4 Levels of Birthday Cake - Amateur to Food Scientist _ Epicurious

Hello , I'm Alvin .

Welcome back to Tasty Making It Big .

The show where I make giant food for my friends yesterday .

I got a really fun message from my friend Victor who was my very first guest on my very first episode of making a big where I made him a giant burger .

I think he has a surprise for me .

So let's go see what he said .

Yo , yo , I hope it was good .

My bro .

Listen , uh my birthday is coming back around and I was wondering if you might be able to help me out with a little something last time for my birthday .

A couple of years back .

You hooked it up with a massive version of my favorite cheeseburger .

So this year I want to do things a little bit more traditional and I was wondering if you might be able to hook it up with a massive version of my favorite birthday cake .

My favorite birthday cake is from Momofuku milk bar .

There's no , it's gonna be a little bit of a challenge , but I'm sure if anybody could do it .

It's you my bro .

OK .

Well , Vic said he wanted the Momofuku milk bar birthday cake .

This is Christina Tosi recipe gonna put in a lot of softened butter , brown sugar shortening .

If you're not familiar with Fuku Milk bar , it is a fan favorite destination started out in New York .

They have a lot of locations .

Now , Christina Tosi also did and sit on the chef's table about it and her life story and it's probably one of my favorite chef's table episodes , drugs , uh butter sugar shortening and more sugar .

I I'm not , I'm not drunk .

I promise this is gonna cream for a while next .

I'm gonna combine butter milk , which is very interesting for a cake .

So grape seed oil and clear vanilla extract .

So this stuff is not brown .

It's the the more like vanilla birthday cake kind of extract .

I think it is actually very important to give this cake a signature flavor without making it look too dark little mix .

So Todd has been working very hard to make this butter and sugar nice and fluffy .

It's like doubled in size .

So I think it's ready for some eggs .

Look at those settings .

Nope .

Nope .

That's the way that you OK ?

Cool .

Got it .

We're good .

We're good sugar .

I think some people go for a really long time with the mixer but I don't know why .

So I don't .

Mm It already smells good .

Now I'm gonna go ahead and move into my wet ingredients and the first step to that is egg whites .

So I'm gonna crack my eggs on the counter but never on the side of the bowl because it's not splintering the shell as much .

I would love to tell you what the secret to not getting shell is uh in but I feel like if I say out loud .

Anything about how to not get shell in .

I will immediately get shell in .

I'm gonna just go ahead and whisk these first .

And then that way I don't have to worry about doing that with everything else trying to get in .

I'm gonna put a glove on and then very gently , I'm gonna go in .

I pinch with my fingers underneath and drop those into a bowl to make a delicious custard or something else with later .

That's egg number one .

Eggs go in one at a time .

Oh , that was fun .

I like that .

Four more bloops .

I hope you guys are not tired of me saying bloop .

Wow , look at that texture .

That's so fluffy and silky .

This little buttermilk oil vanilla mixture gets so streamed in .

Get every last drop .

This looks great .

Gonna scrape down the sides a bit .

That's important .

It looks like cheese cake batter .

We're just like those soft , beautiful luscious ribbons .

We're gonna add the flour and in classic making big fashion , Alvin is probably gonna spill quite a lot of this .

Alvin is going slow .

Why is Alvin talking in ?

Third person ?

Alvin doesn't know .

Don't spill Alvin .

Sorry Todd hitting his head really hard .

Oh , wow .

It only took five episodes , but I don't think I spilled that at all .

And then we have baking powder , salt and signature item rainbow sprinkles .

I don't wanna overmix the batter , so I'm gonna take it out .

Get you off .

Come on , get off .

What the heck dude .

Oh , there we go .

This batter is like a cloud .

It's so airy and to smooth it out .

Cue the blue Danube Waltz .

That was fun for the final touch .

More sprinkles to make it rain .

This is the cake batter .

Time to bake this one and about 20 more of these .

So we're gonna go back and bake some cakes .

Oh OK .

While the cake bakes I'm going to make the frosting .

We're gonna start with all the fats .

