Ah, milk and cereal. They’re a match made in heaven, and nostalgic as heck. I can remember many a Saturday morning curled up in front of the TV with a bowl of milk and cereal in hand – it was a true staple in my childhood diet. The idea of translating those flavors into a cake didn’t occur to me until a year ago, when a friend of mine was having a cereal-themed birthday party. I thought it was such a fun and playful idea for a cake, and although I didn’t start testing flavors just then, I added it to my list of future cake ideas and the dream was alive.
Fast forward to present day, I found myself wandering the cereal aisle to find the perfect flavors to finally bring my milk and cereal cake dreams to life. I decided on Froot Loops, mainly because they taste good and they’re so pretty, but this recipe can be created with just about any cereal your heart desires (we all have our favorites!). I’ve made it successfully with the wheat pieces in Lucky Charms and I’m sure just about any cereal would be tasty.
Creating the perfect milk and cereal cake recipe definitely took some trial and error. My first go-round I ended up crushing up Froot Loops by hand and folding them into the cake batter, and while the result was pretty to look at (like rainbow funfetti!) the taste was off because the cereal got super chewy after the baking process. After trying some different approaches and conducting a few blind taste tests, I’ve refined the recipe to make this milk and cereal cake taste just as heavenly as it looks.
The secrets to the taste are: using actual cereal milk in place of regular milk (made by soaking the cereal in whole milk) and also adding finely ground cereal into the cake batter instead of just crushed up cereal pieces. To keep the cake moist and fluffy I’ve also incorporated sour cream and cake flour, which I swear by for all of my vanilla-based cakes.
If you’ve seen this cake on my Instagram, you’ll also see that the design concept really helps sell the premise of the cake. Some credit has to be given to my husband on that, because he totally helped come up with the idea of creating a “milk splash” out of white chocolate for the topper! Side by side, we sketched out the concept art before I took to the kitchen to figure out how to make it happen. Don’t worry, I’ve even created a full tutorial on the white chocolate milk splash in case you want to get the look!
Milk And Cereal Cake
Ingredients
Cereal Milk
- 2 Cups whole milk
- 2 Cups Froot Loops (or cereal of your choice)
Milk And Cereal Cake
- 1 Cup finely ground Froot Loops or cereal of your choice (equals about 3 cups of whole cereal)
- 3 3/4 Cups (398g) cake flour, sifted before measuring
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 1/8 Cups (254g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 Cups (410g) granulated sugar
- 5 eggs, room temperature
- 1 1/2 Tbsp vanilla
- 1/2 Cup (112g) sour cream, room temperature
- 1 1/2 Cups (360ml) cereal milk, room temperature
Cereal Milk Buttercream
- 2 Cups (452g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 7 Cups (840g) powdered sugar
- 4 Tbsp (59ml) cereal milk, room temperature
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste
Instructions
Make The Cereal Milk
- Pour the whole milk over cereal and let sit for 15 minutes. Strain out the cereal and reserve the milk to use in the cake and buttercream recipes.
Make The Milk And Cereal Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350˚F and prepare three 8-inch or four 6-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with cooking spray and fitting a parchment or wax paper circle to the bottom of each pan.
- In a food processor, grind up Froot Loops (or cereal of your choice) into a fine powder. Keep in mind that 1 cup of finely ground cereal equals about 3 cups of whole cereal. Place into a medium sized bowl and add the sifted cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream butter for one minute on high. Scrape down the bowl and paddle and add the sugar. Cream together on high for two minutes, scraping down bowl and paddle once in between. Turn mixer to low and add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down bowl and paddle as necessary. Once all eggs are added, turn the mixer to high and beat for three minutes.
- Add vanilla and sour cream and continue mixing for one minute. Turn the mixer to low and add all of the dry ingredients at once until just combined, then add the cereal milk all at once. Scrape down the bowl and paddle once more and mix on low for about 30 seconds. Do not overmix. Pour batter into prepared pans (about ⅔ full).
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the cakes for five minutes before releasing from the pan and continuing to cool on a baking sheet or wire rack for several hours.
Make The Cereal Milk Buttercream
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip the butter until fluffy and light (almost white) in color, about 7 minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle twice during the process. Add powdered sugar a few cups at a time and beat on medium, scraping down the bowl and paddle after each interval. Add the cereal milk, vanilla, and salt and continue to mix on medium for two minutes.
Assembly
- After torting the cake layers to the desired height, fill and frost them with cereal milk buttercream. Decorate with crushed up cereal and a white chocolate milk splash crown.
Notes
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What’s your favorite cereal? If you substituted it into this recipe I want to know how it turned out! Let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear.
Could I do this with a 2x 9inch cake pan? I’ve looked everywhere for 6inch and can’t find one. How would I adjust baking time?
