These Rainbow Rice Krispies in a rainbow arch in every color of the rainbow are the cutest! Using the standard, easy rice krispie treat recipe and some food coloring, you just need to form, slice, and enjoy.
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Why We Love This Recipe
- Just like regular rice Krispie treats, this recipe is easy to make, and no-bake.
- We love the soft pasel rainbow colors, but you can make them brighter just by adding more food coloring.
- These are great to make with kids.
- They taste so good!
- They're perfect for a rainbow special occasion.
These rainbow cookies are perfect for celebrating. Make them for a St. Patrick's Day celebration, your next rainbow birthday party, art or unicorn themed party, or just for anytime. Or make these rainbow Rice Krispies to celebrate the first day of spring.
We love rainbow food, like our rainbow poptarts, or our rainbow grilled cheese sandwiches.
These rainbow Rice Krispies are really easy to make, there's just quite a few steps involved. I think they're worth the effort, because they're really so cute. This fun treat is sure to impress friends and family. And what could be yummier than a good old rice krispie square?
Ingredients
- Marshmallows -You can use regular large marshmallows or mini marshmallows in this recipe. Do make sure they're fresh, because they melt more easily.
- Food Coloring -We used inexpensive liquid food coloring from the grocery store in this recipe. These produced the soft pastel colors that we loved. If you want a more vibrant rainbow, you can use more intense gel food coloring.
Substitutions
Not a fan of food coloring? Look for natural food dyes in the health food section of the grocery store.
How To Make This Recipe
Rather than putting these colorful treats into a baking pan and making squares out of them, we form them into the perfect rainbow arches.
We started with a long purple tube like piece that was our center, and then built out each color, arch, by arch. It's pretty easy to shape.
Tip: The rice krispies are super sticky when they're warm, and you need to work with them while they're warm so that they're nice and pliable. To fix this problem you can coat your hands with a little butter, or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
Do be careful if you're baking with kids for this step. Make sure they're not too hot for little hands.
1. Make each of the colors of the rainbow separately and add them layer by layer until you've built the whole rainbow. The layers use different amounts of ingredients, since we want our arches to be even, so need a smaller amount of rice Krispies treats for the center, and more as we move outward. Be sure to follow the amounts of ingredients for each specific layer in the recipe card below.
Start by creating the purple layer of the rainbow as the first layer.
Combine the butter with the marshmallows. Heat in a small pan over medium heat, until all the marshmallows and butter are melted. Remove from the heat and add the purple food colouring and stir to fully combine. Then stir in the rice krispies, and combine fully.
While it's still warm, turn the mixture out onto a piece of wax paper or parchment paper, and form it into a long tube like shape, about 14 inches long. Use a spatula to shape it while it's warm, and then your hands once it's cool enough to handle. Coat your hands with butter, or spray them with nonstick cooking spray to avoid them sticking to the rice krispie treats.
2. Next create the blue layer of the rainbow with your second batch. Combine butter and marshmallows. Heat in a small pot over medium heat, until all the marshmallows are melted. Remove from the heat and add the food coloring into the marshmallow mixture and stir to fully combine. Then stir in the rice krispies.
While it's still warm, turn the mixture out onto another piece of parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray, and form it into a rectangle shape that's about 14 inches long -the same length as the purple centerpiece. Flip it onto the purple layer and use your hands to shape it into an even layer and form the blue arch.
3. Next create the green layer of the rainbow. Combine the butter with the marshmallows. Heat in a small pot over medium heat, until all the marshmallows are melted. Remove from the heat and add food colouring to the melted marshmallows and stir to fully combine. Then stir in the rice krispies.
While it's still warm, turn the mixture out onto a piece of parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray, and form it into a rectangle shape that's about 14 inches long -the same length as the purple centerpiece. Flip it onto the blue layer and use your hands to shape it evenly and form the green arch.
