bake the book series – momofuku milk bar, nyc

New York locals go behind the scenes of Momofuku Milk Bar’s production kitchen in Williamsburg to learn the secrets to baking cakes, truffles and pies from the Momofuku Milk Bar Bake the Book Series.

Arguably one of my most exciting adventures during my time in New York was attending the Bake the Book Series at Momofuku Milk Bar back in September. I would apologize for taking so long to post, but so many adventures took place along the way that I don’t even dare. The end of 2014 involved totaling my beloved 10-year-old Volkswagen Beetle; acquiring a new MINI Countryman by the name of Mortimer Sheldon Cooper; spending a relaxing week on the Oregon Coast; working several more weeks in New York; and, finally, wrapping the year up with family in Austin for the holidays. To apologize would be absurd, but I digress.

I had the pleasure of attending the Birthday Cake and Truffle Class and had an absolute blast. The hands on class focused on the assembly of their iconic sweets, but information regarding ingredients and techniques was also provided. An assortment of local seasonal beers accompanied the class which added to the fun and there was only one rule: taste everything. Best rule ever if you ask me.

Ran out of cake to fill your round because you ate too many scraps? No problem, the’ll bring you more. Not enough frosting after that giant spoonful you consumed disappeared? No big deal, there’s another tub where that came from. You don’t have enough crunchy cake crumbs because you couldn’t stop devouring those little pieces of crack? Don’t you worry, there’s more coming right up!

Our first assembly was an individual task of building our very own layered birthday cake. Each step was demonstrated for us to mimic on our very own six-inch cake to take home. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the process of how they build their rustic cakes to achieve such even layers and delicious textures. I was so excited to give their method a try that I put together this Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cinnamon Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting and Pepita Brittle shortly after returning home.

The second half of the class was a group task of using all of our scraps to assemble their birthday cake truffles. We split into two groups to form assembly lines of mixing the cake scraps with cereal milk, scooping bite-sized truffles, coating truffles in white chocolate, and rolling them into finely ground cake crumbs. Our beautiful little bites of birthday love were tied up in cellophane bags to divvy up and take home.

Total cost of the class was $95 which included the 2 hour hands on class plus a six-inch cake and six cake truffles to take home. The cookbook could be purchased and signed by Christina Tosi at an additional cost to take home as well. Taking home so many sweets may have been overwhelming had I been traveling to the city solo, but a coworker in New York happened to be celebrating his birthday the same weekend as my class so we had a delicious celebration on Monday afternoon!

If you’re in New York and love unique sweets, I highly recommend signing up for a class in the Bake the Book Series. And don’t forget to stop in for a boozy “fancy shake” after the class – their birthday party shake with birthday truffles and spiced rum is a personal favorite!

MOMOFUKU MILK BAR RECIPES AROUND THE WEB

Milk Bar Birthday Layer Cake – the baker chick
Momofuku Milk Bar Crack Pie – Brown Eyed Baker
Momofuku Milk Bar Corn Cookies – Savory Simple
Momofuku Milk Bar Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmallow Cookies – We Are Not Martha

Or purchase the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook and bake their full collection of delicious sweets!