We really have David Chang and Christina Tosi of the Momokuku restaurant group in NYC to thank for elevating breakfast cereal from a mere bowl of milk to high-end desserts. They’ve been serving cereal milk (you know the flavored milk at the end of a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios) as panna cotta and soft serve ice creams at their Milk Bar to rave reviews. It’s created a bit of a sensation. I recently went to Travail, a local restaurant where the food is art and the chefs are entertainers, and what did I see on the pantry shelf, a box of Lucky Charms. We all have fond childhood memories of reading the box as we ate the contents, but most adults I know wouldn’t sit down to a bowl of it in the morning. But, as a dessert? You bet, that makes total sense to me.
General Mills sent me a big selection of their cereals and challenged me to think outside the box, beyond breakfast and sticky marshmallow bars (not that there is anything wrong with that either). I knew right away that Trix was going to be my muse. I always loved it as a kid. Everything from the silly rabbit commercials to that bright pink milk at the end of the bowl. I set out to create a cake using the bright colors and fruity flavors. For my first attempt I hoped to suspend the round cereal in cake batter to create a polka dot interior. As the cake baked I realized all the little colorful balls were floating to the top and I ended up with a layer of cereal confetti. It was pretty, but the cereal didn’t soften enough, so they were still crunchy and not a good texture in the cake. Then the perfect solution came to me…
I decided to grind the cereal into powder and fold it into a white cake batter to color and flavor each layer. I told my 13-year-old he could pick the movie if he separated an entire box of Trix by color.
He gladly set about separating the cereal into the 6 colors. When I was a kid Trix were a swirl of colors, but they’ve recently change the cereal, so there are 6 distinct colors and flavors (Fruity Yellow, Berry Purple, Tasty Orange, Blue Be-Zurple, Berry Green and Red Rooty-Tooty).
I used my coffee grinder to powder about 2 tablespoons worth of each color.
Then I mixed up the white cake batter. You can use a packaged cake mix, but I used this one from the Fanny Farmer Baking Book:
Trix Cake
1 3/4 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 egg whites
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cups cold water (if you are not adding the cereal to the recipe then just use 1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons of each powdered Trix color (Fruity Yellow, Berry Purple, Tasty Orange, Blue Be-Zurple, Berry Green and Red Rooty-Tooty)
To make the cake:
Preheat oven to 325°F
Butter and line six 6-inch cake pans with parchment and then butter the parchment.
Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder and salt. In a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add each egg white one at a time and mix until well incorporated, about 1 minute. Add the vanilla. Alternate adding the flour and water, starting and ending with the flour (flour, water, flour, water, flour). Mix for 30 seconds after each.
Divide the batter into 6 bowls, add the powdered Trix cereal to each.
Mix until well blended. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pans.
Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before removing from the pans.
Make the icing:
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
6 cups powdered sugar
To make the icing: combine the butter, cream, and vanilla in a large bowl. Slowly add the powdered sugar until the icing is smooth and thick enough to spread. If it is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If too thick, add more cream.
Stack the cake layers with icing between each.
Cover the Trix cake with icing. Here’s a video on how to smoothly cover the cake. You can leave the cake simply frosted or decorate the outside with more cereal.
Use the remaining Trix to decorate the outside of the cake.
Once the cake is refrigerated the cereal loses its crunch, so you want to serve it the same day.
that cake is awesome! i like making any kind of cereal into rice crispy treats!
Your cake is so creative! I tend to elevate cereal into bars. Particularly with peanut butter, corn syrup and sugar — yum!
ohmygoodness, this is so beautiful, i can’t even stand it. i SO would love to spend my afternoon decorating a cake like this.
Hi Molly,
We are a rare breed that gets giddy at the prospect of spending our days doing these things! 🙂
Cheers, Zoë
fun giveaway
What a cute cake
I’d add some Trix to a bowl of popcorn for a sweet & salty snack.
It’s maybe a little too obvious but really, you can’t go wrong with rice krispie treats. Or my family has always been a big fan of special k bars. They’re basically scotcharoos but with special k cereal instead of rice krispies.
wow, that cake looks ridiculously tedious, in a not entirely bad way. 😛 I like to use various cereals to make energy bars.
This cake looks great, my kids would love it.
I love cereal in with my popcorn, especially if I’m making Nigella Lawson’s sweet and spicy popcorn (sugar, salt, cumin, paprika, cayenne and cinnamon, I believe). It’s so good!
That cake is fantastic – for sure we will be trying that in my house!
I would use the cereal to make an infused milk or cream and then try my hand at ice creams. OR I want to try them in coffee drinks!
OR – a mixture of those two ideas – Coffee/Trix ice cream, maybe??
You really thought outside the box! I would cereal caramel fudge bars with them and serve as finger snacks!
This makes me smile!
Mind=blown. You are absolutely incredible. Beautiful work, as usual. That looks way too pretty to eat! Trix would be a definite awesome dessert. OR breakfast,or lunch. 🙂
i will be trying this for a birthday party
Love your cake! It got me thinking about making a layered dessert. Powdering the cereal and making a trifle with the powder coloring and flavoring whipped cream and layering it with cake and fruit.
