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.
I’ve made this twice now, once with Froot Loops and once with Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It is a FANTASTIC recipe. Thank you!! It will be made for years and years. One of my favorites. I just love all the potential combinations!! Both times I did 3, 6” layers and had enough batter leftover for 5-6 cupcakes as well. Not complaining about that! Gives me some to test 🙂
So happy to hear you’re loving this recipe, Teagan! I need to try it with Cinnamon Toast Crunch now – sounds so delicious!
Hey, how would this recipe differ if I used boxed cake vanilla golden mix and how many boxes would I need
Hi Deven! I’ve never adapted a from-scratch recipe to be used with a box cake mix before, so I can’t say for sure how it will turn out. If you’re making the same size cake (3 8-inch layers or 4 6-inch layers) then I would use two boxes of cake mix, adding the ingredients on the box + the same amount of finely ground cereal and sour cream from this original recipe. Again, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend this since I’ve never tried it myself, but it’s worth a try if you don’t want to make this cake from scratch.
I ended up mixing your recipe with one from Cake Magic! and it came out delicious! I’m wondering if you’ve ever considered using syrups on your cakes? I forgot to amend my cake recipe to add crushed cereal so ended up making a syrup with cereal infused heavy cream to make up for it. I then put the crushed cereal into the frosting (used a recipe that called for malt and added the cereal instead), which made it sweet but in a way that is making me enjoy this cake one slice at a time, instead of standing over the plate with a fork. It’s a decadent treat that’s for sure!
Hi Erin! I can see how all the extra sugar from the cereal infused syrup and crushed cereal in the frosting would make this cake extra sweet, but I’m glad you like the decadence. I’ve never really used syrup on my cakes before because they’re moist enough as-is, but maybe someday! Glad that my recipe made a good base for your milk & cereal creation 🙂
Is this recipe really sweet? I’m worried it will be overly sweet.
Hi Rachell! When creating this recipe I intentionally reduced the sugar to counteract the sweetness of the cereal, and have never had complaints about it being overly sweet. I hope you give it a try!
Absolutely love this cake! I’m going to make it for my 2 year old who is in love with cereal.
Question- where is your cake stand from?
So excited for you to make this cake recipe, Jessica! It’s one of my faves. The cake stand was gifted to me years ago and I haven’t been able to find the exact same one online, but there is a really similar one on Amazon: https://amzn.to/30WXvDD
I made this cake this past weekend and it was pretty good. I used Lucky Charms instead of Fruit Loops and it wasn’t super cereal flavored. I’m going to try it again using Fruit Loops like you suggested and hopefully it will pack more of a cereal punch.
However, I was disappointed to see that this recipe made WAYYYY more than 3 six inch cakes. I ended up with 4 six inch layers and two muffin sized cupcakes. Why not edit the recipe to 3 8 inch layers? Or adjust the recipe to make the proper amount of better for only 3 six inch layers?
Hi Stephanie! Thanks for the feedback 🙂 This was one of my very first recipes ever and I do plan on revisiting to edit the amount of cake this makes. Hope you get more of that cereal flavor with the Froot Loops!
Hi Whitney! I don’t have a stand mixer or a paddle attachment. Will a hand mixer and some elbow grease do the trick? Also, I’m hoping to keep in the fridge overnight before transferring. Do you think the Froot Loops will be soggy the next day? Thanks!!
Hi Carolyn! A hand mixer will work just fine. And the Froot Loops shouldn’t be soggy after an overnight stay in the fridge, but they might be a little more stale/dry than if you were to put them on the cake day of. Hope that helps!
Hello! This recipe looks so delicious! Obviously I know its super sugary, because cereal haha. But I wanted to make this recipe for my tots 2nd birthday, who as toddlers do, loves her cereal and milk. But I wanted to know if there were any slightly healthier tricks I can use, I want to keep the fun but make it just a little less sweet. Thank you, sorry if my question sounds ridiculous
Hi there! Such a fun cake for a 2nd birthday! Unfortunately there’s not much you can do besides reduce the sugar in the cake recipe by about 1/2 cup. Any more than that will alter the chemistry of the bake.
Just made this using limited edition birthday cake fruit loops, it is so so good! Don’t know if I did something wrong but the recipe for me made three six inch cakes and then about 10 cupcakes. I think next time I’d shoot for 3 eight inch cakes instead. Thanks for the recipe!
So happy you loved the recipe, Alex! Haha you didn’t do anything wrong, this recipe just makes a little more than enough batter for three 6 inch layers. One of these days I’ll tweak the measurements to fit three 6-inch pans exactly.
Hello Whitney,
I am about to to make a Cap’t Crunch Peanut Butter Cereal Cake with Cream Cheese Icing. I have all the ingredients and can’t wait to get started! I’m not doing the splash tho, it wouldn’t go with the cake I’m making, lol. Wish me luck!
Hi Amanda! Cannot wait for you to try this recipe with Cap’n Crunch and Cream Cheese Icing! That sounds delicious and I can’t wait to see how it turns out. Be sure to tag me on Instagram so I can see!
Hi, will this recipe work for cupcakes? If I made it a day or two ahead, how do I keep the cupcakes from drying out since I can’t wrap them with the liners on as you recommended for the cake layers? Thank you!
Hi Binh! You can make this recipe into cupcakes, just fill the tins no more than 2/3 full and bake at 350 degrees for 17 minutes. You can make them a day ahead, just be sure to place them on a baking sheet and cover the whole thing with plastic wrap or place them in an airtight container. Excited to see these in cupcake form!
Thank you! I made the cupcakes and split the batter to make a 5 in cake also. Both are not white with colorful sprinkles like yours. They are the color of the ground fruit loops which is like banana muffin color. They rose as expected but are not light and fluffy. Not sure what went wrong :(.
Sorry they didn’t turn out as expected, Binh! I know that fruit loops are different colors depending on what part of the world you’re in.. some are more muted and maybe that’s why you got a banana muffin color instead of more vibrant? Not really sure. There are so many things that could contribute to them not being light and fluffy, but in most cases that will happen if you didn’t use cake flour, measured the flour incorrectly (added too much), over-creamed the butter/sugar, over-beat the batter at the end, baked them for too long, etc. I hope they turn out next time!
I made this tonight. My milk splash was too big & my cake, too short. However, it tastes great! I will try this again and hopefully it will turn out more like the picture.
So happy you loved the taste of this cake, Susan! Practice makes perfect on the design, glad you’re gonna keep trying!
I really want to try this recipe but I’m terrible at decorating. Could I do it as a sheet cake?
Hi Cali! You could totally try making this as a sheet cake! The baking time will totally depend on the depth of your sheet pan. What size is it?
My husband LOVES froot loops and i’m thinking of making this for his birthday in a few months.
How strong is the cereal taste? Myself and other family members don’t really share his love of foot loops.
Also is cake flour a must? We don’t have that in Australia
Hi Emma! Your husband is going to love this cake! It doesn’t have an overpowering Froot Loop taste, but the flavor is definitely there. Also, the cake flour is what makes the cake extra light and fluffy, and if you substitute all purpose flour the cake will be more dense. As an alternative, I recommend making your own cake flour to use. Here’s how:
To make your own cake flour, spoon and level one cup of all-purpose flour and remove 2 Tbsp. Add 2 Tbsp of cornstarch. Repeat per the amount of cake flour you need, then sift the flour and cornstarch mixture 4 times (don’t skip that step!). After sifting, spoon and level to re-measure the amount of cake flour you need.
Fantastic thank you so much! I think i’ll do it. SO excited!! haha