4. Next create the yellow layer of the rainbow. Combine the butter with the marshmallows. Heat in a small pot over medium heat, until all the marshmallows are melted. Remove from the heat and add food colouring and stir to fully combine. Then stir in the rice krispies.
While it's still warm, turn the mixture out onto a piece of parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray, and form it into a rectangle shape that is about 14 inches long -the same length as the purple centerpiece. Flip it onto the green layer and use your hands to shape it evenly and form the yellow arch.
5. Next create the orange layer of the rainbow. Combine the butter with the marshmallows. Heat in a small pot over medium heat, until all the marshmallows are melted. Remove from the heat and add food colouring and stir to fully combine. Then stir in the rice krispies.
While it's still warm, turn the mixture out onto a piece of parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray, and form it into a rectangle shape that's about 14 inches long -the same length as the purple centerpiece. Flip it onto the yellow layer and use your hands to shape it evenly and form the orange arch.
6. Lastly create the red layer of the rainbow. Combine the butter with the marshmallows. Heat in a small pot over medium-low heat, until all the marshmallows are melted. Remove from the heat and add food colouring to the melted marshmallow mixture and stir to fully combine. Then stir in the rice krispie cereal.
While it's still warm, turn the mixture out onto a piece of parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray, and form it into a rectangle shape that's about 14 inches long -the same length as the purple centerpiece. Flip it onto the orange layer and use your hands to shape it evenly and form the red arch.
7. Let the colorful rainbow rice krispie treats set and then cut into slices ½ - ¾ inch thick. Optional: add some gold sprinkles to one side as some gold at the end of the rainbow. Be sure to add them right after you cut the slices, so that it's sticky enough for the sprinkles to stick. Or dip one end in some melted chocolate or candy melts and then sprinkle with gold sprinkles.
Storage
Store these at room temperature, in an airtight container, or wrapped with plastic wrap.
Rainbow Rice Krispies Party Favors
These rainbow treats are a great addition to party. They would be a really fun idea to use as a party favor, just package them up individually in a cello bag and tie with some rainbow ribbon for gift giving.
These rainbow cookies are a crowd pleaser. And once you make your cereal treats rainbowed shaped, you might never want to go back to make them into a boring square shape in a baking dish again.
More Recipe Inspiration
Frequently Asked Questions
No, because you need the rice Krispies mixture to be warm to form the arches, so you will want to make a new small batch for each color. Otherwise by the time you divide the batch into six, add food coloring, and form each arch it will be cooled off and set and too hard to work with.
Yes, if you want regular squares that have rainbow layers, just add them to an 8 x 8 baking pan sprayed with cooking spray. You might want to even up the amounts though, so that each layer is the same size.
If you want bolder more vibrant colors, try using gel food color and adding more until you're happy with the color.
With these amazing rainbow Rice Krispie treats, life really is a party!
If you tried this Rainbow Rice Krispies Recipe or any other recipe on my blog please leave a star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!
Recipe
Rainbow Rice Krispie Treats
Ingredients
Total For Entire Recipe:
- 7 ½ cups rice krispies
- 4 ½ tablespoon butter
- 400 g bag of regular marshmallows
- food coloring
- optional: gold sprinkles and white chocolate
Purple Layer
- ½ tbsp butter
- 8 large marshmallows or 1 cup mini marshmallows
- 1 cup rice krispies
- purple food coloring or red and blue food coloring
Blue Layer
- ½ tablespoon butter
- 8 large marshmallows or 1 cup mini marshmallows
- 1 cup rice krispies
- blue food coloring
Green Layer
- ¾ tablespoon butter
- 10 large marshmallows or 1 ¼ cup mini marshmallows
- 1 ⅓ cup rice krispies
- green food coloring
Yellow Layer
- ¾ tablespoon butter
- 10 large marshmallows or 1 ¼ cup mini marshmallows
- 1 ⅓ cup rice krispies
- yellow food coloring
Orange Layer
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 12 large marshmallows or 1 ⅔ cup mini marshmallows
- 1 ½ cup rice krispies
- orange food coloring or red and yellow food coloring
Red Layer
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 12 large marshmallows or 1 ⅔ cup mini marshmallows
- 1 ½ cup rice krispies
- red food coloring
Instructions
- Purple LayerStart by creating the purple layer of the rainbow as the first layer. Combine ½ tablespoon butter with 8 large marshmallows, or 1 cup of mini marshmallows. Heat in a small pan over medium heat, until all the marshmallows and butter are melted. Remove from the heat and add purple food colouring (two drops of red and two drops of blue) and stir to fully combine. Then stir in 1 cup of rice krispies. While it's still warm, turn the mixture out onto a piece of wax paper or parchment paper, and form it into a long tube like shape, about 14 inches long. Use a spatula to shape it while it's warm, and then your hands once it's cool enough to handle. Coat your hands with butter, or spray them with nonstick cooking spray to avoid them sticking to the rice krispie treats.
