Transform your favorite breakfast cereal into this delicious Froot Loops Cake! Vanilla cake layers infused with cereal milk.
Today’s post is an homage to my favorite cereal: Froot Loops. It was my favorite when I was little, and is still my fave to this day. Other cereals have come and gone, but none have had the staying power of good old Froot Loops. I don’t have it often, mind you. We try to keep the non-dessert meals around here somewhat healthy-ish, but there’s pretty much always guaranteed to be a box of this in our pantry, ready for those perfect Saturday mornings.
It’s one of those cereals that will completely rip up the inside of your mouth, but it’s totally worth it. I don’t like my cereal to get soggy, so it’s extra bad for that. On that note — are you an add milk to cereal or add cereal to milk kinda person? For me, always and forever, I pour milk in the bowl first and then sprinkle some cereal on top — but not too much for fear of it getting soggy (shudder). I add more cereal as I go, but I always make sure there are no stray Loops in the bowl before adding more.
I cannot understand how people pour a huge pile of cereal into their bowl and then pour the milk on top of that. Someone explain the rationale to me here! Just the thought of soggy cereal grosses me out.
While we’re talking sogginess here… it was not the smartest decision on my part to sprinkle chopped cereal between the layers. I was going to make a crumble, like in my Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cake, but I was worried that the color would look off, and I wanted it to look perfect and pretty. Well, it looks pretty, but the chewy cereal between the layers was not the best. It added more flavor, for sure, but if you opt to do this, I’d recommend making a crumble with it instead.
The Froot Loops on the outside of the cake stayed fairly crunchy for a couple days, but it would be best to serve this cake same day to avoid any potential mushy mishaps.
The cake layers themselves are made with cereal milk (milk that has had cereal steeped in it, kinda like what’s left over in your bowl after you finish eating — see recipe below). I also brushed the leftover cereal milk onto each of the baked layers during assembly to add both moisture and flavor.
Paired with a tangy cream cheese frosting that cuts down on some of the sweetness from the cake, this Froot Loops Cake is perfect if you have any die hard cereal fans in your life!
Tips for this Froot Loops Cake:
- You don’t have to use Froot Loops cereal, you can use any cereal you like to make this cake.
- I don’t recommend sprinkling cereal between the layers, as it will get soggy.
- If you want to amp up the flavor even more, you can crush up some cereal and add it right into the cake batter.
- To help ensure your cake layers bake up nice and flat, see my Flat Top Cakes post.
Froot Loops Cake
Ingredients
Cereal Milk:
- 2 cups milk room temperature
- 2 cups Froot Loops cereal
Vanilla Cake:
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 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
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 6 oz cream cheese full fat, room temperature
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp clear vanilla extract
Assembly:
- Froot Loops cereal chopped
- Froot Loops cereal whole
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.
Vanilla Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour three 6″ cake rounds and line with parchment.
- In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt until well combined. Set aside.
- Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on med-high until pale and fluffy (approx 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.
- 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.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy (2 mins). Add powdered sugar one cup at a time. Add vanilla and beat until fluffy (3 mins).
Assembly:
- Place one layer of cake on a cake stand or serving plate. Brush generously with remaining cereal milk. Top with approximately 2/3 cup of buttercream. Repeat with remaining layers and crumb coat the cake. Chill for 20mins.
- Frost the top and sides of the cake and smooth with a bench scraper.
- If desired, use a decorating comb to give texture to the sides.*
- Use whole Froot Loops to decorate the sides of the cake and sprinkle chopped Froot Loops on top.**
Notes
** I do not recommend sprinkling chopped Froot Loops between the layers as I did as they will go soft very quickly.
May says
Hello, I’ve been asked to make this cake for a party of 30. Not sure if I missed it somewhere, but, could you please tell me the size of cake this recipe is for.
Thank you, I look forward to hearing back from you.
Olivia says
Hi May! This cake serves 12 people generously.
May says
Thank you & Merry Christmas 🎄
Olivia says
Merry Christmas to you as well! 🎄
Jessica C. says
I made this cake a few weeks ago with Fruity Pebbles and it was absolutely delicious! My family loved it. Infusing the cake layers with cereal milk was the true star!
Olivia says
Hi Jessica! So happy you all loved it 🙂
Rachel says
Did you do anything different when using fruity pebbles, or do all steps exactly the same?
Olivia says
Hi Rachel! You shouldn’t need to make any changes 🙂
Jo says
Such a pretty cake! How would I go about making a “crumble” with the cereal to spread between the layers?
Olivia says
Hi Jo! You could follow the recipe here to try one: https://livforcake.com/cinnamon-toast-crunch-cake/ Only I’m not sure how all the colors of the Froot Loops would look crushed together.
Liz says
Hi dear Olivia! I want to make this cake for my boyfriend’s birthday as he loves Froot Loops! How do I convert your recipe to make just one 7 inch cake? I’ve never baked before and know nothing about converting. Wish me luck 😂
Olivia says
Hi Liz! Converting pan sizes is always tricky. Here’s a site I use as a guideline: http://www.joyofbaking.com/PanSizes.html
Kaylee says
Do you think I could 1.5x the recipe and bake in three 9” pans? Thank you!
Olivia says
Hi Kaylee! Converting pan sizes is always tricky. Here’s a site I use as a guideline: http://www.joyofbaking.com/PanSizes.html 1.5x the recipe would make three 8″ pans, roughly, so you’d need to increase it by more.
Richa says
Love the idea of using fruit loops! The cake looks amazing! Haha and I am totally an add milk to cereal person. It’s the only way I can control how much cereal and milk I want. This is such a technically irrelevant thing that its making me laugh 🙂
Olivia says
Haha, thanks so much Richa!
Annette says
Absolutely beautiful! It’s so funny you mentioned how it rips up your mouth. I’ve mentioned this to my husband about a couple of cereals and he thinks I’m nuts. He must have a tougher mouth 🙂 This cake is beautiful and I’m sure delicious. My cakes never quite come out like the pictures…
Olivia says
Thanks so much Annette! And hilarious, my mouth will literally be sore for days after! Maybe he’s just conditioned his from decades of eating cereal like this, lol. And I am sure your cakes are just beautiful. It’s the flavour that matters anyhow 🙂
Cindy Rodriguez says
This just puts a big smile on my face! Fun for both kids and adults. Love it!
Olivia says
It’s so fun right?? Thank you!! xo
Destini Hinkle says
You’re amazing! I think this might be my new favorite. You have officially found a way to make cake breakfast 😍
Olivia says
Thanks so much Destini! 🙂
Lillian R says
I very much wanted to like this cake and make it for my son’s birthday. However I think the only flavour of fruit loops was the actual fruit loops on the cake for decoration. The cake itself did not taste like fruit loops and I used all the milk and let the fruit loops soak in the milk for an hour. I also baked it again with fruit loops within the batter and the only difference was a not so pleasant chewy texture when eating the cake.
Olivia says
Hi Lillian! Sorry to hear you didn’t love this one. Thanks for the feedback!
Marjory @ Dinner-Mom says
Such a clever way to decorate a cake! I love it.
Olivia says
Thanks so much Marjory! 🙂