The Milk Bar Layer Cake Inspired By Ina Garten

We love it when our favorite people in the food world come together to make something special. Especially when that something special turns out to be a big old decadent, layered holiday cake. Enter the towering holiday masterpiece created when Milk Bar's Christina Tosi and celebrity chef Ina Garten shared a sweet moment on a recent TODAY segment of "Ina's Holiday Table."

If you've tasted a Milk Bar treat before, you're familiar with the fun flavors and next-level sweetness delivered with each bite. The bakery has taken the country by storm with creative concoctions like its famous Cake Truffles, Compost Cookie, and Cereal Milk Soft Serve. When it comes to Milk Bar cakes, there are some signature qualities they all share, including three tiers of cake, frosting, and other goodies, assembled without an outer covering of frosting — leaving the layers cleanly stacked and out in the open for the eye to see.

So what fun flavors and sweet ingredients make up the layers inspired by one of America's favorite home cooks?

On the TODAY segment, Christina Tosi says that she's "a really big flavor story person," and she wanted to bring Ina Garten's flavor story to a special layer cake that's festive for the holidays. In honor of one of Garten's favorite flavors ever, the story starts with a classic — vanilla.

As we watch Tosi build the cake, we see the fun and intricate layers come together. First up is a sheet-pan vanilla cake layer which she soaks in a vanilla mint-flavored milk. The next layer is what she calls a "liquid cheesecake," which is a slightly underbaked cheesecake. She then adds a salty layer of pretzel crumbs to compliment the sweetness. And finally, a mint chip butter-based frosting layer made with mint and chocolate shards as a nod to holiday flavors.

Once the masterpiece is layered together, the Ina Garten Holiday Special flavor story is complete. "Mint and vanilla with a little salty-sweet moment", as Tosi describes it. While the baker spiced things up on the show with some extra ingredients, you can get the recipe for a simpler version of the layer cake and whip it up for yourself.

Baking a cake — especially a layer cake — can be tricky, so it's always helpful to have a few pro tips up your sleeve. Christina Tosi shared one of her favorite tips with TODAY — the milk soak that we mentioned earlier. 

When making a layer cake, she likes to soak it first. Tosi uses flavored milk for this particular cake, but you can soak the layers in any kind of liquid that would compliment its flavors (for instance, Garten uses orange juice and Grand Marnier to soak her Boston Cream Pie). Garten explains that the soaking is what keeps the cake moist and flavorful. In fact, on the TODAY episode, the celebrity chef reveals that Tosi taught her the method.

The amount should be dependent on how well you've cooked your cake. If you happen to over-bake it, you can use a little extra soak to help revive the cake; if you under-bake your cake at all, you can be more conservative with the liquid. To make sure you don't over-soak or under-soak the cake, a good rule of thumb is to keep an eye on the bottom of the cake as you pour on the liquid — once you see some liquid start to seep out of the bottom, you've hit your max.