Your favorite cereal in cake form! Cinnamon cake layers, cream cheese frosting, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch crumble.
I always make a special cake for Ryan’s birthday. This has been happening for years, ever since I got into cake decorating in late 2009.
A few years, I took on a huge challenge and made him a Momofuku Birthday Cake. If you know Momofuku recipes at all, you know that they are intense and have a LOT of steps.
Needless to say, I ran into many issues making that cake, but the taste was well worth the effort. This year, I decided to turn one of Ryan’s favorite cereals into this Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cake (read: it was actually his idea).
In true Olivia fashion, I couldn’t decide how I wanted to decorate this cake. It’s always a last minute decision these days, and I don’t know if it’s just because I have no ideas, or because I want it to be perfect and (relatively) easy to do.
I wanted to try something a bit different, so I thought I’d crush up some more cereal and press it into the sides, kinda like my Funfetti Cake, but with cereal instead of sprinkles. Surely this would be easy given that I’d done it before — prop the cake on an upside-down bowl and press stuff into the sides.
It was all going swimmingly, except that I have this annoying desire to make things perfect, so I kept fussing with it and pressing more and more into the sides… until the cake started to fall OFF of the bowl and I had to literally grab it with my hands. Where is the crying emoji?? I need one. That or the cursing one.
So my pristine smooth-sided cake, perfectly covered in crushed up Cinnamon Toast Crunch now had the added bonus of handprints on the sides. Did I mention the frosting was soft? Yeah… so soft that you could literally see all of my fingers pressed into the cake. SIGH.
Thankfully I was able to patch the holes with more crushed-up cereal, but STILL. It’s a never-ending drama over here with my baking. Needless to say, the pics are taken from the most flattering angle, as usual.
The only other issue is that I had quite a bit of tunnelling in the cake because I overmixed the batter. So don’t do that.
It doesn’t affect the taste, but it certainly doesn’t look as pretty with these hollow channels running through it. And it can cause your cake to be more dense.
How to Make this Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cake
I added a bit of cinnamon to my Vanilla Cake recipe and paired it with a cream cheese frosting to cut down some of the sweetness from the cereal. I also used cereal milk (Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal steeped in milk) for added flavor.
One of my favorite elements of the Momofuku cakes is the crumble. It adds an amazing flavor and texture to the cakes, so I’ve started incorporating it into a few of mine. I figured this Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cake needed a bit of, well, “crunch,” so I made a crumble using crushed up cereal and placed it between the layers.
Cake Tip!
An easy option would just be to use straight-up crushed up cereal between the layers if you like.
The cake tasted amazing! Ryan said it tasted just like having the cereal with milk. If you have a Cinnamon Toast Crunch fan in your life, they will love this cake!
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I convert this recipe?
- The recipe as-is will also work in three 6″ pans. For three 8″ pans, 1.5x the recipe. Baking time may need to be adjusted.
- To make cupcakes, all you need to do is reduce the baking time — start checking at 15mins or so. The recipe will make 18-24 cupcakes depending on size.
- For other conversions go here.
Can I make it in advance?
- The cooled cake layers can be baked ahead of time, double wrapped in plastic wrap, and frozen for up to 3 months. Take out 2-3 hours before assembly.
- The frosting can be placed in an airtight container and refrigerated for 1 week for frozen for 3 months. Bring to room temp and rewhip before using.
- The cooled cereal crumble can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week. You can also freeze it for up to 3 months.
- The finished cake (whole or sliced, stored airtight) can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Can I get the measurements by weight/grams?
- There is a Metric option in the recipe card. If you click it it will convert everything to grams.
- This conversion is done automatically and I cannot guarantee the accuracy but many readers have had success using the metric option for this recipe.
Tip for this Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cake
- The crumble uses grape seed oil because I had some on hand. You can use any vegetable oil and it will work just fine. Or just skip the crumble and use roughly chopped/crushed cereal between the layers.
- The frosting is soft, so be careful pressing the crushed-up Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal into the sides. I recommend chilling the frosted cake slightly before doing so.
- Be careful not to over-mix the batter as this can cause tunnelling in the cake.
- I like to prepare my cake pans using Homemade Cake Release then line with parchment.
- Learn how to keep your cakes moist using Simple Syrup.
- To help ensure your cake layers bake up nice and flat, see my Flat Top Cakes post.
Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cake
Ingredients
Cereal Milk:
- 2 cups milk
- 2 cups Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal
Cake:
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon ground
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup cereal milk room temperature
Cinnamon Toast Crunch Crumble:
- 1 cup crushed Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp grape seed oil or any vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 6 oz cream cheese room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar sifted
- 1 Tbsp clear vanilla extract
- pinch salt
Assembly:
- 1 1/2 cups crushed Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal
Instructions
Cereal Milk:
- Place milk and cereal in a medium bowl. Stir well and steep for 20-25mins. Strain into a small bowl using a fine mesh sieve. Gently press the milk out of the cereal using a spatula or wooden spoon. Separate out 1 cup of the cereal milk for the cake. Save the remainder.
Cinnamon Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour three 6" cake rounds, line with parchment. Wrap with EvenBake strips.
- In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt and set aside.
- Beat butter until smooth. Add sugar and beat on med-high until pale and fluffy (2-3mins).
- Reduce speed and add eggs one at a time, fully incorporating after each addition. Add vanilla.
- Alternate adding flour mixture and cereal milk, beginning and ending with flour (3 additions of flour and 2 of milk) fully incorporating after each addition. Mix until just combined.
- Spread batter evenly into prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula.
