Cake Decorating With Rice Crispy Figures

Sculpted or shaped cakes can seem quite intimidating. However, with the help of cake decorating rice krispies these decorative cakes come together a lot more easily than you'd think.

A batch of these rice krispies can bring a challenging cake shape to life while making the process so much more manageable.

image of cake decorating friendly rice krispie treats shaped into legs and a trunk to make an elephant cake

I've used this technique on several of my animal cakes, including my elephant cake and my Patrick Star cake and it's a total game changer.

These krispies allow you to creatively and easily shape any cake.

I highly recommend using them for larger shaped cake, especially when you want to avoid weighing down your cake with loads of additional cake or frosting.

What Makes These Cake Decorating Rice Krispies Different than Regular Rice Krispies?

These cake decorating recipe krispies don't include one very important ingredient the most regular rice krispie treats have – butter!

By omitting the butter, these rice krispie treats set quite firmly once they've cooled. This allows you to compress the into whatever shape you need, and easily frost them.

image of an elephant cake made with buttercream and rice krispie treats

What Type of Cereal Should I Use?

Any type of puffed rice cereal will work in this recipe!

I usually use classic rice krispies, but sometimes I use cocoa krispies or even strawberry rice krispies to make whatever cake flavor I'm making.

I don't recommend using different types of cereal that have a different shape because they'll be harder to shape smoothly.

What Type of Marshmallows Should I Use?

I find mini marshmallows melt down the most quickly and easily. However, you can use full-sized marshmallows if needed!

Tips for Making the Best Cake Decorating Rice Krispies

Be sure to grease your hands with non-stick spray before handling the rice krispies. This will make them much easier to shape.
Don't overheat your marshmallows! Heat them just until they're soft and fluffy, otherwise you can burn your hands when you try to handle the rice krispies.
Firmly press the rice krispies together to compact them into a firm shape. This will make them easier to frost.
As you shape your rice krispie shapes, hold them against or next to your cake to make sure they're the right size and shape.
The ideal time to make these is once you've crumb coated your cake. This way you can shape them and add them to your cake while you're still warm and flexible.
Press the rice krispie shapes against your chilled cake when they're still a bit warm to help them easily adhere to your cake.

Cake Decorating Rice Krispies Recipe Yield

This recipe makes about 4 cups of rice krispies.

This recipe can easily be halved or doubled to decrease or increase the yield as needed.

For my elephant cake I used about 4 cups of these cake decorating rice krispies.

My Patrick Star cake was slightly larger and I ended up using about 6 cups of these rice krispies to make his legs.

image of cake decorating rice krispies added to a patrick star cake to make his arms and legs

Let Me Know What You Think!

If you try this recipe for cake decorating rice krispies, I'd love to hear what think of it! Please leave a rating and let me know your thoughts by sharing a comment.

Also please tag me @chelsweets! Use the #chelsweets so that I can see your amazing creations on social media.