What do you get when you combine coffee cake with Cinnamon Toast Crunch, with Cereal Milk? And a sh*t ton of crumble topping? This glorious, moist – sorry, had to – and deliciously nostalgic Cinnamon Toast Crunch Coffee Cake.
This coffee cake was ideated from a long set love for cinnamon toast crunch…. milk. I used to eat cinnamon toast crunch on the weekly. It was actually my brother who loved cinnamon toast crunch first, and I would have a bowl or two of it when my mom bought it for him. Well, fast forward a couple of years, and my love for the cereal grew tremendously. But here’s the thing…. once the cinnamon-y coating of the cereal wears off, the base of it really isn’t anything remarkable. Basically, the magic is in the coating.
Soooo… we took the best part of cinnamon toast crunch and basically infused it into the base of this coffee cake. Oh, but it doesn’t stop there. We also put the Cinnamon Toast Crunch in the crumble topping. Cinnamon toast crunch in two ways in this recipe is simply the best addition ever, and as much as I love a classic coffee cake… that just wont do it for me anymore after this one.
But now down to the nitty gritty of the recipe… all the tips, knowledge & everything to know before this one!
Making the Cereal Milk…
It’s as simple as it sounds…. with one simple tip. 🙂 Making cereal milk is literally just soaking the cereal in milk for about 10 minutes until the milk soaks up the flavors of the cereal. While the cereal is soaking in the milk, it will absorb about 1/3 cup of the milk, so you’ll be left with about 1/2 cup of cereal milk to use in the recipe!
Making the Crumble Topping…
For the crumble topping, we’ll use slightly crushed Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal! No need for it to be crushed into a powder, but rather crush it into just smaller pieces. Additionally, work with cold butter for the topping!
Coffee Cake Ingredients…
One of the simplest but most important tips is to work with room temperature ingredients for the base of the coffee cake! Room temperature ingredients (butter, milk, eggs) combine more easily than cold ingredients and overall lend for a much smoother texture. 🙂
I hope you love this coffee cake as much as my family & I do!
Cinnamon Toast Crunch Coffee Cake
12
servings30
minutes40
minutesIngredients
- Coffee Cake
10 Tbsp Unsalted butter – room temperature
3 Eggs, room temperature
1/2 Cup Cane Sugar
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
2/3 Cup Whole Milk
1/2 Cup Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal (this will be used to soak with the milk to make the cereal milk – it does not actually get baked into the batter!)
- Cinnamon Sugar Filling
2 Tbsp Cane Sugar
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon
- Crumble Topping
5 Tbsp Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal
5 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
5 Tbsp Cold Butter – cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1/2 Tbsp Cinnamon
- Icing
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
1.5 Tbsp Milk
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 and line an 8×8 pan with parchment paper Set pan aside.
- We’ll begin by preparing the cinnamon swirl and crumble topping so that once we have the cake batter prepared, we can assemble and bake! First, add the cane sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon for the cinnamon sugar filling to a small bowl and toss to combine.
- Next, cut the butter for the crumble topping into small cubes, about a half inch in size. Combine with the flour, Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal, cinnamon, and brown sugar for the crumble topping. Mix everything with your hands, lightly pressing the butter together with the other ingredients until “crumbles” form. Once these have formed, set aside.
- Thirdly, we’ll prepare the cereal milk that will go into the base of the coffee cake! Add the 1/3 cup Cinnamon Toast Crunch to a bowl with the 2/3 cup of milk. Give it a quick stir and let it sit for about 10 minutes.
- While the cereal soaks, cream the butter. Add the room temperature butter to a large bowl and mix with a hand mixer or stand mixer for about 2 minutes until smooth until creamy. Once creamed, add cane sugar and brown sugar and continue mixing for about another minute until combined.
- Then, add in three eggs, one at a time, and continue beating with hand or stand mixer, combining them with the butter and sugar.
- Next, strain the cinnamon toast crunch milk from the soggy cereal. Then, add the cereal milk to the bowl of the wet ingredients and continue mixing once more.
- Finally, add baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour to the bowl with the wet ingredients and fold together to combine until there are no pockets of dry ingredients remaining.
- Then, grab your parchment-lined 8×8 pan and add just half of the coffee cake batter to the bottom and smooth out to make even.
- Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over the first half of the cake batter, and then add the rest of the cake batter over top, spreading it evenly around the pan. Again, smooth out this second cake layer, carefully to keep the cinnamon sugar in place.
- Finally, sprinkle your prepared crumble topping over the top of the coffee cake batter and bake at 350 degrees for 44-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean
- While your coffee cake is baking, prepare the the icing by mixing powdered sugar and milk until the icing comes together.
- Let your cake cool, slice, and top with icing! Store in an airtight container.
I just bought 3 boxes of marked down Cinnamon Toast Crunch because the boxes were crumpled. I think it was a sign for me to make this!
I loveee how this came out. It tastes so good and the Cinnamon Toast Crunch gives it a good flavor. However I did have a few questions while making this. What is 1 serving? I got confused because I didn’t know if I was making to much or too little. Do I put cereal in the batter? In the ingredient list for the batter it calls for 1/2cup of cereal yet in the directions it doesn’t say to add it in. How thick is the batter supposed to be? Mine came out pretty think, the consistency is good but I don’t know If it’s supposed to be different. Overall my family enjoyed this cake:)
So glad you & your family liked it, Shelly! All great questions and it sounds like you made the cake just right! I typically cut these into 16 pieces, but a serving can be however big you like. The cereal that is listed in the recipe card is the amount of dry cereal to soak with the milk to make the cereal milk, but great question! I’ll update the recipe to call that out more clearly. 🙂 And the batter is on the thicker side, so it sounds like you made it correctly.