In November 2008, Momofuku's David Chang and pastry chef Christina Tosi opened Milk Bar in New York's East Village. Since, their hugely popular, kooky menu of cookies, cakes, and pies has expanded to include tiered wedding cakes. Each confection—a lot cooler (yes, it's ok to top your cake with lion and tiger figurines), and less expensive than the average wedding cake in New York City—feeds an intimate reception of 60 to 150 guests, and lends instant hipster-foodie cred to the party and the couple throwing it.
"The craziest cake request we've gotten was 'a blue velvet wedding cake with chocolate and cream cheese frosting.' We don't do that—we stick to our guns with the cakes that we make."
Their "guns" include: Carrot cake (with liquid cheesecake and a streusel frosting); chocolate malt wedding cake (dense, fudgy cake with chocolate malt fudge, charred marshmallows, malted milk crumbs); pistachio cake (pistachio frosting, lemon curd, milk crumbs); banana cake (chocolate hazelnut fudge, fluffy banana cream, and a layer of hazelnut crunch); and 'birthday' wedding cake, which is studded with a sprinkle frosting and is often ordered as a groom's cake.
Their bestsellers are the dulce de leche (dulce de leche frosting, caramel and milk crumbs), and the multi-flavored tier cake. Their just-debuted salty-sweet option is a pretzel cake with a beer ganache that is great as a groom's cake for obvious reasons.
But her and David Chang's personal favorite is the chocolate chip cake (layered with passion fruit curd, chocolate crumbs, and coffee buttercream). Tosi created it for Chang's birthday a few years ago, and recreates it for us in the clip above.
Local soon-to-be-marrieds can arrange for a $25 tasting (of up to eight flavors) at Momofuku Milk Bars in the East Village, Midtown, or in the Brooklyn kitchen. And for the rest of you living outside of New York: "Get your wedding cake orders in! We can mail them to you! We've opened the floodgates!" exclaims Tosi. See ordering details here. [The Feast]
