I recently visited Milk Bar in Toronto and tried their cereal milk soft serve for the first time. After sampling it, I knew I needed to bake with this fantastic ingredient! A friend’s champagne and cake birthday celebration seemed to be a great occasion to try it out. Read on to make your very own corn flake cake, complete with cereal milk!

Corn Flake Cake (a.k.a. Cereal Milk Cake)

Yield: one three-layer 8” round cake, or one two-layer 9” round cake.

Cake recipe adapted Molly Yeh

Notes: I used the Milk Bar cereal milk mix for my cereal milk here. You can easily create your own using their recipe. 

I baked a three layer, 8” round cake, but you can also bake it as a two layer, 9” round cake – just monitor baking time closely.

For the vanilla extract, feel free to use whatever you I have. I used half clear imitation vanilla and half pure vanilla because I find the imitation vanilla has a nostalgic, box-cake-style flavour that really works with the cereal milk. Doesn’t sound good to you? Stick with what you have!

You will need to finely grind cornflakes for both the cake and buttercream. This is easiest in a food processor, pulsing until the mixture is evenly ground. You won’t get it to be flour-like, so aim for it to be as fine as possible. If you don’t have a food processor, you can also use a rolling pin or other sturdy cylindrical object (like a jar or can) to crush corn flakes in a sealed ziplock bag.

This cake likes to crumble – I recommend cutting large pieces to maintain the cake’s shape (and, you know, to treat yourself because you’re worth it).

 

Cereal Milk Ingredients:

• ½ container of Milk Bar Cereal Milk Mix

Or:

• Follow Milk Bar Cereal Milk Mix recipe

Or, if you want to keep it super simple: 

• 2 cups of your favourite cereal
• 4 cups of milk

Cake Ingredients:

Dry

• 1 ¾ cups white sugar
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup finely ground corn flakes
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt

Wet

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pans
• 2 tsp vanilla extract (I used 1 tsp pure, 1 tsp imitation; see note above)
• 4 large eggs
• 1 ¾ cups cereal milk milk (see instructions below)

Cereal Milk Buttercream Frosting Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup finely ground corn flakes (or similar) cereal
• 1 teaspoon imitation vanilla extract (see note above)
• up to 4 Tbsp cereal milk (or more depending on consistency)

Cereal Milk Directions:

1. Follow this recipe: https://milkbarstore.com/recipes/cereal-milk/
   OR
2. If using Corn Flakes in the third option under “Cereal Milk Ingredients”, I recommend lightly roasting them in a 350°F oven for 15 minutes until slightly browned.
3. Soak 2 cups of your favourite cereal in 4 cups of milk for 20-30 minutes.
   Strain cereal from milk and reserve milk for use in the following 2 recipes.

Corn Flake Cake Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease baking pans with butter and line bottom with parchment. You’ll either be using 3x 8” round pans or 2x 9” round pans. If you only have one of either pan, bake your cake layers in batches.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ground corn flakes, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a handheld mixer, cream butter and sugars together on high until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Scrape down the bowl 1-2 times throughout to ensure even mixing.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time until evenly incorporated.
6. Add the vanilla and beat to incorporate.
7. Add ⅓ of the flour mixture and beat on medium-low until just combined.
8. Add ½ of the cereal milk and beat on medium-low until just combined.
9. Add second ⅓ of the flour mixture and beat until just combined.
10. Add the remainder of the cereal milk and beat until just combined.
11. Add the remainder of the flour mixture and beat until just combined.
12. Divide cake batter evenly between cake pans.
13. Bake in centre of oven and begin checking for doneness after 22 minutes. When done, a toothpick will come out with no cake batter (a few crumbs are totally fine). The cake will also start to come away from the sides of the pans and be lightly golden brown on top.
14. Allow cakes to cool in pans for 5-10 minutes, then run a knife or thin spatula along the inside edge of the pan to loosen the cake, then flip onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Make sure you remove the parchment if it’s stuck to the bottom of the cake.

Cereal Milk Buttercream Frosting Directions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, cream butter for 2-3 minutes on medium-high until it lightens in colour.
2. Add confectioner’s sugar, one cup at a time, mixing well between each addition.
3. Continue to beat for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl a couple of times during this process to evenly incorporate butter and sugar.
4. Add the salt and finely crushed cereal, and mix until well incorporated.
5. Add the vanilla and 2 Tbsp of cereal milk and mix until well incorporated.
6. Add more cereal milk by the Tbsp until desired consistency has been reached. Your frosting should be thick, but spreadable, and there shouldn’t be holes or gaps in the frosting when you spread it. If there are, you need to add more milk to smooth it out.

Cake Assembly:

I like to frost cakes on a cake board – it’s easier to move and work with the cake. It’s also easy to gift cakes as there’s no plate that needs to be returned (or gifted).  

1. If there’s quite a dome on the top of our cakes, level your cake layers. If they’re relatively flat, you can skip this step.
2. Put a dollop of frosting on a cake board or cake plate to hold the bottom layer in place.
3. Place one of the three layers on the cake board upside-down (So the bottom of the cake is facing up).
4. Brush cereal milk over the cake layer. Spread a layer of buttercream over this layer..
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 with second and third layer.
6. If you find the cake crumbly, I recommend doing a crumb coat: coat the entire cake with a very thin layer of buttercream and place in the freezer for 30 mins to firm up.
7. Frost and decorate the cast as desired.  
8. Congratulations, you’ve made a beautiful and delicious cake!

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