Cereal Dessert Bowl

Some nights you want dessert and the pantry has half a box of cereal, a few chocolate chips and a lonely toaster pastry. This is the recipe for that. The bowl cake itself is plain on purpose. It's a canvas, and the toppings are the point.

Toppings go on last

It's tempting to stir everything into the batter. Don't. Cereal goes soggy, granola goes soft, candy melts into mystery streaks. Add everything after the cake comes out, and you get a warm, soft base with crunchy stuff on top, which is the whole appeal.

Warm cake will melt chocolate chips just slightly, which is fine. Whipped cream melts too, so it goes on last of all.

Tip

A teaspoon or two of each topping is plenty. Three or four toppings in small amounts beats one topping piled high.

The honest part

The base is high-protein. Toppings are not, and they add up fast. That's not a reason to skip them, just something to know before pouring on half the cereal box.

If you like crumbling cookies onto things, the Cookies and Cream Mug Muffin builds the cookie into the cake. And the Cupcake Pancake Bowl is a more put-together bowl with a yogurt frosting.

Try this

Match the powder flavor to the toppings. Chocolate powder under chocolate cereal, cake batter under sprinkles and candy.