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.
Turned out great, and tasted good. Could be even more cereal flavour (a bit subtle) but still good for adults Lol
This looks so good! What a great cake to make for a kids party!
Thanks so much, Suzanne! It would be a fun kids party cake!
I know this recipe is old but if you happen to see this to 1 & 1/5 the recipe as I’m trying to get 4 8inch layers would you put 7 or 8 eggs? I can not get myself to decide ♀️so any help appreciated haha
Hi Nerissa! I would do 7.5 eggs. Just crack one egg into a bowl, whisk it up, and use half of it. Hope that helps!
Thank you!! Making this today !
Hi there! I just came across your cake recipe and am excited to try this out!
One of my favorite ice creams is a Milk & Cereal flavor that uses Corn Flakes and I think it would be fun to try this flavor with your brilliant cake recipe. Since this isn’t a “sugar-y” cereal, should I add more sugar and if so, how much would you suggest?
Thank you!
Hi Logan! Adding Corn Flakes is a great choice! You don’t need to add any extra sugar 🙂 Enjoy!
My cake flour already has baking powder and salt premixed. You have added baking powder and salt to the recipe. Should I just leave out the baking powder and salt from the recipe if I use this cake flour? Thanks!
Hi Linda! I’ve never heard of cake flour with baking powder and salt already added! Does that mean it’s self-rising cake flour? I would definitely omit the baking powder and salt from the recipe if you use this cake flour mix but since I’ve never tried it before, it would be an experiment and I’m not sure what the results will be. Let me know if you do try it and how things go!
I sifted and measured my cake flour.. but I get 398 grams from just 3 cups sifted, not 3 and 3/4 cup. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks in advance, Amy
Hi Amy! Are you using homemade cake flour (made from All Purpose flour)? If so, you’ll want to go by the Cups measurement since AP flour weighs more than store bought cake flour. One cup of sifted cake flour should weigh about 105g. Let me know if that helps!
Can you sub AP flour in place of Cake flour?
Hi Keli! AP flour will make this cake more dense while cake flour gives it a softer crumb. If you can’t find cake flour, you can make a homemade version with this method: https://sugarandsparrow.com/homemade-cake-flour-recipe/
Hi, I would love to make this cake for my son’s 8th birthday. He loves Froot Loops! My only concern is that the cereal outside of the cake might get soggy or chewy. Did the cereal pieces stay crunch for you? Please let me know. BTW, this cake is so cute and I think you are very talented!!
Hi Kim! I’m so excited for you to make this cake! The cereal pieces on the outside stayed crunchy but will start to taste stale after a day or two. If you want to keep them fresh, I recommend decorating the cake with the cereal pieces as close to the serving time as possible. They’re mainly for decoration and since the cake itself tastes so much like the cereal you won’t lose out on flavor if people choose to eat around them.
Would this work for cupcakes?
Hi Tracy! Yes, this recipe makes great cupcakes! Fill the tins no more than 2/3 full and bake at 350F/177C for 15-18 min, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Hello
Please can you let me know if these are large or medium eggs? I’m in the UK so not sure what your standard is! Thanks
Hi Morwenna! I always use large eggs. Hope you love this recipe!
Gorgeous cake. I am about to decorate mine, but it won’t be served until a day and half from now. I’ve no choice but to make it ahead. Can I place the fruit loops on now? Did they bleed or go soft?
Hi Kj! The cereal might get a little stale if you decorate a day and a half ahead, but it’s mainly for decoration so I wouldn’t worry about it. They won’t bleed their colors. Enjoy!
Can this be made with gluten free flour of some wort?
Hi Hilary! I’ve never tried this recipe with GF flour before, so it would definitely be an experiment. Let me know if you try it!
Cute cake. I put 2 tbsp sour cream and 1/2 tsp lemon extract in the frosting. It was delicious.
Yay, Caitlin! I would have never thought to put sour cream in the frosting – I’ll have to try that sometime!
It took me about 3 days to accomplish this as a busy mom mid pandemic when supplies are hard to get (apparently balloons aren’t essential!), but this cake tastes great. Every step was spot on. I nearly cried trying to do the splash but after a few practice runs and finding the sweet spot between too leggy and too bowl-like, I created a passable “splash”. Next time I might try dusting my greased balloon in corn starch. I also used Canadian fruit loops. Did you stick your loops on the side one by one?
Yay, Erin! So proud of you for making it happen – cakes like this one are so time consuming! I’m so happy you love the recipe and yes, aside from the bottom third of the cake where the froot loops are really concentrated I did stick them on the side one by one. This is the technique I used (shown here with sprinkled but the method is the same): https://sugarandsparrow.com/decorating-cakes-with-sprinkles/
Made this cake yesterday- absolutely delicious! So moist and fluffy. Did it with the fruit loops, which was great, but going to try other cereals as well. I’m also going to try this in cupcake form.
Thanks for the great recipe! Your cake was stunning, by the way!
Yay, Shelly! I’m so happy to hear that you loved this recipe as much as I do! Thanks so much for letting me know 🙂