- Bake for 30-35mins or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.
- Place cakes on wire rack to cool for 10mins then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.
Cinnamon Toast Crunch Crumble:
- Preheat oven to 300F and line a sheet pan with parchment or a silicone mat.
- Whisk all dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and mix until small clumps form.
- Spread evenly and bake for 15mins. Cool completely before using on cake.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Beat butter and cream cheese on med-high until pale and smooth (approx. 2mins).
- Reduce speed to low and add sugar 1 cup at a time. Add vanilla and pinch of salt. Increase speed to high and beat for 2-3 minutes until pale and smooth.
Assembly:
- Place one layer of the cake onto a cake stand or serving plate. Brush with 2-3 Tbsp cereal milk. Top with 2/3 cup of frosting and spread evenly. Sprinkle with crumble or crushed cereal. Repeat with remaining layers. Frost outside of cake and press crushed Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal into the sides.
AP says
Can u make this cake like a milk bar/momofuku cake where you bake the batter in a jelly roll pan and then cut out 6 inch rounds from it? Thanks!
Olivia says
Hi AP! You can for sure though I’m not sure what size pan you’d need exactly so that the batter doesn’t overflow.
Karen Carvalho says
This sounds delicious!! Can it be made in a different size pan (perhaps 9×13 or larger?)
Olivia says
Hi Karen! For sure, baking time will differ though and you may need to adjust the recipe so that the cake layers aren’t too thin. Converting pan sizes is always tricky. Here are some sites I use as a guideline:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/PanSizes.html
https://www.cookipedia.co.uk/recipes_wiki/Cake_tin_conversion_charts
Emily says
This tasted just like the cereal, really good. My cake did come out a bit dry tho, so I’m wondering if the batter would benefit from a little extra cereal milk. It was very dense.
Also for others at high altitude – I’m at 6,600 feet and reduced the baking powder by 1/4 tsp. It rose perfectly.
Olivia says
Hi Emily! So glad you liked it 🙂 My cakes tend to be more on the dense side rather than light and fluffy, but it shouldn’t be unpleasantly dense. Overly dense cakes can be from overmixing the cake batter once the flour is added (it develops too much gluten) or not using room temperature ingredients so the cake batter doesn’t emulsify properly. Another issue could be too much flour. It’s best to spoon the flour into your measuring up and level it off. If you dip your scoop into your flour sometimes you get more than you need. That being said, elevation plays a big part too and the right balance may need some experimenting.
Here are some general guidelines if you’re at 3000ft:
• Increase the oven temperature by 15-25F
• Decrease baking time by 5-10mins.
• Decrease sugar by 1 Tbsp per cup
• Decrease baking powder by 1/8 tsp per cup
• Increase liquid by 1-2 Tbsp per cup
• Add 1 Tbsp of flour
If you’re higher up than 3000ft, you will need to increase/decrease the ingredients incrementally. Again, it will require some experimentation. There are some great resources for high altitude baking out there!
Leira Pagan says
So far it’s been in the oven an hour and 15 minutes and it’s not baked. It’s still uncooked in the middle 😥
Olivia says
Hi Leira! That does not sound right. Did you change anything about the recipe? Amounts or pan size?
Dan says
Hi, I made the cinnamon cake without the crumble and cream cheese frosting. Planning on making those soon. I’m giving this cake to someone in two days time so I wrapped it in cling wrap and put it in the fridge overnight. I realise now I wasn’t supposed to refrigerate it, I should’ve either left it on the counter or frozen it. Do you recommend I place it in the freezer now anyway after it had been refrigerated for that long to preserve it if I want to use it in 2 days time?
Olivia says
Hi Dan! Yeah I would pop them into the freezer 🙂 A couple days in the fridge won’t dry it out but in general it’s better to freeze as the freezer locks in moisture while the fridge doesn’t. If it’s still two days away I would freeze them just to be safe.
Vanessa says
Hello, I’m a little new to making cakes, was just wondering what you mean by vanilla (for the cake and crumble)? Would it be vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract? I know for the cream cheese frosting you specifically mention vanilla extract. It not for the cake and crumble. Looks like a wonderful recipe!
Vanessa says
Sorry I meant just* not for the cake and crumble
Olivia says
Hi Vanessa! You can actually use either, it just depends on if you want specs of vanilla in it from the paste.
Erin says
Never mind, just saw that it is brushed onto the layers! Thanks!!
Olivia says
Yes, it’s for extra moisture and flavour there. I hope you love it 🙂
Erin says
Made it this weekend as cupcakes, FANTASTIC!! Added a little cinnamon to the frosting as well.
Olivia says
So happy you loved it! 🙂
Erin says
Quick question – for the cereal milk, you indicate to separate out one cup for the cake batter and “save the remainder” – but it doesn’t appear the remainder is actually used in the recipe? Just wanted to confirm!
Audrey says
The only thing I didn’t love about this cake was the crumble. It was too salty for me!
Olivia says
Hi Audrey! Glad you liked the cake. Thanks for your feedback!
Maisy says
Hi!! I am in the process of making this cake right now — I made two layers last night in 9 in pans, but they turned out way too thin so I am baking another batch to make a 4 layer cake. I want to assemble this in a few days so I am freezing my layers, but I am curious whether the cereal milk will last in the fridge and, if so, how should I store it?
Thank you!!
Olivia says
Hi Maisy! Yeah they would be quite thin in 9″ pans 😐 Good call on making another batch, I think a 4 layer cake will be perfect. The cereal milk will be fine in the fridge for up to a week or so (unless the milk expires sooner than that).