Made in LA: The Six-Layer Cereal Cake

Performer Charles Phoenix tests the breakfast food limit.

It's best if we start gently here, and a little slowly, and with a good amount of caution, if only because we believe that many people are still reeling from the knowledge that such a thing as a Cherpumple exists, and it is edible, and it was created -- or brought to life, rather, Frankenstein-style -- right here in Southern California.

Funny slide-show historian Charles Phoenix invented the "three different pies baked inside three different stacked cakes" dessert, a sweet that gained notoriety, cocked eyebrows, and ardent fans far beyond the borders of Mr. Phoenix's beloved home of Los Angeles.

Now the chef-hyphenate-humorist-hyphenate-retro-champion is at it again, in his famous test kitchen, and the result is probably about to blow breakfast out of the water.

Or, um, milk? That.

It's the Six-Layer Milk-Soaked Cereal Cake with Frosted Flake Frosting, and if you want to politely triumph over all other desserts at the local bake sale/pot luck, you probably only need to stand in the doorway holding this cereal-laden tower, a treat that's as tall as a shelf lined with cereal boxes is long.

The innovative kitchen tester recently paired a sextet of cereals with their appropriate flavor matches in boxed cake -- think Apple Jacks and spice cake -- and then set the oven to bake. Frosting and Frosted Flakes make up the crunchy-icing filling (and make an easy duo to remember, too).

Step-by-steps are here, with photos. Oh wow. The cakey colors. Look upon them.

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Will there be cereal cake at Mr. Phoenix's Museum of Contemporary Art talk on Sunday, Oct. 12? Since it deals with ye olde SoCal architecture -- Vintage LA is the sponsor -- the Lucky Charms-laden dessert will likely not cameo.

But that doesn't mean you can't make it yourself, at home, for friends. With the baking season soon to kick into high, gooey-dough gear, isn't it time you gave the sugar cookies a rest?

Well, no, since everyone likes sugar cookies. Let's not stir up any hornet's nests during the holidays.

Creating a cake out of six cereals, though, will make you the talk of the social season. That is, if you like being the marveled-at center of attention, of course.

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