Fruity Cereal Is All You Need For Effortlessly Decorated Cakes

There are certain professional pastry chefs and home bakers who might argue that the best part of making a cake is the joy of decorating the final product. However, when you take extra time and effort to whip up a rainbow layer cake, the last thing you probably feel like doing is learning how to make perfect flowers out of homemade frosting or spending excessive time deciphering how to properly use fondant. When decorating your next cake, if you want to keep things fun, cost-effective, and simple, you could use a few everyday pantry staples like dried coconut and fruit, toasted nuts, or even packaged sandwich cookies. However, to adorn your cake with a more colorful, whimsy alternative, why not use vibrant fruity cereal?

While most kids will rarely turn down a bowl of Fruity Pebbles, Froot Loops, or Trix, many adults also have nostalgia-related feelings toward these classic breakfast treats. Yet, besides simply dusting the top of your newly frosted cake with your favorite cereal, you may be wondering how to use this crunchy morning snack to upgrade the sophistication factor of your freshly made dessert. Before revealing additional ways to incorporate this fruity breakfast option into your next-layer cake, let's uncover some fun decorating techniques you can use with just a simple box of cereal.

Now that you have successfully added the last spoonful of traditional American buttercream to your homemade cake, how exactly can you add fruity cereal to make your cake's exterior look fancy and vibrant? Apart from simply sprinkling the top of your home-baked confection with a jumble of colors, why not take some extra time to separate the colors in this crunchy mix so you can craft rainbow layers along your cake's edges? For example, if you decide to use Froot Loops at the bottom of your cake, start by adding a row of red loops followed by orange, yellow, and so on until your cake is fully lined with a fun rainbow pattern.

You can also create your own unique pattern or design with your cereal of choice. Try creating a checkerboard pattern, or keep things extra simple and make zig-zag or wavy lines by using the frosting of your cake as the proverbial glue that holds this colorful breakfast snack in place. Whatever designs you decide to create, make sure to decorate your cake when the frosting is still wet so your efforts stay firmly in place. Now that you know how to effectively decorate your next cake with a box of your favorite fruity snack, you can explore more unexpected ways to use fruity cereal when making your next layer cake.

When dissecting a classic buttermilk vanilla cake recipe, there are several ways that you can change the ingredients to make a flavorful impact. One especially festive option is confetti cake crumbs, which are small textured bites of sweetness that usually feature rainbow sprinkles. The joyful topping was popularized by chef and author Christina Tosi, who calls them "basically a sandy version" of cake. To give these baked bits some cereal-infused flair, try adding pulverized fruity cereal in place of sprinkles for the colorful element. Use the sweet cereal-laden crumbs to adorn your next layer cake.

If you want to extend beyond the bounds of decoration, why not incorporate cereal milk into your next cake's frosting? Tosi is similarly responsible for pioneering this sweet ingredient and uses toasted cornflakes to make her signature cereal milk recipe. To make cereal milk frosting using Fruity Pebbles, all you need to do is soak a handful or two of this colorful cereal in milk for roughly 20 minutes, strain out the cereal, and then use the sweetened dairy in your next homemade buttercream frosting. Not only will cereal help you create a beautifully decorated cake, but using this iconic breakfast snack to make delicious frosting will give you double the cereal flavor.