Cake Truffles & Birthday Crumbs

Cake Truffles are a nibble of cake that we make at Milk Bar with what is essentially cake scraps. We make so many of them that we bake cake just to mush them into cake truffles. It is the most fun activity that you could get into with your family. You take cake – whether it's fresh cake or store-bought cake or what have you – and mix it with some moisture-added flavorful ingredient – whether it's strawberry milk, coffee, beer, or raspberry jam – until it's moist enough to form its own ball. Then you dunk it in a super-thin layer of chocolate, and roll it in something crunchy or sandy that has its own edge of flavor that makes sense with the overall cake truffle. One of my favorite moves is taking a standard angel food or vanilla cake, mixing it with an orange or tangerine jam until it's moist enough, dunking it in a little white chocolate, and then rolling it in some toasted coconut. It's the most perfect magical sort of snow-dipped bite of cake that is perfect if you're hosting or perfect to give as a gift.

Every Milk Bar Cake Truffle follows the same formula:

Cake: Newly baked, scrap, or even overbaked, underbaked, or stale cake will do, just make sure it tastes great; it is, after all, the heart of the cake truffle!

Soak/Binder: Anything that will add moisture to bind the cake and tell the “flavor story” works—from milk to fruit juice to fruit jam to beer.

Shell: Typically a very thin covering of white chocolate to lock in the inner freshness of the cake truffle, and to act as a glue for the coat that follows.

Coat: Usually a crumb or crunch ground down, anything in a sandy state that will add texture to the outside while also telling the “flavor story.”

Try starting with cake crumbs made with this recipe for Birthday Crumbs:

Ingredients

• 215g sugar (1 cup + 1T)

• 190g cake flour (1 1/2 cups +1 T)

• 60g light brown sugar (1/4 cup), packed

• 50g rainbow sprinkles (1/4 cup)

• 4g baking powder (1 tsp)

• 4g kosher salt (1 tsp)

• 85g grapeseed or other neutral oil (1/3 cup + 2 T)

• 25g clear vanilla extract (2 T)

All About Cake by Christina Tosi

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 300°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

2. Combine the sugar, cake flour, brown sugar, sprinkles, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed until well combined.

3. Add the oil and vanilla and paddle again to distribute. The mixture will come together in small clumps.

4. Spread the clumps in a single layer on the lined sheet pan. Bake for 20 minutes, breaking them up occasionally. The crumbs should still be slightly moist to the touch; they will dry and harden as they cool.

5. Let the crumbs cool completely before using in a recipe or scarfing by the handful. The crumbs will keep, in an airtight container, for up to 1 week at room temperature or up to 1 month in the fridge or freezer.