It's so easy to brighten up your cereal treat recipe and make them more fun. These Rainbow Rice Krispie Treat Pinwheels will be the hit at your next party or holiday celebration.
The first step is the most important, actually making the Rice Krispie Treats! Head on over to my new website, HowToMakeRiceKrispies.com, to see how we taste-tested 20 versions of the Rice Krispie Treat recipe to come up with the absolute BEST Rice Krispie Treat Recipe.
As I was making my Rainbow Peeps Cereal Treats last week, I started to think about other ways to make a festive-looking rainbow cereal treat.
Over the past year, I've made and shared a few recipes for rice krispie treat pinwheels and thought I'd use that technique to make a rainbow-swirled treat. These other treats were quite large and only used 2 or 3 colors.
Being I wanted these treats to have 6 colors of the rainbow and be about the same size as a traditional marshmallow cereal treat, I had to find a different technique for rolling the pinwheels.
After many failed attempts I finally found that creating stripes of colors in a large 12x18 inch pan and then rolling the thin sheet of rice krispie treats up into a long log before slicing it worked the best. I'll show you how in the step-by-step tutorial and video below.
Ingredients
butter - I recommend using European-style salted butter for the best flavor. I love using President or Kerry Gold butter to make my marshmallow crispy treats.
marshmallows - I highly recommend using Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows or Campfire Staypuft marshmallows. They taste great and are not too sticky once melted. Store-brand marshmallows tend to be very sticky. If you use them, you may want to add an extra cup of cereal.
crisp rice cereal - After conducting taste tests on all of the Rice Krispie treat ingredients, we found Kellogg's Rice Krispie Treats have the best flavor and texture.
food coloring - You can use gel, paste, or liquid food coloring to color the marshmallow when making these treats.
Supplies
You can find items needed to make these Rainbow Rice Krispie Treat Pinwheels on Amazon.com (commission earned for sales).
Instructions
- Grease a 12-inch by 18-inch sheet pan with butter
- Line the pan with parchment or wax paper then butter it too.
- Melt 1.67 ounces of mini marshmallows (one heaping cup) with ½ tablespoon of butter in the microwave on high power for about 45 seconds.
- Stir until melted.
- If needed, heat for additional 15-second increments, stirring after each, until melted.
- Color using food coloring (start with purple).
- Stir in 1 cup of Rice Krispie cereal.
- Press into a 2-inch row along one of the long edges of the pan.
- Repeat creating blue, green, yellow, orange, and red/pink.
- Remove the rice krispie treats from the pan and begin to roll the purple row.
- Continue rolling until you have created a long log.
- Cut into 1-inch thick slices revealing all the colors.
Watch the VIDEO TUTORIAL to see this process in action.
Video
Pro Tips
- I wore food-handling gloves which I buttered well and nothing stuck to them. If you aren't wearing gloves, butter your hands well.
- I find it easiest to use my hands to mix the cereal into the marshmallow.
- If you do that then be sure your hands are clean before mixing each color. You don't want to blend the colors together.
- If you wear gloves that are buttered nothing will stick!!!
- If you want to see larger swirls of color, make your stripes going across the short side of your pan. This will also make much larger cereal treats.
- You can melt two bowls of marshmallows in the microwave at a time. Heat them a bit longer, if needed.
These rainbow-swirled treats are perfect for birthday parties and holidays. See all of my Easter recipes, here and all my St. Patrick's Day recipes, here.
You might also like these other fun Rice Krispie Treat recipes and food crafts.
Red & Green Rice Krispies Treat Pinwheels • Red, White & Blue Rice Krispie Treat Pinwheels
Cocoa Crispy Treat Peanut Butter Fudge Pinwheels • Rainbow Peeps Cereal Treats
Rice Krispie Treat Chicks • Rice Krispie Treat Dolphins
Rice Krispie Treat Coffee Mugs • Cocoa Krispies Treat Easter Bunnies
Recipe
Swirl rainbow-colored rice krispie treats into pretty pinwheels for St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Birthday parties and more.
- 10 ounces mini marshmallows
- 4 tablespoons salted butter, plus more to grease pan
- 6 cups Rice Krispies Cereal
- purple blue, green, yellow, orange, and pink food coloring
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Run a line of butter around the inside edges of a 12 x 18-inch baking pan.
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Set a piece of parchment or wax paper down on the pan then rub more butter over it.
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Set aside.
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Equally divide the marshmallows (a heaping cup of each) into 6 microwave-safe bowls.
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Cut the butter into ½ tablespoon pieces and set one piece in each bowl of marshmallows.
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Heat each bowl on high power for 45-75 seconds until melted.
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Remove and stir.
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Repeat, melting all the marshmallows.
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Add purple coloring to one bowl and stir until well combined.
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Add one of each of the remaining colors to the remaining bowls of marshmallows.
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Stir 1 cup of Rice Krispies Cereal into each bowl.
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Scoop the purple cereal treat mixture out of the bowl and stretch it out over the long edge of the prepared pan.
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Flatten it into a 2-inch wide strip.
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Add a blue strip next to the purple one then add a green, then yellow, orange, and pink strip.
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Press the seams together so the colored strips are well sealed.
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Run a knife or plastic scraper around the edge of the pan loosening the cereal treat.
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Carefully flip the pan over allowing the rainbow rice krispie treats to fall out onto your work surface.
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Peel the paper off the treat.
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Begin rolling the treat along the long edge (either the purple or pink strip).
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Roll it, pinching together any cracks, until you have an 18-inch long log.
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Using a sharp knife, cut the roll into 12-18 slices and they are ready to serve.
For the best flavor, use European-style salted butter like President Butter or Kerrygold Butter.
Your rainbow cereal treats will taste the best the day they are made but you can store them in an airtight container for up to 1 week. You can also freeze your treats in an airtight container for large zip-top bag for up to 3 months.
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Cindy
If you made it the day before, would you leave it whole and wrap it, or go ahead and slice?
Beth
I think either way would be fine as long as your store the treats in an airtight container. If you just plan to wrap it in Press 'n Seal or Tin foil then leaving it whole would be best. Enjoy!
joyce s
Super cool...I’m making these for my nieces unicorn birthday party! Thanks for the idea and recipe
Beth
I'm so happy to hear you are making these! I hope your niece thinks her special treat is magical. 🙂
The Partiologist
I love how you rolled that rainbow into one adorable treat!
Beth
Thanks!!! I'm glad you like them.