This Fruity Pebbles Cake recipe is about to rock your world! I’m beyond excited to share with you a recipe that will elevate your cake game to a whole new level of fun and flavor! Picture this – a luscious white cake base (from a box mix!) decorated with a fruity burst of color and crunch from everyone’s favorite childhood cereal. Are you ready to embark on this whimsical baking journey to make this easy Fruity Pebbles cake from a mix? This is going to be a good one!
Jump to Recipe
Ingredients for Easy Fruity Pebbles Cake
Before we get into this baking adventure, let’s make sure we have all the ingredients ready to go. There really aren’t that many ingredients for this cake, so I hope you find this Fruity Pebbles cake recipe easy and fun!
For Fruity Pebbles Layer Cake:
- 1 box of white cake mix (I used Pillsbury)
- 3 large eggs (Or whatever your box mix calls for)
- 1 cup whole milk (Replace water in your cake mix for milk. After all, we are adding Fruity Pebbles cereal, so we might as well use milk!)
- 1/2 cup oil (Or whatever your cake mix calls for)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon lemon extract (This is optional. I actually forgot to add mine when I first baked this, and I think it still came out delicious!)
- 2 cups Fruity Pebbles cereal (Divided in half)
For Fruity Pebbles Buttercream Frosting:
**Note: You will most likely have to double this recipe to frost your whole Fruity Pebbles layer cake! I usually make one batch of frosting at a time, because you have to chill your cake halfway through the frosting process, and I don’t like to leave my frosting sitting out while my cake chills.
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- ¼ cup Fruity Pebbles Cereal (Plus extra for optional decorating)
How to Make Fruity Pebbles Frosting
Now, let’s talk about the heart and soul of this Fruity Pebbles cake recipe – the Fruity Pebbles frosting! I always say “the frosting makes the cake,” and I think that is really true for this Fruity Pebbles layer cake. This creamy concoction will not only hold your layers together but also infuse that unmistakable cereal-inspired flavor. Here’s how to whip it up:
1. Prepare this step a little ahead of time. Put your Fruity Pebbles cereal and milk in a small bowl and let the cereal soak in the milk for at least 20 minutes.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together your softened butter until light and fluffy. Give it a good go and let it mix for around 2 minutes so that it gets nice and fluffy. This will help with the overall frosting texture later.
3. Slowly add the powdered sugar to your butter. Keep mixing at a low speed, so you don’t spray powdered sugar everywhere!
4. Finally, add in your milk and Fruity Pebbles cereal. Mix everything until smooth.
And voila! Your Fruity Pebbles Buttercream Frosting is ready to take center stage on your easy Fruity Pebbles layer cake masterpiece.
Special Cake Decorating Tools
These tools are not all “required” per se, but I would highly recommend you use them! They just make your life so much easier and your cake decorating experience less stressful overall.
To make this Fruity Pebbles layer cake, you will need:
- Three 8-inch round cake pans (I actually only own 2, so I just baked my cake rounds in 2 batches)
- Parchment paper cut in the shape of your cake pans
- Cake board (This is kind of optional. If you have a large, circular flat plate, you could use that too. I like cake boards because they are flat, sturdy, and if I mess them up, oh well!)
- Offset spatula
- Bench scraper (This helps get the frosting nice and flat on the sides and top of your cake!)
- Cake turntable (Optional but highly recommended. I just use a little lazy susan that I got at Target.)
- Cake leveler (You can use a knife if you are really, really good at cutting in flat, straight lines. I am not good at that, so I use a cake leveler to ensure my cake rounds are all even)
- Piping bags and tips for decorating (If you’re feeling extra fancy, you can use a star tip. If you’re feeling kind of basic, you can use a plain round tip. More on decorating below!)
Decorating Fruity Pebbles Layer Cake
Before we get to actually making the cake, I just want to explain some quick points about how to decorate a layer cake. First of all, decorating cakes is not something that is super difficult, but it does take time and some practice! That being said, try to read through the detailed instructions at the bottom of this post to help make your layer cake adventure a little less stressful.
You could decorate this Fruity Pebbles cake a couple of different ways. The easiest way, in my opinion, is to make it a “semi-naked” cake. A semi-naked cake uses less frosting overall, and has less steps for decorating. It’s kind of like the bare minimum of layer cake decoration. If you want a more detailed tutorial on how to decorate a semi-naked cake, I have a post about it using a chocolate cake as an example.
For the purposes of this post, I am going to make this a simple cake coated in delicious Fruity Pebbles buttercream. This means that I will almost definitely end up using at least 2 batches of buttercream frosting. I will elaborate more on the steps for this type of decoration in just a bit!
How to Make and Decorate Easy Fruity Pebbles Cake from a Mix
Now, let’s put all of this together to make our Easy Fruity Pebbles Layer Cake from a box mix. Get ready for some nostalgically delicious cake!
1. Put your milk and 1 cup cereal in a bowl together. Keep the other 1 cup separate for now. Let them soak for about 20 minutes while you prepare everything else.
2. Preheat your oven to 350°F, or whatever temperature is specified on your cake mix box. Line your pans with parchment paper and grease them thoroughly. I don’t own circular parchment paper, so I just trace my pans with a pencil on top of regular parchment paper, and then cut them out to place in the pans.
3. Put your cake mix, eggs, vanilla and lemon extracts and oil in a bowl and mix until smooth.
4. Add your milk and cereal mixture from before and mix until smooth.
5. Add in the additional cup of Fruity Pebbles cereal and fold into your cake batter.
6. Divide up your cake batter evenly between your 3 greased and lined pans. I like to use a measuring scoop and drop dollops of batter in one pan at a time to ensure I have the same amount of batter in each one.