So two sticks of softened butter , cream cheese .

I love cream cheese and shortening .

All right , everybody become friends .

OK .

Some salt , some baking soda and a very interesting ingredient .

Citric acid .

I'm not a scientist so I might be wrong but citric acid is derived from fruits , things like citrus .

So lemon , orange , anything that has that flavor .

So it adds a really nice acidity and sourness to this seems pretty natural and it reacts with the baking soda so that it kind of makes the frosting fluffy like the volcano experiment we did in uh elementary school , you add baking soda and vinegar .

A small version of that is happening inside here .

So that creates air .

I think it has to be totally wrong .

Anyways , we're gonna move on here .

We have some corn syrup or some of that .

Sheen .

A lot of clear vanilla extract and another interesting ingredient .

Glucose .

So glucose is another form of sugar .

Once the sugar changes the way the things are arranged , the texture changes .

So it's like this nice glue , like consistency .

But I think it adds a nice texture to this frosting .

That's cool .

Well , you can't have frosting without a lot of sugar .

So I'm gonna put in uh a lot of sugar .

I have a strong feeling .

I'm gonna spill again .

But we'll see .

Oh , it's oh we're , we're , we're spilling .

I'm tasting sweet again .

Oh , it does taste good .

That's so weird .

I can lick a cloud of sugar .

It's getting so fluffy .

It's frosting .

There's even like little sugar strings that the mixer just like caught up .

That's pretty .

It's not definitely not here , but it's like little icicles with sugar .

We have a lot of cake going so a lot of frosting must be made .

One of the most interesting things about the Fuku birthday cake and other cakes is that they do a little cake crumble inside .

That gives it a nice , really like crunchy texture .

So we're gonna put some flour , lots of sugar out there .

Sprinkles , baking powder salt and we're gonna mix that a little bit .

Oh Yeah , I didn't bake this in a circle because I need these sort of clean cut edges .

That's why baking here is the rule .

Also , this is how milk bar does it .

They bake rectangles and they cut really nice , pretty circles .

So I think it's a great technique .

Some great snacks for later .

One cake layer out of many .

We have so much cake in the back .

I'm gonna check on that .

Probably cut some more .

We're gonna assemble this cake .

All these cake craps .

I'll combine these with some milk the way that milk bar makes their famous cake truffles .

All this cakes gotta go somewhere .

We're gonna make sure we don't waste any of it .

Yeah .

Got a lot of cakes .

This is actually only half because well , we're still making more back there .

So I'm gonna assemble the cake as much as I can .

All right , to start get a nice base going with some frosting down , nice little glue first layer of cake in and to make sure that this cake stays as still as we can going to use acetate strips .

The same kind of acetate they use at milk bar to assemble and stabilize your cake .

Now I'm gonna start adding a lot of and while this is mixing , I can go ahead and add my vanilla bean paste .

Just the saying , you can add a little bit of booze to this too .

Wouldn't be a terrible thing .

Just a little splash of milk .

All right , I think this is pretty much ready except I need to add a couple drops of my food coloring .

Gotta make it pink .

So that be curious will know I can and we wanted a little bit more of this texture so that it's nice for piping butter cream is done .

So what I'm gonna do is take half of this butter cream and set that aside .

I'm gonna have chocolate butter cream on the inside and vanilla on the outside for the aesthetics time to put in the rest of my ingredients , which is going to be my powdered peanut butter , my vanilla and my salt and all I'm doing is just mixing this together till it's good .

So my butter cream is ready .

It looks done .

And now I have this really beautiful frosting and it has this nice meringue base All right .

But this cake in itself is a reason to celebrate .

If it goes well , we'll see .

Ok .

Layer one done time to keep going .

Ok .

Next one goes in .

Beautiful more acetate .

Come on .

Get down more of this soak .

It smells really good , more frosting .

So apparently after making all this with the team , we're gonna be using over 56 sticks of butter , 28 8 ounce cream cheese packets and 100 cups of powdered sugar .

And that's just the frosting .

I hope Victor is not on a diet .

