Momofuku Funfetti Birthday Cake
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Recipe type: dessert, cake, birthday
Serves: 1 6 inch layer cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
  • 55 gms butter, at room temperature
  • 245 gm cake flour
  • 1½ tsp baking powder
  • 3 gms salt
  • 50 gms rainbow sprinkles
  • 60 gms vegetable shortening
  • 250 gms granulated sugar
  • 50 gms light brown sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • ½ cup buttermilk
  • ⅓ cup grapeseed oil
  • 2 tsp vanilla essence
  • 25 gms rainbox sprinkles
For the cake crumbs:
  • 100 gms granulated sugar
  • 25 gm light brown sugar
  • 90 gm cake flour
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 20 gm sprinkles
  • 40 gms grape seed oil
  • 1 tbsp vanilla essence
For the Frosting:
  • 200 gms powdered sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • a pinch baking powder
  • pinch citric acid
  • 115 gms unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 50 gms vegetable shortening
  • 55 gms cream cheese
  • 25 + 18 gms corns syrup
  • 1 tbsp vanilla
For the soak:
  • ¼ cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
For the cake:
  1. Preheat oven to 350F.
  2. Take a 10 by 15 inch quarter sheet pan and prepare it by spraying it with cooking spray and covering with the parchment paper. Keep aside.
  3. Whisk the flour, baking powder and 50 gms of the sprinkles in a small bowl.
  4. In a bowl of a stand mixer fixed with a paddle attachment, cream the butter, shortening and sugars on medium high for 2-3 minutes, scraping down now and then.
  5. Add the eggs all at once and beat on medium high for 2-3 minutes, again scarping down as needed.
  6. In a bowl mix together buttermilk, grapeseed oil and vanilla.
  7. With the mixer on low, add the wet ingredients to the creamed butter in a steady stream. Increase the speed to medium high and beat for 4-5 minutes. The mixture will double in size, and will be light and fluffy.
  8. Fold in the dry ingredients, until the ingredients are all combined.
  9. Pour out the batter in the prepared sheet pan. Spread it out evenly with a spatula. Sprinkle with the remaining 25 gms rainbow sprinkles on the top of the batter.
  10. Bake for 30-35 minutes until cake bounces back when touched and is light golden in color. There should be no jiggling in the center. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.
For the cake crumbs:
  1. Preheat oven to 300 F.
  2. Line a sheet pan with silpat.
  3. In an electric mixer fixed with paddle attachment, combine sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and sprinkles and mix on low.
  4. Add oil and vanilla and beat mix until ingredients clump and form clusters. Spread thinly on baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes.
For the frosting:
  1. Whisk together confectioners' sugar, salt, baking powder and citric acid in a medium bowl.
  2. Cream the butter, shortening and cream cheese for 2-3 minutes on medium high speed till smooth and fluffy. Add corn syrup and vanilla essence. Beat mix on medium high for 2-3 min until silky smooth. Add the dry ingredients and combine together on low speed. Increase to medium high and beat till fluffy.
You will need:
  1. batch birthday cake
  2. batch birthday cake soak
  3. batch birthday cake frosting
  4. batch birthday cake crumbs
  5. Strips of acetate
  6. -inch cake ring that is 3 inches high (or a springform ring)
  7. -inch square of parchment
  8. Pastry brush
Assembly:
  1. Combine together the ingredients of the birthday cake soak in a cup.
  2. Put a piece of parchment or a Silpat on the counter. Invert the cake onto it and peel off the parchment or Silpat from the bottom of the cake. Use the cake ring to measure out two full circles and two half circles in the cake. Lift (carefully!) the circles and set them aside.
  3. Place the 6 inch cake ring on a baking sheet lined with the 8-inch square of parchment. Line the inner rim of the ring with two pieces of acetate so that they overlap a little. Cutting the acetate to make it seven inches makes it a lot easier than the nine or twelve I was trying to work with.
  4. Fill the bottom of the ring with the two half circles of cake. Press them slightly so that they are even. If there are any holes, fill them with the rest of the cake scraps.
  5. Brush half the birthday cake soak over the base of cake.
  6. Spread about 100 mL (one-fifth) of the birthday cake frosting over the base layer. Then sprinkle with one-third of the birthday cake crumbs, pressing them gently into the frosting. Top with another 100 mL (another fifth) of the birthday cake frosting, carefully spreading it so that it is even, but without disturbing the crumbs. You can also top with ⅓ of the cake frosting and one third of cake crumbs making a cake-frosting-crumb layer instead of a cake-frosting-crumb-frosting layer. It's easy to pipe the frosting, or you could use the back of a spatula to spread the frosting.
  7. Top with a full circle of cake, brush the rest of the cake soak over this layer, top with more frosting, cake crumbs, and another layer of frosting.
  8. Next, set one of your cake rounds on top of the frosting. If one of your cake rounds is not as perfect as the other, use it here for the middle and save the prettier round for the top layer. Repeat the process above.
  9. Top with the last circle of cake, and the remaining frosting, spread evenly. Top with the remaining cake crumbs.
  10. Freeze the cake as is for at least 12 hours to set everything and making the unmolding process much easier.
  11. Atleast three hours before serving, retrieve the pan from the freezer, and gently push the cake through the ring. Place it on a cake stand or cake plate. Now gently pull off the acetate ribbons.
  12. Let the cake defrost in the fridge before serving. Cut neatly with a large chef's knife.
For the Sprinkle Cake pops:
  1. Since the amount of crumbs left would vary, there is no recipe for this.You can also check this post for other cake pop ideas.
  2. Just take some cream cheese, softened and mix it with powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat this till soft and fluffy. Add this to the crumbs to make a dough moist enough to form balls. Make the cake balls and place on a parchment lined pan and freeze for two hours. Melt some white chocolate with a tbsp or two of vegetable shortening in a microwave till it is dipping consistency. Dip your cake ball sticks into a bit of melted chocolate, than into the cake pop. This seems to help the pop stay on the stick better, which helps a lot when you are dipping them in the chocolate. Dip the cake balls in the chocolate and coat it all around. Coat with some sprinkles immediately. Let set for a bit. Your cake balls are ready. And they are absolutely delicious!
Recipe by The Novice Housewife at https://novicehousewife.com/2012/07/30/momofuku-funfetti-birthday-cake/