Milk Bar-Inspired Apple Pie Cake

Inspired by the famous Milk Bar Apple Pie Cake, you’ll Fall (pun-intended) head-over-heels for this dreamy confection of a cake layered with apple cider soaked brown butter vanilla cake, homemade apple pie filling, buttery pie crumbs, and liquid cheesecake filling. Don’t be intimidated by the various components — it’s actually a pretty easy recipe to pull off and assembly is half of the fun!

If you are into apple orchards, fall harvests, and all things cider-inspired, then this is the cake for you. It legitimately tastes like apple pie but in cake form with the pie crumb frosting and crumbles sprinkled throughout the cake with plenty of sweet, cinnamon-y apple pie filling.

I haven’t made a Momofuku Milk Bar style cake in a while but I love the Milk Bar birthday cake and have had this Christina Tosi apple pie cake on my radar for years thanks to the lovely Milk Bar cookbook. Like many Milk Bar recipes, this one has quite a few elements, but none of them are really difficult and you could honestly make the whole thing in one day if you wanted to.

The original version of this cake is on the small side and only serves 8-10, so I decided to scale things up to make a three-layer 8-inch cake that would easily serve 12-16. It’s kind of a bit of work, so why go to the trouble for a smaller cake when you could do the exact same work and have an extract slice or two leftover for yourself the next day!

I also tweaked a few ingredients, measurements, and order of preparation to make it easier and more manageable for the average home baker like using regular cake pans instead of baking this in a quarter sheet pan and punching out cake circles with special tools.

What You’ll Need

• Apples – I recommend using a tart, firm apple like Granny Smith because they hold their shape when cooked and have a great, classic flavor. If these aren’t available, Honeycrisp apples would be my second choice.
• Salted Butter – If you only have unsalted butter, just add an extra ¼ teaspoon of salt for each ½ cup stick of butter.
• Sugar – You’ll need a combination of both granulated sugar and brown sugar for just the right amount of sweetness and depth of flavor.
• Eggs – For richness and texture in both the cake and the cheesecake filling.
• Vanilla Extract – Balances the other flavors and adds dimension to most dessert recipes.
• Buttermilk – Creates a tender, ultra-moist cake crumb that goes well with the other elements.
• Oil – The original version uses a neutral grapeseed oil, but I have found that vegetable oil or canola oil work just as well.
• Flour – I do suggest buying cake flour for the cake batter as it will give you the most tender crumb, but all-purpose flour can also be used instead and it works just fine for the pie crust crumbles.
• Baking powder – All the leavening you need for light, fluffy layers.
• Salt – I prefer baking with table salt instead of kosher salt, which is another tweak from the original.
• Apple cider – If this isn’t available, a good-quality apple juice will work just as well. I particularly like the Honeycrisp apple juice by Treetop that I can usually find in the juice aisle no matter the time of year.
• Cinnamon – Apple’s best friend when it comes to desserts.
• Cream cheese – Use room temperature, full-fat cream cheese for best results.
• Cornstarch – This helps thicken both the cheesecake filling and the apple pie filling so they aren’t too runny.
• Milk – You’ll need this for both the cheesecake filling and the frosting.

You will also need a sturdy mixer (either a hand mixer or stand mixer), three 8-inch cake pans, and acetate cake collars or parchment paper. Acetate is just a thin, flexible plastic sheet that you can wrap around a cake to hold it together while assembling, then remove it before serving. If you find you enjoy Milk Bar-style cakes, you’ll definitely use this product again, so it’s worth getting a box to have on hand.

Making the Cake (You’ve Got This!)

1. Brown the butter. Start by browning 4 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. At first it will melt, then foam, then you will start to notice a nutty aroma and brown flecks on the bottom of the pan. Stir or swirl frequently and watch it closely because it can go from browned to burnt pretty quickly if you aren’t careful. Set this aside to cool to room temperature.
2. Cream ingredients. Once your browned butter has cooled, add it to a large mixing bowl along with the remaining 8 tablespoons of softened butter and both types of sugar. Beat for 2-3 minutes until very light. Then add the eggs and vanilla and beat again for another 2-3 minutes until very smooth and light.
3. Add the fats. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the buttermilk and oil, then increase the mixer speed to medium-high and set a timer for 5 minutes. This timing is important because we are forcing more fat than into a liquid mixture (a process called emulsification) and it will want to separate unless properly mixed. By the end of the five minutes the mixture should be almost doubled in volume and very light and airy.
4. Add the dry ingredients. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix on medium-low speed just until combined. Be sure to stop and scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and continue mixing so the batter is completely homogenous.

5. Bake. Divide the batter evenly between three 8-inch cake pans that have been lined with parchment paper circles and sprayed with baking spray. Bake at 350°F (177°C) for 22-28 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean with just a few crumbs clinging to it.
6. Make the pie crumb clusters. While the cakes bake, combine flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the melted butter and water, stirring with a fork until evenly moistened and the mixture is clumping together. Scatter the crumbs over a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 25 minutes, stirring once or twice partway through, until a light golden brown. The crumbs will continue to firm up as they cool.