- Blue LayerNext create the blue layer of the rainbow with your second batch. Combine butter and marshmallows. Heat in a small pot over medium heat, until all the marshmallows are melted. Remove from the heat and add the food coloring into the gooey marshmallows mixture and stir to fully combine. Then stir in the rice krispies. While it's still warm, turn the mixture out onto another piece of parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray, and form it into a rectangle shape that's about 14 inches long -the same length as the purple centerpiece. Flip it onto the purple layer and use your hands to shape it into an even layer and form the blue arch.
- Green LayerNext create the green layer of the rainbow. Combine the butter with the marshmallows. Heat in a small pot over medium heat, until all the marshmallows are melted. Remove from the heat and add food colouring to the melted marshmallows and stir to fully combine. Then stir in the rice krispies. While it's still warm, turn the mixture out onto a piece of parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray, and form it into a rectangle shape that's about 14 inches long -the same length as the purple centerpiece. Flip it onto the blue layer and use your hands to shape it evenly and form the green arch.
- Yellow LayerNext create the yellow layer of the rainbow. Combine the butter with the marshmallows. Heat in a small pot over medium heat, until all the marshmallows are melted. Remove from the heat and add food colouring and stir to fully combine. Then stir in the rice krispies. While it's still warm, turn the mixture out onto a piece of parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray, and form it into a rectangle shape that is about 14 inches long -the same length as the purple centerpiece. Flip it onto the green layer and use your hands to shape it evenly and form the yellow arch.
- Orange LayerNext create the yellow layer of the rainbow. Combine the butter with the marshmallows. Heat in a small pot over medium heat, until all the marshmallows are melted. Remove from the heat and add food colouring and stir to fully combine. Then stir in the rice krispies. While it's still warm, turn the mixture out onto a piece of parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray, and form it into a rectangle shape that's about 14 inches long -the same length as the purple centerpiece. Flip it onto the yellow layer and use your hands to shape it evenly and form the orange arch.
- Red LayerLastly, create the red layer of the rainbow. Combine the butter with the marshmallows. Heat in a small pot over medium-low heat, until all the marshmallows are melted. Remove from the heat and add food colouring to the melted marshmallow mixture and stir to fully combine. Then stir in the rice krispie cereal. While it's still warm, turn the mixture out onto a piece of parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray, and form it into a rectangle shape that's about 14 inches long -the same length as the purple centerpiece. Flip it onto the orange layer and use your hands to shape it evenly and form the red arch.
- Let the colorful rainbow rice krispie treats set and then cut into slices ½ - ¾ inch thick. Optional: add some gold sprinkles to one side as some gold at the end of the rainbow. Be sure to add them right after you cut the slices, so that it's sticky enough for the sprinkles to stick. Or dip one end in some melted chocolate or candy melts and then sprinkle with gold sprinkles.
Dannyelle says
All the great taste of classic rice krispie treats, but so fun and the cutest ever!