Cereal Cake with Cheesecake and Caramel Frosting

I wanted to make a mini cake for my friend’s birthday that had multiple flavors.  I wanted to do something a bit different for the cake flavor and thought I would try a cereal flavoured cake. But what kind of cereal?  Since Milk Bar’s original Cereal Milk flavour is Cornflake, I thought I would go with that.  Second, filling.  How about another type of cake?  Cheesecake! And frosting?  I have been thinking about caramel lately and I haven’t worked with it much so I went with a caramel buttercream.  I hope the flavor combination isn’t confusing!

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Cereal Cake

Adapted and inspired from here, Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook, and here.

This makes one 5 inch cake and 6 cupcakes, but feel free to use a bigger baking pan with no leftover cupcakes.

Ingredients

¾ cup cornflakes

¾ cup cold milk + a little extra

½ Tablespoon vinegar

¼ cup + 2 Tablespoon butter, softened

½ cup + 2 Tablespoon sugar  

1 ½ large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoons vanilla

1 ¼ cups cake and pastry flour

¾ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt (if not using salted butter)

¼ cup whipping cream

2 Tablespoon sprinkles

Directions

1.    Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

2.    Spread cornflakes on a baking sheet and toast in oven for 15 min or until golden.

3.    Cool completely and transfer to a bowl.  Add cold milk and steep for 15 min.

4.    Using a sieve, squeeze out the milk and top up with more to make ½ cup total. (Save cornflake pulp)

5.    Add vinegar to milk and set aside.

6.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

7.    Grease and flour a 5 inch baking pan and line 6 cupcakes.

8.    In a bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (if using).  Set aside.

9.    In a larger bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. 

10.   Add eggs and vanilla and beat to incorporate.

11.   Mix in 1/3 cup of the cornflake pulp from above.

12.   Alternately mix in flour and milk, starting and ending with flour.

13.   In a small bowl, whip whipping cream to a soft peak.

14.   Fold whipping cream into batter.  Stir in sprinkles.

15.   Bake cake for 30 minutes and cupcakes for 16 minutes.

16.   Cool cake and slice in half.

Adding whipped cream to batter to lighten it up.

Before baking.

After baking.

Liquid Cheesecake

From Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook.

Ingredients

1/2 brick of cream cheese (112g)

1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoon sugar

½ Tablespoon corn starch

¼ teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon milk

½ egg

Directions

1.   Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees F.

2.   Beat cream cheese for 2 minutes.  Add sugar and beat for another minute or until incorporated.

3.   In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and salt.  Beat in milk, then egg until thoroughly mixed.

4.   Gradually add the egg mixture to cream cheese mixture as you beat on medium speed.  Beat for 3 minutes.

5.   Pour batter into a small baking pan lined with aluminum and bake for 15 minutes.

Liquid cheesecake after baking.

Caramel Buttercream Frosting

From here.

Ingredients

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tablespoon water

1/4 cup whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup salted butter at room temperature

2 cups icing sugar

Directions

1.  In a small saucepan, heat sugar and water on medium-high heat until it bubbles and turns a light to medium brown.

2.  Mix whipping cream and vanilla, and slowly add to caramel while stirring.

3.  Cool until room temperature, and chill in the fridge.

4.  Beat butter until fluffy.

5.  Sift in icing sugar and beat until smooth and fluffy.

6.  Add caramel sauce and beat until fluffy and completely incorporated.

Assembly

1.    Place bottom layer of cake on serving tray and slide strips of parchment paper underneath to catch frosting.

2.    Pipe a ring of buttercream on edge of cake.

3.    Fill with liquid cheesecake.

4.    Place top layer on top.

5.    Frost with buttercream.

6.    Decorate with ruffles, flowers, and dragees.

7.    Remove parchment paper when finished.

From upper left, clockwise: Adding a buttercream ring, filling with cheesecake, adding 2nd layer, frosting cake.

Adding ruffles.

To assemble cupcakes, core cupcakes, fill with liquid creamcheese, frost with caramel frosting.

Assembling cupcakes. I had leftover caramel sauce that I drizzled on top.

Verdict:  I really liked the way the cake looked after decorating it.  I super loved the ruffles!  The caramel buttercream frosting was delicious and the liquid cheesecake was amazing.  The cereal cake was good and moist, but did not have a strong cereal flavor.  My friend was surprised by the cake and couldn’t wait to try it!