalfel/tabouli/grape leaves dinner with citrusy fig jam on top. The only thing I thought it might be missing was something a bit more textural (the sesame seeds are so teeny, maybe some lemon zest and toasted walnuts), which I guess means I'm under Tosi's spell. I bet you could swap in peanut butter or any nut butter for the tahini and make a brittle of said nuts.

Edit: After snacking on this 3-4 times, I've decided it doesn't need anything, it's great the way it is! I'll definitely make this again!

I made the lemon poppy seed bundt last week, and it sounds pretty standard by the name, but this thing is intensely lemony! 2lbs of zested, supremed, then juiced lemons in the cake, and a lemon glaze on top. It's lemony in almost the way a key lime pie is intensely limey. You get little intense bursts because there are hunks of lemon in the cake, not just juice and zest. My 10 cup bundt meant I was able to fill another small cake pan and have a mini cake to keep at home. I think it set a record at work for how quickly it was gone. Pain in the butt, but this will be the thing I make each year when my mom's lemon tree goes bonkers!

Edit: I'm trying a layered (sheet or 6 inch) cake this week for a friend's birthday, requests welcome!

K2T2 said:

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I made the lemon poppy seed bundt last week, and it sounds pretty standard by the name, but this thing is intensely lemony! 2lbs of zested, supremed, then juiced lemons in the cake, and a lemon glaze on top. It's lemony in almost the way a key lime pie is intensely limey. You get little intense bursts because there are hunks of lemon in the cake, not just juice and zest. My 10 cup bundt meant I was able to fill another small cake pan and have a mini cake to keep at home. I think it set a record at work for how quickly it was gone. Pain in the butt, but this will be the thing I make each year when my mom's lemon tree goes bonkers!

Edit: I'm trying a layered (sheet or 6 inch) cake this week for a friend's birthday, requests welcome!

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What flavors does your friend like?

I've seen her chow down on banana, almond, fig, gingerbread, coconut, strawberry, and chocolate things!

K2T2 said:

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I've seen her chow down on banana, almond, fig, gingerbread, coconut, strawberry, and chocolate things!

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This cake is delicious, although not a Tosi cake (but I've made it in that style). It's nice a citrusy, and the berries in the frosting are great.

I've become a big fan of Stella Park's cake recipes. I've made several of them, and haven't had a failure yet, and I could never make cake.

Had good luck with this one this past weekend.

https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/9480-chocolate-sheet-cake-with-milk-chocolate-frosting?sqn=me5WxAcxdk8ppJblb99wymoMzj6LVrBHOc17dr1lQX4%3D%0A

That looks legit, will give that a shot one of these days. I made a Texas sheet cake last year, hadn't had one of those in years, had forgotten how good those are.

I've been really wanting to try brave tarts recipe for Texas sheet cake.

HTownAg98 said:

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I've become a big fan of Stella Park's cake recipes. I've made several of them, and haven't had a failure yet, and I could never make cake.

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I like Brave Tart too, but her macarons were a complete fail for me. Tessa Huff has become one of my go tos for cake.

I've been craving a hummingbird cake lately. I think my next cake may be hummingbird with bananas foster buttercream.

I made the "southern living" hummingbird cake a while back and it was fantastic.

schmendeler said:

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I made the "southern living" hummingbird cake a while back and it was fantastic.

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The cake I make is out of the Layered book. All versions have a cream cheese frosting, which I hate, so I mix and match.