Who says you can’t eat cake for breakfast? Wake up with this Good Morning Cereal Cake! Cornflakes are infused in the milk, giving the cake and the frosting that bottom of the cereal bowl flavor. Add some sunshine with golden yellow ganache, yellow macarons, and cornflakes. With this Good Morning Cereal Cake, you have a breakfast made for conquering the day!
I have been meaning to make cereal milk for a while. The problem lay in use, I couldn’t simply make cereal milk and drink it, I needed an application. Finally, after much delay, I came around to crafting this Good Morning Cereal Cake.
Making the milk cereal is worth the labor of love. I end up using a lot of cornflakes for not a whole lot of milk. But that end product is fantastic, packing a real deep cereal milk punch. Brown the cornflakes with dry milk powder and two types of sugar deepened the cereal’s flavor, which seeped into the milk. The salt is equally crucial. Adding the salt before and after baking ensured an even distribution and highlighted the subtle cornflake flavor. Salt is the easiest flavor enhancer and it does just that with this cereal milk.
Wanting the cereal milk to be the star, I opted to use a egg-white based vanilla cake, the flavors and fat from the egg yolk would’ve overpowered the flavors of the infused milk cereal. I knew that the flavor of the cereal milk would decrease with baking so I had to do some thoughtful swaps. For this cake, my standard use of buttermilk was out of the question. Despite my love of certain ingredients, I knew I needed to mix it up. Though moist and tangy, buttermilk would’ve competed with the flavors I was trying to get. Instead I used whole milk which provided both fat and a blank canvas for the cereal milk.
The Good Morning Cereal Cake needed to have an unadulterated taste in the frosting. My go-to of cream cheese was out of the question, I switched around the ratios and went for more butter than cream cheese. Vanilla plays a minor but necessary role for the cereal milk, providing the Good Morning Cereal Cake an extra layer of developed warm flavor notes.
I will not lie this cake was a struggle to photograph. Given, the one day I decide to take pictures is the hottest day of the week. However I made it work. Sure it was sunny, but with the sun came 90+ degree weather with swampy humidity. Heat plus humidity,plus no air conditioner or fans equaled a melt-fest. The cake the drooping and melting in on itself, very similar to the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz.
To finish this Good Morning Cereal Cake off, I decorated with cake with a golden drippy ganache, yellow macarons and the remaining cornflakes. I sprayed some of the cornflakes with gold color mist. Interspersing the golden cornflakes among the plain cornflakes gives the Good Morning Cereal Cake a sunnier visual appearance. Golden color is indicative of the sunny mornings with the light pooling in from the outside. The cornflakes also add a pleasant textural crunch to the smooth ganache, frosting, and cake. It also equally pairs well with a good cup of coffee.
Like me on Facebook and Follow me on Pinterest and Instagram
- For the Cereal Milk:
- 10 ounces cornflakes
- 2 ounces nonfat dry milk powder
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar, lightly packed
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
- ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks, 6 ounces) unsalted butter, melted
- 4 cups whole milk
- For the Good Morning Cereal Cake:
- 3 ¼ cups cake flour, sifted
- 2 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks, 6 ounces) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 7 large egg whites, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups infused cereal milk, room temperature and divided
- For the Cereal Milk Frosting:
- 1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 pounds powdered sugar, sifted
- pinch of fine sea salt
- 2 to 4 tablespoons cereal milk
- For the Sunrise Ganache:
- 8 ounces white chocolate, roughly chopped
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- ¼ teaspoon vegetable oil
- 3 to 4 drops golden yellow food gel
- For assembling the Good Morning Cereal Cake:
- Gold Color mist or luster dust
- 3 to 4 yellow macarons
- Cornflakes
- Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
- In a large bowl, use your hands to crush up the cornflakes. Whisk together the milk powder, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon of the salt in a separate bowl.
- Drizzle the melted butter, as evenly as possible, over the cornflakes. Sprinkle over the sugar mixture. Use your hands or a large spoon to toss and combine.
- Spread the cornflake mixture onto the baking sheet and bake until they caramelize, about 30 to 35 minutes. Make sure to rotate the pan and toss the mixture to get an even browning. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with the remaining 1 teaspoon of salt, and let them cool to room temperature.
- Combine the milk and the caramelized cornflakes, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let the mixture steep for 1 hour. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer Use a rubber spatula to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the dried up cornflakes as you go. Repeat this process two times. Pour into a container until needed.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 3 8-inch cake pans with baking spray, set aside.
- Sift together the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Fit the mixer with a paddle attachment and mix the dry ingredients on the lowest speed. Still on the lowest speed, add the cold butter, one piece at a time. Beat until all of the butter is incorporated, about 3 minutes, it should look like crumbly sand.
- In a medium sized bowl or spouted measuring cup, combine vanilla extract and ¾ cup of the cereal milk. In another bowl whisk together the egg whites and the remaining ¾ cup of cereal milk.
- Add the vanilla-milk mixture and raise the speed of the mixer to medium for 4 minutes. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. With the mixture on a low speed, add the egg white-milk mixture and beat on a medium speed for 3 minutes. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Fold the batter with a rubber spatula, ensuring that everything is incorporated and nothing is clinging to the sides of the bowl.
- Divide the batter evenly among the three cake pans and bake for 20 to 22 minutes, rotating halfway. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out with a few moist crumbs. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 5 to 10 minutes before inverting them onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Put the butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on a medium-high speed until pale in color and lump free. Add the vanilla and then scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- With the mixer’s speed on low, slowly add the powdered sugar, scraping the bowl as needed. Add a pinch of salt. Add the milk cereal, a tablespoon at a time, until the frosting becomes a sturdy to but too thin consistency. Beat again on a medium-high speed for a final 1 to 2 minutes.
- Place the white chocolate and heavy cream in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 15second intervals, stirring after heating, until it begins to melt. To prevent seizing add the oil to the almost melted white chocolate. Once completely smooth, stir in a few drop of food gel. Let it sit at room temperature until you’re ready to assemble
- Use a serrated knife to level off the cakes.
- Dollop a bit of frosting onto the cake board or plate. Place one cake layer onto the cake board and spread some of the Cereal Milk Frosting onto that cake layer. Place the second cake layer onto top, spread more frosting, and top with the final cake layer. Do an initial crumb coat and chill in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime spray some of the macarons and cornflakes with color mist. Place the Sunrise Ganache into a pastry bag.
- Do a thicker top coating of frosting and freeze for a final 10 minutes. Drip the ganache on the top and edges of one half of the cake. Gently press the cornflakes onto the bottom of the cake. Use some frosting to stabilize the macarons and cornflakes.