Lucky Charms Cake Food

LUCKY CHARMS™ CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350° F. Spray 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray; line bottoms with cooking parchment paper circles.
• Make cake batter as directed on box. Stir in food color. Divide batter between pans. Bake about 30 minutes or until tops spring back when touched in center and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on cooling rack 10 minutes before turning out and cooling completely.
• Meanwhile, remove marshmallows from cereal box to bowl, and set aside.
• Trim off rounded cake tops. Place one layer on cake plate; drop a few tablespoons frosting on center of cake. Spread frosting evenly over cake; top with second layer. Drop about 1/3 cup frosting onto top cake layer, and spread over top and down sides in thin layer to create a "crumb coat-it's totally fine if you get crumbs in this frosting layer; this acts to seal in the stray crumbs before a final frosting.
• Refrigerate crumb-coated cake 1 hour. Pile remaining frosting on top of cake, and spread evenly over top and sides, making as smooth of a frosted surface as possible. Decorate cake with marshmallows by placing them in neat rows around outside of cake. To decorate top of cake, start with a single marshmallow in center, and encircle it with rings of marshmallows until cake is completely covered in marshmallows.

LUCKY CHARMS CHEESECAKE

Steps:

• Place the milk and 1 cup of the cereal in a medium bowl and let sit until the milk takes on the cereal flavor, about 30 minutes. Strain the milk and discard the cereal. Set the milk aside.
• Meanwhile, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the marshmallows and stir continuously until melted, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining 3 cups cereal until coated.
• Press the mixture into a 9-inch springform pan and let cool completely at room temperature, about 30 minutes.
• Combine the gelatin with 1/4 cup water in a small microwave-safe bowl and set aside to soften, about 5 minutes. Beat the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, sour cream, lemon juice and vanilla together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until completely smooth, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the cereal milk. Continue to beat on low until completely incorporated, about 1 minute.
• Microwave the gelatin, stirring as needed, until melted, about 30 seconds. Add the gelatin to the cream cheese mixture and beat on medium speed to combine, about 30 seconds. Pour the cream cheese mixture on top of the cereal crust and smooth out the top if needed. Refrigerate until completely set, at least 4 hours and up to overnight.
• Evenly divide the white chocolate among 3 small bowls. Heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan until boiling. Remove 2 tablespoons of the cream to a small bowl and color with the yellow food coloring, then pour over the chocolate in one of the bowls. Color another 2 tablespoons of the cream with the blue food coloring in the same manner and pour over the chocolate in another bowl. Color the remaining 2 tablespoons cream with pink food coloring and pour over the last bowl of chocolate. Let all three bowls of chocolate sit for 5 minutes, then stir until completely smooth.
• Open the clasp of the springform pan to unmold the cheesecake. Drizzle the colored chocolate in alternating sections around the edge. Sprinkle more cereal on top of the cake in a ring inside the colored-chocolate edging. Pipe or dollop whipped cream inside the cereal circle and top each dollop with a Lucky Charms® marshmallow.

LUCKY CHARMS® LEPRECHAUN HAT CAKE

Steps:

• Line 10-inch round cake pan with sheets of plastic wrap. Lightly coat plastic wrap with cooking spray.
• In large heavy-bottomed stockpot or Dutch oven, melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows; cook, stir occasionally, until marshmallows are melted and well mixed with butter. Stir in cereal with large rubber spatula. Pour cereal mixture into pan; press in pan with buttered fingers. Cover; refrigerate until solid, about 2 hours.
• Meanwhile, heat oven to 350°F. Spray 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray; lightly flour pans.
• In very large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and eggs with electric hand mixer on low speed until combined. Scrape down side of bowl; beat again on medium speed until well combined and no streaks of dry cake mix remain.
• Divide batter evenly among 6 bowls, about 1 1/3 cups each. Using food color, tint 1 bowl of batter red, 1 orange, 1 yellow, 1 green, 1 blue and 1 violet. Pour 1 color of batter in each pan. Cover remaining 4 bowls of batter; refrigerate until needed.
• Bake cake layers 18 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans 5 minutes; remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely.
• Wash and dry cake pans. Bake 2 more colors of batter, repeating above steps. Repeat process until all 6 cake layers are baked and cooled.
• Remove Cereal Treat from refrigerator; unwrap. Place upside-down on serving platter so flattest part of cereal treat is turned upright. Spread small amount of vanilla frosting in center of cereal treat layer. Top with violet cake layer; lightly frost top of violet layer. Place blue cake layer on top of violet layer; lightly frost top. Continue in this manner with green, yellow and orange layers. Place red cake layer on top but do not frost.
• Place remaining frosting in large bowl. Add green food color; mix with electric hand mixer on medium speed until a vibrant green shade is achieved. Frost entire cake with green frosting.
• Using chocolate cupcake icing fitted with plain round tip, draw lines of frosting around base of cake to create "hatband." Fill in lines with more chocolate icing; smooth with off-set metal spatula. Press 4 pretzels into chocolate icing to create "square buckle." Break last pretzel in half; place 1 half horizontally to right of center of buckle to create "buckle latch." (Eat remaining half of pretzel!) Store cake loosely covered with plastic wrap at room temperature.