7. Bake your cake batter until the edges are lightly golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. White cake burns kind of easily. If the top of your cake is golden, it might already be burnt.
Let your cake rounds cool completely before frosting.
8. After your cake rounds have cooled completely, use a cake leveler (or knife) to level off the tops of each cake round. Try to preserve as much cake as you can, but you do want a flat top to ensure that your cake doesn’t wobble!
9. Put some frosting in a piping bag with a plain round tip. Put a smidge of frosting in the middle of your cake board (or flat plate), and set your first cake round down on it.
10. Pipe some frosting around the edges of your cake round, and then fill it in with frosting. Use an offset spatula to smooth it.
11. Put your second cake layer on top. Pipe around that cake layer, fill it in with frosting and then smooth it.
12. Put your final cake layer on top. You want a thin layer of frosting on top for now! Pipe around the cake layer and only fill it in maybe halfway. Smooth it flat.
13. Coat the outside of your cake with a thin layer of frosting. Use your bench scraper and press it lightly against the side of your cake. Turn the cake on a turntable to scrape a flat, smooth, thin layer of frosting.
Chill your cake in the fridge for at least an hour or 2 before moving on! You have just applied what is called the crumb coat. This is your cake’s foundation, and we need it to be chilled and sturdy before adding more.
14. After your cake has chilled, add your final coat of frosting. Pile some Fruity Pebbles buttercream on top of the cake, and smooth it flat. Then, put on a thicker layer of frosting on the sides of your cake and use your bench scraper to smooth it. I think this video is really helpful in showing you how to do this!
Store your easy Fruity Pebbles layer cake from a box mix in the fridge to keep it fresh.
You can also press some extra Fruity Pebbles into the sides of your cake, on top or your cake or wherever you want for some extra decoration. I did it on a whim, and was super pleased with the results! It really added a punch of color, flavor and texture. And who doesn’t love all of those things in pretty cake?
I hope you enjoy this recipe, and that it brings back happy memories of childhood for you like it did for me! I would love to hear about your experience with this recipe in the comments. Happy baking!
If you like this Fruity Pebbles Layer Cake, check out:
-
Chocolate Layer Cake with Bailey’s Frosting
-
Strawberry Lemon Layer Cake
-
Funfetti Cake Pops
-
Strawberry Cake Pops (3 different flavors)
Fruity Pebbles Layer Cake
Ingredients
Fruity Pebbles Cake
- 1 box white cake mix
- 3 eggs Or the number of eggs your cake mix calls for
- 1 cup milk Replace any water your cake mix calls for with milk. It may or may not be 1 cup.
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil Or however much oil your cake mix calls for.
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp lemon extract optional
- 2 cups Fruity Pebbles cereal Separated into 1 cup portions
Fruity Pebbles Buttercream Frosting (x2 to make whole Fruity Pebbles Layer Cake)
- 1 cup butter softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup Fruity Pebbles cereal Plus additional for decorating
Instructions
Make Fruity Pebbles Cake Layers
- Put your milk and 1 cup of Fruity Pebbles cereal together in a bowl. Let them soak for about 20 minutes while you prepare everything else.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F, or whatever temperature is specified on your cake mix box. Line your pans with parchment paper and grease them thoroughly.
- Put your cake mix, eggs, vanilla and lemon extracts and oil in a bowl and mix until smooth.
- Add your milk and cereal mixture from before and mix until smooth.
- Fold in 1 cup of extra Fruity Pebbles cereal
- Divide your cake batter evenly between 3 greased and lined cake pans. I used 8-inch rounds. If you use 9-inch rounds, consider doubling this recipe so that your rounds aren't too thin!
- Bake your cake batter until the edges are lightly golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. For me this took about 15-18 minutes, but it could depend on your oven.
- Let your cake rounds cool completely before removing them from the pans and frosting.
Make Fruity Pebbles Frosting
- **Note: You will need 2 batches of frosting to fully decorate this cake. I like to make 1 batch of frosting to do the initial crumb coat, and then make my second batch fresh when the crumb coat has set and the cake has chilled.
- Put your milk and Fruity Pebbles in a bowl together and let them soak for about 20 minutes.
- Mix your butter until it is smooth and creamy. This can take 2-3 minutes.
- Slowly add the powdered sugar to your butter. Keep mixing until it is well incorporated.
- Add in your milk and cereal mixture from above and mix everything until smooth and there are no lumps of sugar or butter.
To Assemble Fruity Pebbles Layer Cake
- After your cake layers have cooled, level off the top of each cake layer.
- Fill a piping bag with frosting and a plain circular tip. You can also just cut the tip off of a piping bag and use no piping tip if you prefer.
- Place a smidge of frosting on a cake board, and place 1 cake round on top of that frosting.
- Outline your cake round in frosting, and then fill it in with more frosting. Smooth it flat with an offset spatula.
- Place your second cake round on top of the bottom one. Repeat the process of outlining the cake round in frosting, filling in with more frosting and smoothing flat. Place your last cake round on top and put frosting on that in the same way.
- Chill your cake in the fridge for at least an hour to let this crumb coat set. Or, if you're in a hurry, you can put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes.
- Make your second batch of frosting while your cake chills.
- Add your final layer of frosting with your second batch.
- Add any decorations you wish. You can sprinkle the outside with some extra Fruity Pebbles cereal, or add buttercream swirls of frosting around the edges of your cake.
