Back to childhood with treats that use cereal

The entrepreneurial spirit in this town is so thick you could frost a cake with it. So when I heard of Jen Lee, an employee in Pinterest’s marketing department who recently launched a dessert business using rice cereal, I was both curious and skeptical.

“The idea originated when I was in college and wanted to make dessert for people with simple ingredients such as cereals using a microwave in my dorm room,” says Lee. “I was nicknamed the ‘Cereal Killer.’”

Lee said the response she got by taking her treats to parties was overwhelming, and she began to wonder whether she was on to something. After a few positions at Google, and a new job at Pinterest, she decided to see what it was like to handle every component of starting a business. So she built a website, loaded up on ingredients and Red Spatula was born.

I was tempted to dismiss Lee’s business as a knockoff of the iconic Rice Krispie Treat, found in lunch boxes across the country. But her creations are more ingenious than the recipe on the back of the box. She’s come up with flavors like matcha green tea, churro, mango-coconut cheesecake and miso sesame. (They’re $10.50 for a half dozen, $21 a dozen.)

Other businesses have been getting in on the cereal-for-dessert twist. Frozen Kuhsterd, a popular Bay Area food truck that serves scoops of frozen custard, makes three flavors using milk steeped in cereals: Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Corn Flakes and oatmeal. (One of the big trendsetters: Momofuku Milk Bar in New York City, which has offered cereal-inspired desserts for several years.)

Cereals are appearing more as novel toppings on doughnuts at places like Psycho Donuts in Campbell and San Carlos, Voodoo Doughnut in Portland, Ore., and California Donuts in Los Angeles. At these shops, they dip pillowy doughnuts into sugar glazes and then into colorful cereals like Cap’n Crunch, Fruity Pebbles and Froot Loops. To some, that might be overkill. But to a sugar diva like me, it sounds like a justifiable reason to buy larger pants.

Lee mostly sticks to Rice Krispies, though she also tried — and loved — the results from Golden Grahams. She uses a special silicone mold to make her marshmallow-enriched treats, which gives them a fun, conelike shape. I don’t own one of those, and since my husband will divorce me if I bring home one more kitchen tool, I decided to use a muffin pan.

The Red Spatula business is still in the infancy stage, with treats only available by preorder and via pickup in Potrero Hill and Palo Alto, though she will also ship. To accommodate the people with special diets, Lee is happy to make them vegan or gluten-free.

Sounds like a sweet business plan to me.

Red Spatula Cereal Treats: (408) 803 0659 or www.redspatulasf.com