Hey everybody, this is Kiki with Rover.com, and today we’ll be making
a super decadent Milk Bar inspired birthday cake just for dogs.
For our take on Christina Tosi’s world-famous Milk Bar Birthday Cake, we’ll be creating
a three-layer maple bacon masterpiece, filled with fluffy peanut butter cream cheese frosting,
and decorated with carob brownie stars and real bacon.
For the cake, we’ll start with the wet ingredients.
We'll add the eggs, applesauce, yogurt, maple syrup, and vanilla extract,
and mix that until just combined.
Next well add the baking soda, gluten-free flour, and oat flour,
and pulse it just enough to combine the ingredients.
Pour the batter into a greased and parchment lined quarter sheet pan.
Sprinkle an even layer of cooked, crumbled bacon across the top of the cake.
Your dog will thank you for this.
We’ll pop the cake into a 350-degree oven on the middle rack.
Tada! Look at that sucker. Beautiful.
You’re going to need to let the cake cool completely before you assemble it,
but if you're short on time you can put your cake into the refrigerator or even the freezer.
Okay, let's make the frosting. We'll start with the low fat cream cheese.
Next we'll add the yogurt and we'll mix it all up until it gets nice and fluffy.
We're gonna beef up the flavor of our frosting with a little bit of maple syrup and a little bit of vanilla extract.
This hint of sweetness will really help this taste decadent instead of diet.
And now, peanut butter. That's Frankie's favorite part.
For the final step, we'll add tapioca flour just a little at a time until we get the frosting stabilized
so that it will hold together our towering masterpiece.
You'll want the frosting to be sturdy enough to stand up on its own.
Too much flour can make your frosting taste pasty. Want to try it, Frankie? Mmm, good stuff!
Turn your sheet cake out onto a piece of parchment paper so we can cut out the layers.
We're going to make two perfect circles of cake with the ring mold and then assemble a franken-layer
out of the remaining bits of cake. Don't worry, that will be the bottom layer and no one will notice.
For the franken-layer, use your cake ring to cut out some big semi circles.
Those will be the outside of the circle. And then fill it in with littler pieces.
Okay! So on our plate we’ve put a six inch cardboard base just to make it easier to move the cake later on.
Place the mold over the base and begin constructing your first layer using those franken-pieces.
I’m cutting off some of the crustier edges of the cake, but the soak is going to help
soften everything out, so if you need to go right up to the edge to cut your circles, it's fine.
Okay, we’ll add about a quarter cup of milk and spread it around on the cake layer using a pastry brush.
Next, we’ll insert the acetate which is going to help keep the cake stable as we build it.
Just push that down around and between the cake form and the cake layer.
It's going to be a tight fit.
Now we add a generous portion of our peanut butter frosting.
Spread it around, sprinkle on those colored sprinkles if you're using them and just go to town.
Now we’ll add our carob brownie pieces, or whatever delicious topping you're adding.
Next we'll place our second layer of cake.
Press that layer of cake down into the frosting so there won't be any air pockets.
First we'll brush on the milk to make sure the cake holds together nicely.
Add another nice dollup of frosting. We're going to be using about a third of the frosting on each layer.
Smooth and press the frosting into the cake and all around the edges.
Next, we'll add our sprinkles and our brownie bites.
Now we'll add another layer of acetate to hold up and protect the top layer and the final decorations.
Those stickers are not cooperative.
Here's our beautiful top. I'm just going to trim off that little bit of crusty edge.
Really cram this layer down and make sure they're just no air pockets that will make your cake unstable.
Next we add the soak, getting the milk into every nook and cranny.
Here's our final layer of frosting, the crown.
We're going to finish this up with some bacon bits.
I cut some long and thing bacon strings to use for an interesting topper.
I saved these larger brownie stars for the top. I think it's going to look great.
Make sure your decorations are sunken into the frosting so they won't move around.
Finish off with the bacon strips and add some more sprinkles for a festive touch.
Now, this badboy is going in the freezer for about 12 hours.
Once the cake is set, we can remove the cake ring and the acetates and observe its final form.
Don't you wish that was people food? It's still pretty darn tasty.
Did you know we taste all of the food we make in-house? It's true.
Let's just cut off a slice of this cake and get a good look at what all our hard work got us.
What do you think, Frankie?
And that's it. Join us next week on Kiki's Canine Kitchen.