I can already feel the weight turning this cake has already become a task in itself .

Right .

Crumble time .

Oh , we're frosting .

Ok .

Oh , we're going for the bottom of the barrel with this one .

All right .

That was only two .

And it's time for ring number two .

Let's just say we got a lot of strainers and dismembered .

A lot of them .

We got a tape to mark how high this cake is gonna be ?

Every mark is like three quarters , almost a foot .

So we're just gonna slide that in on over there .

I wanna take a little break and then I'm gonna keep building this cake .

Probably gonna ask for some help .

I'm going to need a lot of coffee .

A lot more cake , a lot more frosting and a lot of mental fortitude .

I'll be here for like a couple of hours .

I'll see you guys in a bit .

It's been 12 years .

I'm now sitting on a stool .

My lower back has been crying , but this is the result of hard work dedication , lots of teamwork from the culinary team and most importantly , sugar .

Every part of my being has been tested .

I'm glad this is the finale of the season because I don't think I could shoot another episode after this .

We have six whole rings on this cake .

10 cake rounds , two tubs of frosting and the only thing holding this up besides the rings are hopes , prayers , thoughts and dreams , arms and wrists have been pushed to their limit as well .

Speech is slowing , vision is blurring .

Palms are sweaty , knees weak , arms are heavy .

It's always even , it's always flat and it's got the more porous texture , cold cake , warm syrup .

If the syrup and the cake are both cold , it's not going to sink in .

Now , I'm going to go ahead and take my dusting and start just applying it to the outside .

I'm going to make my what's called a crumb coat .

I like the idea of it being a little bit more rustic .

I'm gonna go ahead and start creating this crumb layer , look , it's visible um on the bottom .

And so I'm gonna try and make that a little bit more visible on the top layer as well .

And by the way , this is how you hold an offset spatula , not like this .

It was meant to be like this .

So it moves your hand away from the cake .

This is gonna come as a shock to a lot of people , but I'm not really the best at frosting cakes .

There's frosting on my apron .

It's all fun Fetty .

A couple of last strokes to smooth it out and , oh , I'm gonna take a nap in 30 minutes .

I'm gonna get this guy into the freezer to set up .

He's going to have to chill overnight and I'll see you guys tomorrow .

Oh , it's day two .

We have the cake out of the freezer freezing overnight .

So it's stable .

And we also have more cake crumbs , sprinkles and cake truffles that the culinary team and I made mostly the culinary team from the cake scrap .

So these are actually inspired by the cake truffles that Fuku Milk bar sells .

Mm .

Oh .

Now to the main task , I wanna try to get these rings off .

We have fire .

Don't try this at home .

All right , here we go .

Just kind of defrost the sides .

All right .

That should be ok .

Let's get these rings off .

Oh , first one came off pretty easy .

Let's see if I can get you off here .

OK .

He's spinning .

I got a wedge .

It .

Physics .

Come on .

Oh , there it is .

20 God .

This spoon is the best spoon I've ever seen in my entire life .

00 , nope .

Why are we here ?

Just to suffer ?

Give me a stool .

Yes , it's going .

I went to the gym yesterday so I can do this today .

Two more .

Come on , go up higher rise .

Why do we fall ?

Master Bruce ?

I mean , Master Bruce so we can learn to get back up .

That doesn't really apply here .

But it reminds me of that movie .

This is what like a corset feels like the fourth of that threw me back one more .

It's coming up .

I think this is a tight fit .

Oh , I see .

The kick is curving .

That's why OK .

With a lot of help and muscles from the culinary team , we have achieved top ring time to peel off this acetate .

It's been protecting the cake the whole time .

I'm gonna spend some time smoothing out the edges .

The last touch is to do some vinyl decorating some sprinkles and then the cake crumbs just gonna put them on .

It's Victor's birthday .

So we have a beautiful candle , the art team made and you go oh , this is gonna be 000 What's going on very easily .

I think this is a giant version of the cake that Vic requested .

Momofuku milk bar birthday cake .

Approximately £50 .

Very , very heavy .

We did it .

We did it .

