Bird’s Milk Cake Recipe (Ptichye Moloko)

Reserve about 1.5 cups of frosting for frosting the outside of the cake, set aside.
Put a dab of frosting onto a serving platter (don’t mind the one I am using on pictures, I transferred it to a serving carton later).
Cut each cake layer horizontally into two equal layers with a long serrated knife.
Place the bottom of the first layer onto the platter and press to adhere. Layer with 1/3 of the Egg Yolk Custard Buttercream, evening it out with an offset spatula. Repeat with the remaining layers and buttercream, finishing with the bottom side of the second cake layer up.
Use the reserved frosting to cover the cake in a thin layer of buttercream, still leaving some (about 3/4 cup) for decorating.

Combine 1/4 cup hot cream with 1/4 cup chopped chocolate or chocolate chips and leave for 1-2 minutes. Stir until smooth.
Pour on top of the cake and with the spatula spread it around until it drizzles down the sides of the cake.

Fit a pastry bag or a ziplock bag with a snipped end with a star piping tip. Fill the bag with the reserved 3/4 cup buttercream. Pipe 5 large stars in on the side of the cake like shown on the picture, then in between the large ones pipe about 12 smaller stars, followed by 8 even smaller stars.
Now dust some cocoa powder on top of the piped stars.
If you have a couple chocolate covered coffee beans, put a couple of them inside the largest piped stars.
This particular cake does not need any time to allow for mending of flavors, but it is good to leave it for about 1-2 hours in the fridge for all the layers to stick together and make it easier to cut.

According to your preference you will either want to leave it out to come to room temperature before serving, or serve it cold from the fridge. I like it better cold.