Hi Danielle! This recipe will work with two 9-inch pans. I would check the cakes at 40 minutes and see if they need more time from there 🙂
Making this cake tonight for my wife’s birthday tomorrow! She is an absolute cereal addict, and this will be a very nice surprise for her! Everyone wish me luck!
What a fun surprise, Sean! She’s going to love this cake!! Cheering you on and let me know how it goes 🙂
I can’t wait to try this! Is there anyway you can help me cut down the recipe? For two 6 inch cakes instead of 3? Or would I just go with the same recipe and trim the cakes down?
I’m excited for you to try this recipe too, Caitlyn! If you do two 6 inch cakes, you could reduce all of the ingredients by 1/3 but the math starts to get complicated. I would just make the whole recipe and have a little extra batter to save yourself the math. Either way, let me know how it goes!
Thank you so much for your response! The party is on the 10th, so I will let you know how it turns out! Fingers crossed
This cake is awesome! So very creative. I just started following you on Pinterest. I would love to make this for my (cereal-addicted) daughter’s 31st birthday next weekend. I have a couple of questions…If I wanted a 3 layer 8” or 9” cake, would a double batch be enough? Also, I’m trying to get an idea of the overall flavor of the cake. Is it very fruity tasting? Im considering doing half cereal milk and half plain milk. Any thoughts or suggestions you have would be much appreciated!
Hi Jaye! This cake will be perfect for your daughter!! To me, the cake tastes just like a bowl of milk and cereal, but not in an overpowering or overly fruity way. I tested it a bunch with different increments of cereal/cereal milk and this one is just the right amount, but I’m sure using half cereal milk and half whole milk will be totally fine! A double batch will be perfect for a three layer 8″ or 9″ cake. Let me know how you end up liking the recipe!
The cereal powder was grey. I was worried yesterday! But I woke up today to discover a moist cake that isn’t altogether too awful!
I also discovered I’m no cake decorator! But thanks for the fun recipe. My husband will love it!
Hi Melly! Yeah, blending all the cereal colors together does make a grey color before you add it to the batter (unless you pick and choose which colors you blend) but I’m so happy to hear that the cake turned out! I hope your husband loves it!!
Whitney, did you pick and choose colors of cereal to blend? If so, which colors?
I discovered your blog today and subscribed after about a minute. Your cake designs are beautiful and fresh and creative, and your recipes sound enticing. I’m really looking forward to trying them. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Carol, I didn’t pick and choose the colors. When I added the cereal powder to the cake batter it didn’t turn the batter grey, it looked more like tiny bits of rainbow confetti. So excited for you to try this recipe and thanks for the kind words about my cakes!!
my husband is a cereal connoisseur & his birthday is this month … I’ve never made a cake before, but i’m gonna try this one!!!!!
Hi Emma! I’m so excited for you to make this cake!! It’s perfect for a cereal connoisseur 🙂 Let me know how it goes!
Do you think it would still taste alright if I made a cream cheese buttercream frosting (half butter, half cream cheese) and added the cereal milk to that? I am not a fan of traditional buttercream, but I don’t know if it will have the same taste.
I plan on using fruity pebbles and making this for my birthday next month! Thanks so much for this recipe!
Hi Callie! Although I’ve never made the cereal milk buttercream with cream cheese, I’m sure it would taste amazing. I don’t think you can ever really go wrong with cream cheese frosting, so feel free to give it a try! And happy upcoming birthday month!
Thank you so much for sharing your recipes! I just made this with Cap’n Crunch. It’s not as pretty as the colorful fruitloops but the flavor is MAGIC!
Hi Olivia! You are so welcome. A Cap’n Crunch flavored cake sounds INCREDIBLE! So happy it turned out well!
Thank you! I made this today with lucky charms – added a layer of the cereal marshmallows between each layer as well. Great recipe
Yay!! I’m so glad you loved the recipe and it sounds delicious with Lucky Charms!
I plan on making a smaller, 6 inch cake instead . Should I half the recipe ?
Hi Tembra! This recipe makes enough for a three-layer 6-inch cake and then some. If you half the recipe you’d totally have enough for a two-layer 6 inch cake. Hope that helps!
Thank you! I thought it was a bigger cake for some reason. I prefer 6 inch ones anyways . Thanks !
How can I make this as a 3-layer 8-inch?
Hi Wendy! It depends on how tall you want the layers. This recipe will make three 8 inch layers as-is, each layer will be about 1 inch tall. If you’d like the layers to be taller I would 1.5 the recipe.
Omg this cake is so incredibly creative! Love!!
Thanks so much, Jes! It was a fun one 🙂
Awesome I love this
Thanks Rolanda!
hi … the cake look very beautiful .. I have one question .. the garnish .. that looks like a milk splash .. how is done .. ? could plz share the steps for it ?? thank u
Hi Prakruthi! Thanks for your kind words about my cake 🙂 here’s the full tutorial for the white chocolate milk splash: https://sugarandsparrow.com/white-chocolate-milk-splash-tutorial/