I recently watched the Chef’s Table episode featuring Christina Tosi, the creator of the famous Milk Bar birthday cake. Her cake recipe can be found all over the web, and countless people have recreated it. I’m a firm believer in ‘If it ain’t broken, then don’t fix it’, but I don’t necessarily want to use shortening and corn syrup if I don’t have to.

To make this cake, I used this Cookies, Cupcakes, and Cardio funfetti cake recipe, doubled the entire recipe (except the sugar), and baked the cake in a quarter sheet pan.

I N G R E D I E N T S

Cake crumbs

• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of brown sugar
• 3/4 cup of flour
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons of rainbow sprinkles
• 1/3 cup of canola oil

Cake

• 2 1/2 cups of flour
• 4 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt 
• 1 cup of butter, softened
• 1 cup of sugar
• 6 large egg whites
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 6 tablespoons of nonfat, plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup of rainbow sprinkles (Jimmies, not the rainbow nonpareils. Nonpareils will bleed color.)

Cake Soak

• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar

Frosting

• 8 ounce block of cold cream cheese
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream

D I R E C T I O N S

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F
2. Make the cake crumbs first. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the all of the cake crumb ingredients on low speed until combined. Line a pan with parchment. Using your hands, press the dough to condense it. Break off the dough into bite sized pieces and spread evenly on the pan.
3. Make the cake batter next. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the milk and yogurt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the softened butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg whites and vanilla. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk mixture (half the flour mixture, half the milk mixture, repeat). Mix until just combined each time. Overmixing will create a dense and tough cake. Using a spatula, fold in the sprinkles. Grease and line a quarter sheet pan with parchment. Spread the batter evenly onto the pan.
4. Bake both the cake crumbs and cake batter. Take out the cake crumbs after about 17 minutes (mine were starting to burn at 20) and take the cake out at 25 minutes. Turn the cake out of the pan and onto a cooling rack.
5. Make the frosting. In the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the cold cream cheese until creamy, about 20 seconds. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat for another 10 seconds. In a steady stream, pour in the heavy whipping cream and whip until stiff peaks form. Again, don’t overmix, or you will make butter!
6. Once the cake is cool, cut out two 6 inch rounds of cake. Using the leftover cake scraps, cut out two halves of a 6 inch round. You will end up with three 6 inch layers.
7. Mix the cake soak ingredients together, and spoon and even drizzle on top of the bottom layer of cake. Pipe a layer of frosting and add a small handfull of cake crumbs for texture. Layer the two halves for the next layer of cake. Drizzle with cake soak, pipe the frosting, and add cake crumbs. Layer on the last layer of cake and repeat the previous steps.