There's nothing quite like waking up to a hot breakfast of bacon and eggs, pancakes, and a glass of orange juice, but there are few people who actually start their day that way. Most of us rely on the simplicity of cereal. It first worked its way on to breakfast tables in the late 1800s, but people have been playing with their food over the last 100 years or so and cereal has landed on the dinner table, in snack packs, and (our favorite) on a dessert platter. Cereal is worthy of honor and as today is National Cereal Day, we've selected some of our favorite dessert recipes that pay homage to breakfast cereal.

Captain Crunch Strawberry Shortcake

Captain Crunch Strawberry Shortcake by American Cupcake
Cap'n Crunch is plenty sweet, but it is probably the least over-the-top cereal of the Saturday morning cartoon variety. Unless you get the one with crunchberries, it's a pretty straightforward crunchy corn cereal — which is the quality it lends to this strawberry shortcake. It's an impressive use of cereal — it layers pudding, preserves, a special mixture of toasted Cap'n Crunch and white chocolate, and, of course, cake. Serve it with a tall glass of milk and you have a balanced breakfast for dessert.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cupcakes

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cupcakes by The Crepes of Wrath
Cinnamon Toast Crunch is one of the more subtly sweetened cereals, which makes it an excellent ingredient for a simple, cinnamony cupcake. This recipe isn't quite as complicated as the shortcake, but it's just a little more involved than a regular cupcake. It uses a cinnamon batter in two layers separated by a layer of cereal. It's baked, topped with frosting, and sprinkled with Cinnamon Toast Crunch for a magical merger between breakfast and dessert.

Froot Loop Cereal Milk Cake

Froot Loop Cereal Milk Cake by Sweetest Menu
If you're looking to repurpose the milk left in the bottom of your cereal bowl, this recipe can use up a fair amount of it (this is just the first of many!). This recipe uses a generous amount of Froot Loop milk in the batter of a butter cake as well as the frosting for a Tucan Sam-approved dessert.

Fruity Pebble Meringues

Fruity Pebble Meringues by I am a Food Blog
This recipe skips the milk altogether and instead doubles down on crunch by combining Fruity Pebbles and meringues. If you've made meringues before, this recipe won't be that hard to carry out — it's as simple as whipping up egg whites and folding in the Fruity Pebbles, scooping them onto a cookie sheet, and letting them sit in a warm oven for a few hours, which you definitely wouldn't want to do with milk. The result is a light, crunchy cookie with bits of colorful cereal that's part of a complete breakfast dessert.

Trix Ice Cream Cake

Trix Ice Cream Cake by Cravings of a Lunatic
Trix are for kids but only for eating if you're working them into an ice cream cake, because only a grown-up would go to the (admirable) trouble of churning their own ice cream to be able to mix in cereal! Yes, this recipe is for homemade ice cream that's transformed into a cake with a Trix crumble base (melted butter and crushed Trix made the way you'd make a graham cracker crust). It's then topped with whipped cream and more Trix for a treat you definitely should not serve for breakfast.

Tita Chelo’s Frosted Flake Cookies

Tita Chelo’s Frosted Flake Cookies by Pati Jinich
This is the kind of cookie Tony the Tiger could tear through — both to bake and to eat. This recipe is both simpler in flavor and in execution than the Trix cake. It's a basic sugar cookie dough that's rolled in Frosted Flakes to give your cookies a little extra crunch. Serving them to little ones in the morning is not recommended, but after lunch they're gr-r-reat!

Overnight Fruit Loop Sweet Rolls {made with Cereal Milk}

Overnight Fruit Loop Sweet Rolls {made with Cereal Milk} by House of Yumm
If you're into meta breakfasts, perhaps you should add this to the menu rotation: it's breakfast cereal milk repurposed into a breakfast sweet roll. It's very similar to a cinnamon roll, but instead of cinnamon, the recipe calls for crushed Froot Loops mixed with melted butter to be rolled up into a morning bun. But that's just the filling. The dough calls for cereal milk fortified with brown sugar. Is this what the kids mean by "extra"? Because this is extra sweet, extra cereal-y, and extra delicious. To make it extra convenient, these rise overnight so you can roll out of bed and stick them in the oven and when they're done, "Follow your nose!" as Tucan Sam says.

Cocoa Puffs Cereal Milk Milkshake

Cocoa Puffs Cereal Milk Milkshake by I Knead to Eat
If you're already coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs, you'll go bonkers for Cocoa Puffs Cereal Milk Milkshake — and not just because it's tasty, but also because it's ridiculously easy to make. All you do is let the cereal sit in the milk for a half-hour and then blend it with chocolate ice cream. If you want, you can top it off with whipped cream and some extra puffs.

Cereal Milk Panna Cotta

Cereal Milk Panna Cotta by Gourmet Traveller
This recipe combines American breakfast joy with Italian cooked cream to form a multicultural chilled dessert. This recipe is slightly more ambitious than the other cereal desserts — it's a traditional panna cotta that takes a slight turn toward unconventional. It calls for toasted Corn Flakes mixed with milk which is strained before combining it with gelatin over low heat. It's then poured into molds and refrigerated until it's set. While the panna cotta is chilling, more Corn Flakes are toasted for the clusters to capitalize on the cereal's signature crunch. Served on top of the panna cotta, it's like a grown up (you can even call it classy) version of breakfast cereal. Of course this recipe can be adjusted for your favorite cereal.

Drinks As Dessert

Not all desserts are made to be consumed with a fork or spoon; some are meant to be slurped and others are meant to be imbibed.

Fizzy Trix Vodka

Fizzy Trix Vodka by Brooklyn Farm Girl Garden
Unlike the Trix Ice Cream Cake, these Trix are not for kids! The Fizzy Trix Vodka transforms the breakfast cereal into an adult beverage, but it's not as simple as mixing cereal milk with vodka and club soda. It combines cereal-infused whipping cream with cereal-infused vodka and it gets its "fizz" from egg whites and citrus juices vigorously rattled in a shaker. We don't recommend drinking this for breakfast, but it's an ephemeral blend of childhood bliss and adult diversions.

Lucky Charms Martini

Lucky Charms Martini by We are not Martha
This one's for adults who like to consume their cereal without milk. It's basically a vodka soda with a special Lucky Charms rim and garnished with the Lucky Charms marshmallows. It's best served on St. Patrick's Day for a drink that's "magically delicious."

Cereal Milk White Russian

Cereal Milk White Russian by Sweet ReciPEAs
This cereal milk drink makes so much sense. It infuses heavy cream with corn cereal favorites — Corn Pops, Cap'n Crunch, and Corn Flakes — for a breakfast cereal-rich cream. It's then mixed with whipped cream vodka and caramely Kahlua for a bold and brooding drink spiked with childhood nostalgia.

Hungry for more?

There are hundreds more over-the-top recipes to celebrate National Cereal Day. Here are a few more tastes of what you'll find on Yummly