These Lucky Charms Cupcakes are made with cereal milk and topped with a marshmallow buttercream frosting.
Magically Delicious Lucky Charms Cupcakes
It would be a crime to not use the word ‘magically delicious’ to describe these cupcakes right? The goal was to capture the flavor and fun of Lucky Charms cereal within a cupcake for a nostalgic and festive treat (St. Patrick’s Day dessert perhaps?). These cupcakes are made with cereal milk that’s been infused with the sweet, toasty flavors of Lucky Charms.
Why You’ll Love These Cupcakes
- Using the reverse creaming method to make the cupcake batter yields a super moist and tender cupcake.
- Marshmallow frosting on top invokes the spirit of most people’s favorite part of Lucky Charms. I prefer the cereal part over the marshmallows but I’ve also been told I’m crazy lol. d
- Perfect for any fun occasion such as St. Patrick’s Day.
Ingredients Needed
Ingredients for Cupcakes
The Lucky Charms cupcakes follow a very traditional vanilla cupcake recipe. The main difference is using cereal milk as the primary liquid. A little bit of vinegar added to the milk as well turns it into what one could think of as a ‘cereal milk buttermilk’. Don’t worry, you don’t taste the vinegar!
- Lucky Charms Cereal: use the original or try out seasonal variations to change up the marshmallows.
- Whole Milk: full fat, whole milk will give you a richer, moist cupcake. If you would like to reduce the fat, then I’d recommend 2% milk, but avoid skim milk.
- Cake flour: I highly recommend using cake flour if you have it or can easily buy it. If you do not have cake flour, in a pinch you can substitute 3 tbsp (22.5g) of all-purpose flour with cornstarch.
- Unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- One large egg, at room temperature: to quickly warm up your egg, soak it in a bowl of hot water for 5 minutes.
- Vinegar: vinegar is added to the cereal milk to turn it into a buttermilk. Do not skip this step as it’s crucial to give the cupcakes rise and keep them moist.
- Vanilla extract
- Baking soda and baking powder
Ingredients for Marshmallow Frosting
I was originally going to do marshmallow frosting the long way–aka use egg whites to make a marshmallow meringue. That quickly fell off my list as I honestly just did not have it in me to go through that process lol. Instead, this frosting uses marshmallow fluff and a high ratio of butter to imitate a marshmallow meringue frosting.
- Butter, softened to room temperature: you can use either salted or unsalted butter. Since marshmallow fluff is on the sweeter side, I find that a little bit of extra salt doesn’t hurt to balance out the flavors.
- Marshmallow fluff: nothing fancy needed, just the stuff from the plastic jar
- Powdered sugar
- Vanilla extract: there is a little more vanilla extract in this frosting than I typically would use since it contributes well to the marshmallow flavor.
- Salt
- Cereal milk
How to Make Cereal Milk
Cereal milk was popularized by Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar. The original version was made with cornflakes, but it’s something you can customize with almost any type of cereal. Also, Milk Bar sells a cereal milk ice cream that you can buy and if you’ve never had it please stop what you’re doing and go get some because it’s 11/10 hehe.
To make cereal milk, think about if you poured milk over your cereal and left it sitting a little too long.
- Combine one cup of Lucky Charms with one cup of milk. Make sure there are both oat-y bits and marshmallows in the cereal. Stir and let them sit together for 20-30 minutes.
- Use a spoon to gently mash up some of the cereal as it gets softer to really infuse flavor into the milk. The milk may turn a pale blue or purple from the marshmallows.
- Strain the milk into a jar or cup, making sure to fully strain out the cereal and marshmallow bits. Stir in a teaspoon of sugar, and then the milk is ready to use!
Tips & Tricks
- Make sure to scrape down the sides of your bowl, often: when mixing together ingredients, especially when adding in liquids into fat, it’s important to pause a few times to scrape down the sides of your bowl. This ensures an even, homogenous batter.
- Make the cupcakes ahead of time: if you are going to be short on time the day when you’ll be serving these cupcakes, you can actually make them the day before and store them in an airtight container. Then, the day-of, all you need to do is make the frosting.
- Use fresh leavening agents: Baking soda and baking powder lose their effectiveness over time. If your leavening agents are well over a year old, or you’ve noticed your bakes not coming out with quite as good a rise, it may be time to replace them.
- Try out different cereals: if you loved making these cereal milk cupcakes, the fun part is you can substitute Lucky Charms for a different cereal and follow the same recipe. Some cereals will be better than others (I think bran might be rather bland lol), but go wild and experiment!
Pin & Save for Later
Not ready to bake yet but want to come back to this recipe? No problem! Simply hover over any image in this post (or tap on mobile) to save this recipe to your favorite baking Pinterest board.
Feel free to check out some other cake and cupcake recipes as well!
Lucky Charms Cupcakes
Magically delicious cupcakes made with Lucky Charms cereal milk and topped with a silky marshmallow frosting
Ingredients
Cereal Milk
- 1 cup (8 oz) whole milk
- 1 cup Lucky Charms (cereal and marshmallows combined)
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
Cupcakes
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1½ cups (185g) cake flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ⅔ cup cereal milk
- 2 tsp vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 tbsp colorful sprinkles
Marshmallow Frosting
- ¾ cup butter, softened
- 1 cup marshmallow fluff
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2-3 tbsp cereal milk
Instructions
- To make the cereal milk, combine Lucky Charms and whole milk in a cup or bowl. Let them sit for 20 minutes, checking in halfway to gently mash some of the marshmallows and cereal pieces into the milk. Strain the milk to remove the cereal bits and then stir in the 1 tsp of sugar.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line 12 cupcake tins.
- In a mixer bowl, combine the sugar, cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix for 30 seconds to combine.
- While mixing on low speed, drop in the softened butter, one tbsp at a time. Beat it with the flour mixture for about 2 minutes, or until the mixture resembles sand.
- Whisk ⅔ cup of cereal milk, the vinegar, vanilla extract, and egg together until well blended. While running the mixer on low speed, start slowly streaming in the liquid, pausing a few times to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- After adding the liquid, beat for about a minute, until the batter is smooth. Stir in the colorful sprinkles.
- Fill the cupcake tins to ¾ full. Bake for 21-23 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.
- To make the frosting, start by beating butter, marshmallow fluff, and salt together for 1-2 minutes. Then, beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Add the milk, one tablesppon at a time until you achieve your desired consistency (less milk = thicker frosting). Continue beating for 2-3 minutes, or until the frosting is light and fluffy.
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