The New Milk Bar Flagship Lets You Choose Your Own (Cake) Adventure

One of the experiences only available at the New York flagship is the opportunity to book a 30-minute appointment to create your own jumbo cookie. Start by choosing a dough—sugar, chocolate, vanilla, gluten-free vanilla and our personal fave, corn—then pick up to three mix-ins. There are too many to list them all, but a few highlights are potato chips, dried blueberries and “Chocolate Birthday Cerealsies” (more on those below). Finally, your creation is baked and finished with your choice of even more toppings, like sprinkles and icing.

Milk Bar’s photogenic layer cakes are a birthday-party staple, and now you can build your ideal Franken-cake from the ground up. There is a dizzying amount of options: You customize the cake, soak, filling, crumb, frosting…and in true Tosi fashion, a “bonus bite” of either sprinkles or marshmallows. We’re already envisioning a cinnamon-butterscotch cake with a cold brew soak, dulce de leche filling, pretzel crumbs, birthday frosting and marshmallows.

While the cookie and cake customization must be reserved ahead of time, walk-ins are welcome to concoct the ice cream pint of their dreams. First, you choose a layer of soft serve (don’t miss the brand-new vegan apple pie flavor), followed by cake, sauce and crumb (basically crumbly, crunchy bits of cake). While technically you can take it to go, Tosi recommends digging right in—there are plenty of tables where you can enjoy your creation.

Need something savory to offset all that sugar? The bagel bombs are one of the brand’s best sellers and the flagship offers three brand-new takes on the snack: eggplant Parm, Italian hero and pepperoni. All are warmed in the oven before serving, which means they’re crispy on the outside and ooey-gooey in the middle. While you’re in the pastry case section, don’t forget to sample the caramel corn cake truffle, a seasonal special only available at this store.

You can proclaim your love for Milk Bar long after you leave the store by grabbing some swag. The mini-mart section stocks everything from Tosi’s cookbooks to the brand’s trademark bandanas, plus hats and necklaces that say “cereal milk,” which we’re already calling the must-have accessory for 2020. Candy fiends should also grab the brand-new Cerealsies: bite-size cereal bits dipped in flavors like mint cookies ’n’ cream, mini doughnut and (of course) birthday.

One of the most thoughtful touches in the store is the “send a package” station, where you can mail anything from a jar of cookies to a pile of truffles. Milk Bar provides boxes, decorative stamps and ink, and personalized notes, a nod to the care packages that Tosi loves to receive from her mom. The best part? Shipping from the store is free.

Whatever you decide to indulge in, Tosi just wants you to enjoy it. “Life is not made for bystanders,” she says. “Life is made for you to come out and be like ‘This is who I am: I woke up today; I showed up for life.’ And we want this to be a celebration of that.” We’ll raise a sprinkle-filled milkshake to that.