I'm so tired .

This is the actual Momofuku Milk Bar birthday cake .

We got one .

As you can see , there's quite a size discrepancy and our guest , Victor .

Welcome to the show again , Victor .

Uh Well , thank you very much for having me , Alvin .

I'm happy to be back and I'm very excited for you to see what we have for your birthday dude .

I'm super anxious .

I cannot wait to turn around right now and check it out .

I'll light the candle for you .

123 .

Yo .

It's like this like the skyscraper of cakes .

I can't even talk right now .

It's massive .

Holy cow .

You dude .

No , I don't .

I mean yes .

Uh holy cow .

I really just want to take it all in from close .

You want to come ?

It's gorgeous .

Please , please step aside .

Let me get in there .

00 and then you hit the mini oh my God .

Look at the , they snuck a little mini one in there too .

People check this out .

Holy cow .

Alvin .

I think you really knocked it out of the park with this one , bro .

Thanks .

Knocked it out of the park , man .

Everybody .

Happy birthday to you .

Everybody come on happy .

We can't see you to you .

Wow , that's always awkward .

But everybody thank you very much everybody or make a wish , make a wish .

I'll cut you a slice , please .

Oh The knife is being completely engulfed inside this cake .

Oh I'll give you some more later .

Look at that .

Here you go .

Victor .

Oh Man .

Slice , dude .

This slice is bigger than the whole cake .

All right .

Cheers , man .

Cheers .

Oh bro .

That is phenomenal .

Cool .

Right .

I think you've made me the perfect cake album .

Thank you .

That means a lot .

I'm I'm so happy right now .

I don't know how I'm gonna be able to eat this all .

But you better believe I'm gonna eat this all .

This is Slip .

You really made my birthday something special .

Yeah .

What a what a fun way to close off this season .

I hope you guys had a fun time watching .

It's a good thing that Victor and I both like this cake because we're gonna spend some time with this cake .

But thank you guys for watching .

Thanks for coming Vic and uh we'll see you guys next time .

That's as good as my wedding cake .

Of course , my wedding cake also came from a grocery store but birthday cakes as celebration like no other dessert .

Let's see how each of our three chefs made theirs .

Emily made her vanilla birthday cake using a traditional creaming method .

What I would call the basic cake baking method .

She creamed softened butter together with white crystal and sugar .

This added volume because the sugar crystals make the pockets in the softened butter allowing air to enter and lighten the mixture .

Eggs are added to emulsify or hold the sugar and butter together in suspension .

This ensures that the batter will hold the additional liquid and flour to make a delicious cake .

Emily alternately added her dry and wet ingredients to the creamed mixture .

This reduced the amount of mixing of the flour decreasing gluten formation .

Gabrielle used a combination of baking powder and soda .

In this case , the baking powder does most of the leavening .

Till next time , baby .

Bye .

It's based on whipped egg whites which contain proteins , some of which are attracted to water and some that are repelled when you whip them and introduce air .

The water loving proteins cling to the water in the egg white while the water repelling proteins cling to the air with the extended whipping more bubbles surrounded by proteins are formed and it fluffs right up .

She mixed her egg whites with brown sugar , which is white , sugar coated with molasses .

So it has a darker color with a slight mineral tangy flavor profile .

Gradually adding the butter in small amounts once the meringue cools is essential .

Otherwise you'll deflate your meringue and get a smooth sweet marshmallow concoction that may taste good but won't be thick enough to smoothly flied over your cake .

It's delicious and silky and smooth Penny made two types of royal icing butter cream for her beautiful level 34 tiered birthday cake .

I make good cake .

Typically royal icing is a smooth , stiff and very stable mixture of just egg whites and confectioner sugar .

It's so stable because the proteins in the egg whites combine with the sugar and harden quickly .

Which means timing matters when you're working with royal icing penny added luxurious amounts of butter to give it shine and soften the texture a bit .

Making a birthday cake is such a happy way to celebrate someone you love or in this case , something thing we love .

Happy birthday .

Epic .

Curious .

And may you have many , many more ?