For my upcoming birthday, I wanted to try and make my own cake this year! I saw this recipe on Facebook in a group called Subtle Asian Traits, (which incidentally, is very entertaining) and I knew I would have to give it a whirl.

Recipe by Maryanne at The Little Epicurean

Long story short, I loved how this turned out. You can definitely taste the milk tea flavour, and between the simple syrup and icing, there was the perfect amount of sweetness. We went light on the icing on purpose, as neither of us have ever liked excessive icing, whether it’s buttercream, fondant, or something else. As a result, we used a very thin layer of icing between layers, and we made a “naked” cake, more or less. It’s so nice to have that style trending now, so that icing isn’t the only option.

Because my best friend and I have always been ambitious, we worked on this cake together in the space of a day, rather than the three recommended days. We also made two layers, rather than three, simply by using larger circular pans than the recipe did. We also used a shortcut of buying the cooked tapioca pearls and brown sugar syrup from Coco’s rather than cooking it ourselves, but other than that, it still felt very manageable.

Also, I just want to add that tapioca pearls and syrup do run and spill quite easily after pouring on top of the cake, but that’s a minor thing to prepare for. On the bright side, any leftover simple syrup tastes fantastic when mixed with milk. It tastes as good as any bubble tea I’ve ever had! Side note, it’s an interesting linguistic difference that California seems to call both the drink and the pearls “boba” whereas in Edmonton, my friends and I have always referred to the drink as “bubble tea” and the pearls as “tapioca”.

Anyways, I don’t know if we’ll make this cake again, just because it is a bit labour intensive, but maybe we’ll keep it in our back pockets for future special events.

Until next time, happy crafting!