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 ground 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 extract
- 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 extract
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 of the milk for the assembly. Discard the cereal.
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.
Mary says
The cake was delicious and the cream cheese frosting was the best I ever had! That being said I made it in 3 7” x 2” cake pans. I just doubled the recipe. You could use the extra for cupcakes but one of my cakes was not cooked through, even though I checked it😵💫 I didn’t over mix it but the cake was dense. I used the same amount of ingredients as the recipe called for.
Olivia says
Hi Mary! SO happy to hear you loved it!