When I was exploring places to eat in Toronto, I was delighted to discover that they had a “Milk Bar” that I could visit and live out my “Compost Cookie Dreams”. I remember reading about these when I dived headfirst into a book called “Pear-shaped” (a wonderfully easy read for anyone who loves brownies and romance). I entered the Milk Bar store with a vision of stockpiling cookies, but I became quickly distracted by the Birthday Cake Truffles.
A few hours later, whilst sitting on the pier, looking out to sea and pondering the journey home, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to try a Birthday Cake Truffle. The experience was not unlike being transported back to being 7 years old, a simple world with no serious responsibilities and a whole lot of vanilla cake. There was something so comforting about the sickly sweet flavor and subsequent sugar rush, to the point that I realized this was something I wanted needed to re-create at home.
I checked the original recipe and realised that this called for various ingredients that I didn’t have to hand. My philosophy is to share recipes that are cupboard friendly so it was time to improvise. Well, as a result of my improvisation I can confidentially share that after what can only be described as an “overdose” of sugar, chocolate, and buttercream, I’ll be taking a short break from baked goods. As expected, normal service will resume in a few hours.
For the cake:
125g Butter (Room temperature)
125g Caster Sugar
125g Self-Raising Flour
3 Eggs
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Essence
3 Tablespoon Sprinkles
For the buttercream:
75g Butter
150g Icing Sugar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence
1 Tablespoon Milk
For the topping:
250g White Chocolate
Sprinkles
Method:
Pre: heat the oven to 180 degrees and set aside a cake tin, any kind of tin will do as it doesn’t have to be perfect. Then, start by beating the sugar and butter, followed by the eggs and vanilla. Then gradually add flour until a smooth batter forms. Pour into the cake tin and bake for 25-35 minutes (basically, until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean).
Set aside and allow to cool through fully. Whilst the cake is cooling, you can make the buttercream, which can be set aside to chill in the fridge. To make the buttercream, beat together the butter, milk, icing sugar and vanilla until fluffy cream forms.
Once the cake has cooled, crumble all the batter into a mixing bowl and add in the buttercream and mix together until a dough forms. Then using a teaspoon, scoop the mix and roll into balls, once all the mix is used transfer the balls into the fridge to firm up.
After 60minutes, melt some white chocolate (I prefer to do this in the microwave on defrost) and coat the truffles with white chocolate. I use a toothpick or fork to keep hold of the truffle whilst dunking in chocolate.
Once all the truffles have been covered in chocolate, return to the fridge and eat within 7 days.
Note: This works just as well with milk chocolate and chocolate cake if that’s your preferance!
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Katie
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