I haven’t tried it yet, but I would love to use cereal like you have here as a component of a batter. Thanks for the opportunity!
I would make cereal bar treats and also this incredible cake! So cool!
I bet if you cooked the Trix in the oven for 10 minutes they would retain their crunch. It is the same way a taco shell will be crispier(and less stale tasting) if you throw them in the oven for a few minutes. The oven is on anyway to bake the cake anyway.
Boy, my kids would be in seventh heaven if I made that cake for them!
love this! particularly love your website name – my niece is an aspiring chef and her name is ZOE too!
I WOULD LOVE TO TRY THAT CAKE…BUT ITS A BIT TOO MUCH WORK FOR ME THESE DAYS, MAYBE WITH SOME HELP. BUT I DO LIKE MAKING TRAIL MIXES WITH CEREAL
What an incredible cake, the layers are just perfect! Beautifully done!
I would love to try the ice cream idea (since I live nowhere near NYC)- soak it in some heavy cream and then perhaps fold everything (soaked cereal and all) into my favorite no-churn ice cream recipe. Or, just use the cereal-flavored cream and fold in some Lucky Charms marshmallows? Sounds like fun!
Wow that is so pretty!!
Love the cake.
this looks awesome!! never thought of using cereal on a cake to decorate… definitely something i will be trying. thanks for the idea!
Cake is a blast! Thinking of trying it for myself one day and I’m no kid!
I LOVE that Trix cake! Oh my goodness–BEAUTIFUL!!! I can only imagine it must have been delish! This is on my to do list;)
What a fun creative idea!!! I love it. Thanks for sharing the giveaway also!
We’re big cereal fans!
I would use it to create a marshmallow treat . Use the cereal to layer it with marshmallow cream or marshmallows. Top it with chocolate cream.
I have to say that the only thing I’ve “made” with cereal are bars…but I’d love to try this cake!
got to go with good old rice krispy treats!
I would add cereal to homemade ice cream
I would take lucky charms and make them into snack bars. Love, by the way, using the cereal to color the cake!
How do you get your cereal to cut for presentation like you did on this cake? Your pictures are always so pretty, but then, my desserts never cut down mid-nut, or mid-cereal ball like yours do. What are you doing that I am not?
My kids like to eat cereal as a school snack just dry.
Hi Jennifer,
I use a very thin, serrated knife and make small sawing motions. This cake is much easier to cut when it is chilled. The icing hardens and makes allows you to cut through the cereal more easily. Once it is refrigerated the cereal does get a bit stale, so you may be better off with a messy cut!
Cutting most cakes when they are chilled is helpful, then just bring them to room temperature to serve.
Thanks, Zoë
It looks great! Somehow I dont see mine turning out like that.
I would use some of the healthier(relatively speaking) cereal varieties GM makes to make a salty sweet cereal mix with spicy nuts for an extra flavor kick.
What a beautiful cake!!
Love the trix design on the outside of the cake
I have not bought bread since November. My kids and husband love my bread thanks to your book. It makes the best pizza dough! I tell everyone I meet about your fantastic book. Keep the recipies coming! Thank Zoe and Jeff!
This is so awesome!
I would put the cereal in trail mix for a nice snack!
Love Love Love it!
I’m definitely making some sort of sweet and spicy chex mix. Not very creative but it’s hard to improve on the chex mix!
Can I have a slice? 🙂
I loooove putting fruity pebbles in my froyo! I think there are TONS of cereals that would be great as ice cream or froyo toppings.
Ooooh, I would love to win this.
I would use it as toppings for ice cream. Yummy!
Cereal bars are always a hit at our house (especially brown butter cereal bars with sea salt), but I would love to try making ice cream with cereal, too!
I think it would be great to make rice krispie type treats with different types of cereal
Of course, you can’t go wrong with fried cereal either: http://www.charlesphoenix.com/fried-cereal-whats-your-mix/
You are very creative! Trix would be my pick too and I can’t magine anything better. Maybe make different cereal ball aimals or more decoration…or on a plain cake. Fabulous. I have to try it. Thanks for all of the tips.
I would create a breakfast dessert: Cereal Coated French Toast!–crush up Cap’n Crunch cereal into crumbs, then dip thick sliced bread into an egg mixture, coat with cereal bits and cook until bread is golden brown.
I love this! Trix is such a guilty pleasure when you grow up!
This would be perfect for a fun special occasion!
What a cool idea!
WOW! I’ll be making the FF version of this cake on Thursday for a friend’s 42nd birthday (some kids never grow up…) BUT, I’m going to do a riff on it with her favorite cereal–Fruity Pebbles! Thanks so much for the inspiration!
YUM!!!
I am in love with the decoration technique on this cake! Genius! Great job!
My son LOVES Trix and is currently into Legos & Minecraft. This is perfect for my son’s 5th Birthday party!!
I must admit I’m not a fan of Trix cereal ,BUT this cake is phenomenal!
Wow, wow, wow❗️
This cake is so creative, fun & I bet crazy good!