layer cake

Cinnamon toast crunch 

I am planning out the birthday cake for the little lady. I have to manage to get M&Ms. chocolate cake, cinnamon toast crunch, chocolate chips, pink frosting, and sprinkles all into one cake. This could potentially taste horrible.  I decided to make a triple layer chocolate cake and add layers of sprinkle crunch and M&M's.  I haven't decided where the cinnamon toast crunch comes in, it may have to be served on top of the vanilla ice cream or it might have to be an entirely different cake with apples and cinnamon (apple jack cake? thanks Paul for the tip).

Here are the recipes of what I have made so far. These are modified recipes from the Momofuku milk bar cookbook.  If there is one thing I have learned from reading Christina Tosi's milk cookbook it is layers, texture and intense flavor combinations are the best.

Cinnamon Toast crunch*:

170 g of Cinnamon toast crunch

40 g milk powder

40 g sugar

4g kosher salt

130 g melted butter

Heat for about 25-30 minutes at 275F after mixing all the ingredients. Let cool and store until needed.

Chocolate Birthday Cake Crumb*

100 g sugar

25g light brown sugar

90g cake flour

2g baking powder

2g kosher salt

20g rainbow sprinkles

1 1/2 teaspoon chocolate powder

40 g grapeseed oil

12 g clear vanilla

Heat for about 20 minutes at 300F after mixing all the ingredients. Let cool and store until needed.

Chocolate birthday cake crumb

*these recipes have been adapted from Christina Tosi's cornflake crunch and birthday cake crumb.

Inside out German Chocolate cake (GCC)!

I love nothing more than a fun baking project, especially when it is for a birthday party. Chocolate cakes are not (yet) in my repertoire so I hit up the ol' internet and searched.  I came across this inside out GCC originally posted on Epicurious.  I read all 328 reviews (I take this very seriously) and decided to go for it. I doubled the cake batter recipe and used 3 9" pans. I sliced each layer in 2 in order to obtain a total of 6 layers. I also doubled the filling and 1.5 the frosting.

The key to a great cake is patience, research and good ingredients.Then built the cake, it's as easy as 1. 2. 3.....

I will be out of town for the party so I don't have a finished picture but below you can see the bits and pieces.

p.s. Paul is happy that I did not go for the "boiling-the-cans-of-condensed-milk method" but rather went for the safer, "waterbath-in-the-oven-pain-in-the-butt-to-clean" method.