cake batter rice krispie squares

I've made a lot of rice krispie squares lately.  It's pretty random because they're really not something I would choose to make a lot of, but we've had so many marshmallows and rice krispies around that making them into squares was just a logical decision.

Side note: the reason we had so many marshmallows and rice krispies around was because at Christmas I decided I was going to make a rice krispie house instead of a gingerbread house.  It was an epic fail and because of that there were a lot of leftover ingredients.  I've long since finished using the festive version of the cereal and original bags of marshmallows, but when I had to make Shane his birthday cake, I had to stock up again... so these were born out of a desire to use up the new collection.

I've heard of using cake mix to add a distinct flavour in the treats before, and I though it was a good time to try it out for myself.  I won't lie, I didn't really taste the cake in them (and neither did one of my sisters or my mother in law) but they were still delicious.  Plus, you really can't go wrong with sprinkles.

Sprinkles.

More sprinkles.

Cake Batter Rice Krispie Squares

from gimme some oven

3 tablespoons butter

1 10-ounce bag of mini marshmallows

1/4 cup yellow cake mix

6 cups rice krispies cereal

1 1.75-ounce container of sprinkles

Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat and add marshmallows. Stir until they begin to melt, adding in cake mix one spoonful at a time so its combined. Stir in cereal so it is completely coated with marshmallow mixture. Sprinkle in half of the sprinkles and mix. Press into a baking dish (any size will do) and top with remaining sprinkles. Let sit for about 30 minutes before cutting. I find spraying a knife with nonstick spray helps to cut them.

 Note: I didn't use a container of sprinkles, I just used a few tablespoons of what I had on hand.

rice krispie cake

I should have known better then to ask my brother in law what kind of birthday cake he wanted.  I also should have known I was going to get some crazy elaborate request when it took him 10 minutes to answer.  This is what he gave me.

Peanut butter ball cake with strawberries and chocolate.  

It was then up to me to figure out what to do.  Thank you to my mother in law for helping me brainstorm!

 

Peanut Butter Balls

from the big red book

1 cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth it doesn't matter)

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup golden corn syrup

5 cups rice krispies

In a sauce pan, melt the peanut butter, brown sugar and corn syrup.  Add rice krispies and mix quickly.  While they're still relatively hot, cover your hands in butter and roll into balls.  These freeze super well.

In the case of the "cake" I opted to press the mixture into two 8" cake pans.  

Strawberry Rice Krispies

by back to basics

4 tbs butter

1 3 oz package of strawberry jello

1 250 g package marshmallows

5 cups rice krispies

On medium low heat, melt butter then add jello and stir.  Add marshmallows and stir until melted. Add rice krispies and press into two 8" cake pans.

To assemble the "cake" I started with the peanut butter layer, added a layer of chocolate frosting, then the strawberry layer and more forsting and then the other peanut butter layer.  I had an extra layer of strawberry rice krispies that I sent home with the birthday boy, but it could easily have been incorporated into the "cake".  Cover the whole thing in more chocolate frosting, and Shane's insane concoction of peanut butter balls and strawberry and chocolate was finished. 

By far this was the weirdest request for a birthday cake I've ever had.  He seemed to love it though, and that's all that really matters.  Happy Birthday Shane.

love, sweet love

I had the brilliant idea of not only having a dessert table at our wedding, but baking it all myself.  In retrospect, it was indeed brilliant, and I'm so proud of myself for pulling it off.  I must give credit where it's due and thank those who helped make it a possibility though, because while the idea was to do it all by myself, it didn't end up going down that way.

To my amazingly wonderful and talented sister, maid of honour, photographer, wedding planner, designer and recipe contributor Margie, it would not have been possible without you!

To my mom for staying with us for the week leading up to the wedding and baking the chocolate chip meringues, sour cream cookies and the chocolate bundt cakes.

To Stephanie for not only the smartie cookies, but for the problem solving that went along with them.

To Sharlene at Sweet Celebrations for such a beautiful and delicious wedding cake.

Lastly, to the women who inspired me to make a dessert table filled with family recipes to begin with.  If it weren't for those women who baked them first, there wouldn't have been a table filled with as much love and history as there was.

If I had to go back and do it again, I absolutely would. 

 

Nannie's Smartie cookies

Omi`s Mandarine Cake

Margie`s Mocha Chocolate Cake

Mom`s Chocolate Chip Meringues

 

Mom`s Neapolitans

 

Josh`s request: My Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Buttercream

Grandma`s Sour Cream Cookies and Dar`s Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Though not a part of the actual dessert table, I made 90 jars of peach jam to give to each guests as our bomboniere.

Our wedding was indeed filled with love, sweet love.