Cereal bars… but not as you know it! This recipe is inspired by what I believe is one of the best flavours around, but one which not many people talk about. Underrated if you will. It’s a flavour that I (like many I’m wiling to bet) associate with my childhood; malty, sweet and moreish… I am of course, talking about cereal milk.
Specifically, that mega sweet milk you get to enjoy at the end of a sugary cereal, it’s such a good flavour! So I decided to incorporate it into cake form. This recipe consists of ultra moist and malty, thick and fruity sponge, topped with a lovely sweet cereal milk icing. Childhood flavours that are combined into a recipe that will please people of all ages!
I’ve chosen classic Frosties for my recipe, given that they’re so damn sugary and create the king of the cereal milks. You can use any sugary cereal, but the sweeter it is the better this will taste. Indulge yourself! Frosties are also good because they go nice and soft; for this cake recipe you’ll be mixing the cereal into the cake batter, so using a cereal which will blend well with the other ingredients is ideal for good texture and even flavour.
Cereal Milk Cake Bars
- Makes 6-8
- 100g Frosties
- 200ml whole milk
- 180g butter
- 250g golden sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 100g plain flour
- pinch of salt
- 100g sultanas
- 200g icing sugar
Make Your Cereal Cake Sponge
First you will need to pre heat your oven to 170c and grease and line a 23cm square baking tin. Naturally, square tins work best for cakes that you will cut into square or rectangular shapes. (Funny that!)
To begin making your cereal cake bars, we’ll start with making the cereal milk. In a bowl add your milk and Frosties. Give them a little stir, making sure they’re all submerged in the milk then simply leave them to sit whilst you prepare the cake batter. Your milk is going to soak up all the sugary deliciousness.
In another bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar. Once light and fluffy add the eggs and whisk or stir until thoroughly combined. Stir in your vanilla and salt. Sift in your flour and using a wooden spoon, fold in the flour until it is fully combined and a smooth batter has formed. Mix in your sultanas and fold once more.
Your cereal milk is now ready. Drain the cereal but keep the milk! This will form your icing. Use a sieve to separate the cereal from the milk or better yet a cheese cloth. Give the cereal a good squeeze to get out as much milk as possible. Once separated, add your Frosties to the cake batter and stir in. This will give your cake a lovely malty taste and extra moisture.
Pour the batter into your tin and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck into the cake comes out clean. Once cooled remove from the mould and cool on a wire rack.
Make Your Cereal Milk Icing
Okay, the crowning glory! That lovely icing with a sweet hit of cereal milk goodness. In a bowl add your milk and stir in spoonfuls of the icing sugar. Avoid adding the icing sugar all at once; depending on how much milk you kept back you may need to adjust how much icing sugar you need. You don’t want to dilute this icing with any water and reduce the cereal milk flavour. Keep stirring until all lumps are dissolved.
Your icing should be nice and thick so that it slowly falls off a spoon. Once your cake has cooled, spoon the icing on top and spread evenly over the cake. Leave to cool and set. Finally, you can cut your cake into bar pieces and enjoy.
If you aren’t enjoying these with a group in one sitting, I recommend keeping your cake bars in the fridge to prolong their shelf life, as the recipe contains milk.
Plain flour?
You’re right to query this! Cakes usually use self raising to give that light and fluffy texture. For these cereal bars I want them to be dense just like a cereal bar; they’re well on their way to being a blondie!
Wooden spoon for folding flour
This is a tip I picked up years ago and it made a noticeable difference to my baking. For speed and ease I use an electric whisk for beating wet ingredients. I used to use my whisk for the flour as well, until I learned that this can over work the gluten and lead to a cake with a tough texture. Not ideal! When it comes to the flour, by switching to a wooden spoon to carefully fold in the flour, you’ll notice a real difference in the texture of your bakes.
Pin it for later
I love to see your baking! I hope that you love this recipe, and if you give it a try I would love to see! You can tag me at @jogirleatsworld or use my hashtag #cookiteatitliveit. All recipes shared on Instagram I share on my stories for everyone to see and save them to a dedicated highlight of recipes you guys have tried. Happy baking!
