Magical Sugar Free Birthday Cake (Simplified Milk-Bar Style)

Birthdays = cake. It’s just the rule. So how do we make delicious, show-stopping birthday cake when we’re not eating sugar? Is this wizardry even possible?

Have you watched Chef’s Table documentary episode about rock star pastry chef, Christina Tosi? Besides her super-sophisticated name, Ms. Tosi offers the world a dizzying degree of creativity in her dessert offerings at Milk Bar, her renowned dessert shop first launched in New York.

The most mesmerizing scene in the piece details the making of Tosi’s iconic Milk Bar Birthday Layer Cake and her inspiration for creating it.

I watched it. Re-watched it. Wouldn’t rest until it was mine.

So pandemic birthday #1 saw me huddled in my living room, isolated with my sweet husband, with two forks, this cake, and a few gently used candles. It was unforgettable.

But sugary desserts aren’t a part of my day-to-day life. More from habit than health-consciousness. Growing up, my mom had health challenges that were helped by a no-sugar diet, so from an early age, I adapted to that style of eating.

Finding ways to make craveable, nostalgic, sugar-free desserts that looked and tasted like the originals became a fun challenge that I still love tackling today.

So here we are, team! If you bake for friends or loved ones who try to control their sugar, this simplified Milk Bar style birthday cake is for you. I’ve made some modifications to Tosi’s brilliant recipe – both to simplify it and to allow for sugar substitutes.

For instance, while testing this recipe (what a glorious season of life!) I found that the sugar free sprinkles disappeared into the cake when baking, likely due to the length of time the cake had to cook. But in the cookie crumbles that decorate the cake, they stayed visible. So I don’t recommend using sprinkles except in the cookie topping, and perhaps as an extra sprinkle on top of the whipped cream once the cake is decorated.

The three-layer mountain of confetti sprinkles and buttercream was amazing, but I prefer one-layer cakes that feed 8-10 (a good sized dinner party) with little to no leftovers. So we’ve reduced the size and scope of the project.

Instead of buttercream, we’re using a quick and easy vanilla stabilized whipped cream – sugar-free, of course.

Get out the gently-used candles, friends. It’s time to party.

What you’ll need to make this sugar free birthday cake recipe (including cake, cake crumb topping and vanilla cake soak):

• butter
• xylitol (or your preferred granulated sugar substitute)
• brown sugar stevia
• large eggs
• buttermilk
• milk
• vegetable oil
• vanilla extract
• cake flour
• baking powder
• salt
• sugar free rainbow sprinkles

(precise measurements for all ingredients included in the recipe card below)

Step by step instructions for making sugar free birthday cake recipe:

Let’s start by preparing the cake crumbs first. Preheat oven to 300 degrees fahrenheit.

For the cake crumbs, combine all dry ingredients well.

Add oil and extract and mix until the dough forms little balls. 

Drop onto a cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees fahrenheit for about 15 minutes. 

Let the cake crumbs cool before using.

Once the cake crumbs are finished baking, set the oven to 350° f.

Combine the butter, and sugar substitutes in a large bowl and cream together with an electric mixer on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes.

Scrape the sides of the bowl, then add the two eggs.

Mix on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once more.

With your mixer set to low speed, stream in the buttermilk, oil, and vanilla.

Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and mix for 4 to 6 minutes, until the mixture is almost white and about twice the size of your original butter-and-sugar mixture. There should be no streaks of fat or liquid – the mixture should be completely combined. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Now that all of our wet ingredients have been incorporated, we’ll add the rest of the ingredients. On very low speed, add the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Mix for 30-45 seconds, just until your batter comes together. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Spray a 9-inch springform cake pan with nonstick spray and line the bottom with parchment paper. Using an offset spatula, spread the cake batter in an even layer in the pan. (This amount of batter is a good thickness in a 9-inch pan. Springform pans come in many sizes, but standard sizes are 7, 9 and 10-inch pans. This batter would also work in a 7-inch pan. If you only have a 10-inch pan, I recommend using a cake pan instead of the springform pan.)

Bake the cake for 30-40 minutes. The cake will rise and increase in size, but will remain slightly buttery and dense. At 25 minutes, gently and carefully poke the edge of the cake with your finger. Ms. Tosi says the cake should bounce back slightly and the center should be fully set. If it doesn’t pass those tests, leave the cake in for an extra 3 to 5 minutes. In the various tests for this cake, it took between 32 and 37 minutes of baking time to reach done.

Take the cake out of the oven and cool on a wire rack or, if you’re in a hurry, in the fridge or freezer until it’s fully cooled.

While the cake is cooling, make the vanilla soak. Combine milk and vanilla well. Once cake has fully cooled, use a pastry brush to give the layer a good soak.

For the sugar free vanilla whipped cream, you’ll need just two ingredients (full recipe here)

2 cups of heavy cream (35% fat content or higher)

2 tablespoons sugar free instant vanilla pudding

I recommend chilling your mixers and mixing bowl in the freezer for an hour before making whipped cream, to ensure beautiful peaks. Once everything is cold, whip cream creation can begin. Pour two cups of heavy whipping cream into the cold bowl.

Sprinkle two tablespoons of vanilla flavored instant pudding over the cream. Begin with your electric mixer on low. Give the cream a minute to absorb the pudding powder and start incorporating air. After about a minute, increase to medium speed and continue mixing. For frosting this cake, I’m looking for medium peaks – so it will hold it’s shape but stay well short of turning into butter.

Thanks to our secret ingredient of instant pudding mix, this stabilized whipped cream will far outlast a typical whipped cream, which has about a 4-hour window of fluffiness. Stabilized cream usually survives beautifully for 24-36 hours, making it far more ideal for topping cake layers like our sugar free cake here.

To frost, scrape the contents of your whipped cream bowl onto the top of your birthday cake. You can use an offset spatula to get sharp edges – more like the Milk Bar style. Or you can use a spoon to leave dips and valleys across your whipped cream topping.

Sprinkle the cake top with cooled cake crumbs.

Refrigerate until service.

The cooled sugar free birthday cake (unfrosted) can be stored in the fridge, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 4 days. The cake crumbs will keep fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week and in the refrigerator or freezer for up to a month. The frosted cake will last about 36 hours, at which point the whipped cream will start to wilt. The cake will still be delicious for another 2 days.

FAQ’s and Serving Suggestions:

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Check out some other delicious dessert recipes next:

• Almond Cake With Fresh Strawberries
• Old Fashioned Pound Cake

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