7. Make the cheesecake filling. Reduce the oven temperature to 300°F (149°C). In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened cream cheese and sugar until creamy and smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the cornstarch, salt, eggs, and milk, then mix again, stopping to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, until completely smooth. Unlike regular cheesecake, you don’t need to worry about overmixing this batter because we aren’t baking it completely through so there isn’t a worry about cracks or sunken centers. Cool completely, then chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

8. Make the apple pie filling. In a large skillet, combine the chopped apples, butter, brown sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and salt over medium heat. Stir frequently while the butter and sugar melt and the apples release their juices. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 3-5 minutes or until the apples have softened slightly and the juices have thickened a bit, then remove from the heat and let cool completely. Chill until ready to use.

9. Make the frosting. Set aside half of the pie crumbs and add the rest a large blender or food processor (affiliate link) with the milk. Blend until the crumbs turn into a thick, smooth puree (it doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth, just mostly smooth). In another large bowl (this is easiest with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment), beat softened butter with the powdered sugar until creamy and smooth. Add the pie crumb/milk mixture and beat until until light and fluffy. This makes more frosting than you really need, so you can either freeze the leftover frosting for another use or use it to apply a thin coat of frosting around the outside of the cake after it has been frozen and set up completely, but it’s really easiest to just make the full batch of frosting rather than decreasing the amounts.
10. Make the apple cider cake wash. This is just a matter of combining the apple cider with a little cinnamon and brown sugar in a small bowl.

10. Make the cake collar. Place your base cake layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Snugly wrap an acetate collar around the cake, securing the collar with tape to hold everything in as you assemble the cake. This can also be done with parchment paper, but the acetate is much sturdier and easier to work with (and parchment paper doesn’t always stick well with tape). If you happen to have an 8-inch cake ring or springform pan, by all means go ahead and use that for extra stability to hold the acetate in place, but I have found that the acetate collar works just fine on its own for me.
11. Assemble. Now for the fun part! Drizzle or brush the top of the cake with about ⅓ of the cider mixture. Then spread ½ of the liquid cheesecake filling on top, using the back of a spoon to nudge it around the edges against the cake collar. Spoon half of the apple pie filling over the cheesecake layer, making sure to spoon some of it right up against the sides of the collar so you can really see the layers when the collar is removed later. Then sprinkle with ⅓ of the reserved pie crumbs. First layer done!

12. Repeat step 11. Carefully tuck the next cake layer into the cake collar, gently pressing it into the layers below. If your layers break a bit, don’t fret–no one will be able to tell in the end. Repeat with ⅓ of the cider soak, the remaining liquid cheesecake, the remaining apple pie filling, and another ⅓ of the pie crumbs.
13. Finish the cake. For the last layer, gently smoosh the top cake layer onto the ones below just so there aren’t gaps and brush or drizzle it with the last of the cider soak. Spread as much of the frosting as you would like onto the top of the cake (I used about 2/3 and thought it was perfect but you could use all of it if you wanted to). Sprinkle with the last of the pie crumbs for decoration.
14. Freeze. Transfer the sheet pan to a freezer and let the whole cake freeze for 12 hours. This step is important because it allows the moisture to redistribute throughout the cake and for all of the layers to set up completely so the cake doesn’t fall apart when you cut into it.
15. Thaw and serve. About 3 hours before you plan to serve the cake, remove it from the freezer and transfer the frozen cake to your cake stand or serving plate. Let it thaw at room temperature for 3 hours before slicing and serving.

Recipe FAQ’s

Top Tips to Make This Cake

• Use a timer. Not just for baking times, but also for mixing times to really make sure the fats, sugars, and eggs really get emulsified.
• Split up the work. You can make the cake layers, cheesecake filling, apple pie filling, and pie crumbs on one day and then make the frosting and assemble the next, if you need to space things out. Also, because this cake needs to be frozen to set up completely, you can make it days, even weeks, in advance so you don’t have to stress to get it done.
• Don’t skip freezing the cake. You might be tempted to rush this step but the fillings are very soft and moist and the cake crumb is very light, so freezing the cake all the way through and then letting it thaw really helps set the structure of the cake so it doesn’t fall apart when slicing.
• Room temperature ingredients make a difference. Cake batter mixes together better and you will get a more even bake with a more moist and tender crumb by using room temp ingredients. If you forget to pull out your eggs, stick them in a bowl of hot water for 10 minutes. If your butter isn’t softened, slice it into cubes and it should be ready to go in about 10 minutes. If your buttermilk is straight out of the fridge, microwave it for 20-30 seconds and give it a stir.

More Apple Recipes for Fall

• German Apple Cake
• Apple Hand Pies
• Apple Fritter Bread
• Apple Crumble Cupcakes
• Caramel Apple Pie

Recipe adapted from Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi.