LaLa Cake: Perfectly Level Layered Cake! (Momofuku Style)

I recently got the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook from the library after watching "The Mind of A Chef" with David Chang, owner of Momofuku restaurants. Christine Tosi, the chef at the Milk bar was on an episode making a few of her classic cakes. I was intrigued at the way she was sculpting them. Instead of baking round layers she bakes a 1/2 sheet tray at a time then cuts out rounds, stacks and builds the cake all in the cake pan to ensure straight sides and a level cake. Also they don't frost the sides of any of the cakes in order to show off the terrific layers.. what a great idea! So here's my version of a Momofuku perfectly level cake!

I started with a sheet pan of carrot cake, mmmm!

In the cook book the cakes are stacked in pans that have a piece of acetate acting as a liner. The acetate is pliable enough to be wrapped around the inside of the cake pan but stiff enough to allow the cake to hold the nice level shape you can build. I didn't use an acetate liner simply becuase I don't have one, but I do have a 3" high cake pan which worked great. Wrap the cake pan completely with plastic wrap leaving a few inches hanging over the edge.

Once the cake is cooled completely i used the 6" cake pan to cut out a few layers of cake. I tried to cut the cake with the rim of the pan but the rim was too rounded and didn't cut well so I traced around it with a knife to get the round layer.

Start by putting one layer down into the bottom of the cake pan. Spread in your filling, I used a cream cheese filling. You can also throw in extras like crunchy toasted nuts or Momofuku style crunchies (you really need to get this cookbook, I had to return my library copy but it's totally on my Christmas list)

FIll and layer as much cake as your pan can hold. I did three layers.

I did have a lot of cake leftover. I was only using a 6" pan but easily could have gotten three 8" layers out. I saved the scrapes of cake for an upcoming project so it didn't go to waste.