Every October, I make my candy corn rice krispies treats and wonder what other fun, festive shapes I could make with a triangle. It wasn’t until I was cleaning up all the pieces of the Elf board game at a friend’s house did I notice the triangular shape of Buddy’s hat! So, these Elf Hat Rice Krispies treats were born to be a fun way to make an easy, no bake holiday treat. Even though I am weeks away from putting up my Christmas tree, I made these elf Rice Krispies treats as a trial run. Plus, I wanted to nail the technique so I could share it with you! While kids love them, I know a lot of adults that cite Elf as their favorite Christmas movie (myself included). So, make them for the kids or make them for your holiday party–everyone loves them!
The Ingredients
Rice Krispies. Buy the small 9-ounce box of Rice Krispies cereal for this recipe. We only need 4 ¼ cups + 2 tablespoons of cereal, so you will have some left over. The small box contains roughly 9 cups of cereal. Marshmallows. We need one small bag of mini marshmallows. Buy the 10-ounce bag of mini marshmallows, because we will use 5 cups of marshmallows. It is almost the entire bag, but not quite. Butter. Each layer needs a small amount of butter; we need 5 tablespoons total, so not quite an entire stick of butter. Food Coloring. I prefer to use food gel because it’s much more concentrated. The liquid food coloring requires so much in order for the color to be vibrant, and it can flavor the dessert in a bad way. I use these gel food colorings, about 5 drops for each layer, but you can add more, if you like. Buttercream. To keep this simple, you can buy a can of already made buttercream frosting and dye it red. I had some leftover vanilla buttercream frosting in my freezer, so I defrosted it, added red food gel to the bag, squished it together and then squeezed it into a piping bag fitted with a leaf tip. I’m so happy that I didn’t even have to dirty a bowl!
How to Make Buddy the Elf Hat Rice Krispie Treats:
First, spray an 8 or 9" cake pan with cooking spray (or grease with extra butter). For slightly thicker treats, I use the 8-inch pan.
Other Candy Red Feather Ideas:
Buttercream - I used buttercream frosting that I dyed red with red food gel for the Elf feather here. I put my Wilton Leaf Tip #70 in the bottom of a disposable pastry bag, add the red buttercream, and pipe in a flat line before quickly pulling up to make the tip of the feather. Practice a few leaves on a plate, and then scrape it back into the bag. Licorice - Instead of piping a feather with buttercream, use a red licorice piece. You can also get the pull and peel licorice, and braid it to make it look like a feather. Cereal - Because we’re using a round pan, you could make a little space in each of the 8 triangles and fill it with cereal treats dyed red. Use a leaf/oval shaped cutter to remove some of the green/yellow cereal, and dye a small batch red. (Use ¾ cup marshmallows, 1 tablespoon butter and ¾ cup of Rice Krispies–same as the center layer). Press it very flat and know that the underside will be the display side.
Other Christmas Desserts:
Chocolate Orange Cake Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies Pistachio Pudding Cookies
*This can be store-bought buttercream in a can, or you can make my vanilla buttercream frosting.
Wilton Decorating Tip, No.70 Leaf
