This cake would be my complete homage to milkbar. Corn and cereal milk. That’s literally it. Hot milk cake is a cake that uses warm milk to create a tender crumb and batter. By using cereal milk instead, you then have a hot cereal milk cake, which I find to be an instant one-up. On top of that, I used the cereal milk in a ganache with blonde chocolate, to accentuate that toasty flavor, and I made mini corn cookies to adorn the tops of my cakes with. With cereal milk, that sweet and salty corn-like flavor can be used in a lot of ways beyond what we did with it in milkbar, so I wanted to highlight it here. The idea of steeping cornflakes into milk to infuse that flavor is genius, and it needs to be embraced! These cakes were a ton of fun to make, and if you’re looking to get into either cereal milk or hot milk cake, I highly recommend trying this recipe out!

For the cereal milk:
3 cups cornflakes
2 cups whole milk

Toast the cornflakes in a 350 degree F oven for 8 minutes. Allow them to cool slightly. Pour the cornflakes into your milk and allow them to steep on medium-low heat for another 10 minutes. Pass the mixture through a cheesecloth-lined sieve to remove all of the soggy cereal. Puree about 1/4 cup of the soggy cereal into a fine mixture.

For the hot milk cake:
8 tablespoons browned butter
1 cup cereal milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup pureed cereal
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons Japanese corn powder
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Once you have made your brown butter, pour into that pot your cereal milk and bring it to a simmer. In a bowl, whip together your eggs, sugar, cereal puree, vanilla, and corn powder. In another bowl, sift your flour and baking agents together. Pour the heated milk and butter mixture over the eggs and whisk until just lukewarm. Fold in your flour mixture. Divide the batter amongst four lined mini loaf pans. Bake these at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes. Cool them down completely before attempting to unmold.

For the ganache:
1/2 cup cereal milk
1 tablespoon Japanese corn powder
1/2 cup blonde chocolate
a pinch of salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

In a pot, whisk the cereal milk with corn powder first until the corn powder has thickened the milk. Take off heat and whisk in the chocolate, salt, and butter until combined. Cool down completely before attempting to spread on top of your cakes.

For the cookies:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons cereal milk
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup Japanese corn powder
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Whip the butter with sugar until pale brown in color. Sift your flour, corn powder, and baking agents together. Fold all of your ingredients together to form a loose dough. Place 1 tablespoon-sized balls of dough about 2 inches apart on a lined sheet tray. Bake at 375 degrees F for 8 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool completely before plating.

For the Chantilly cream:
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons cereal milk
1 teaspoon confectioner’s sugar
a pinch of salt

Whip to stiff peaks.