How to Shape Rice Krispie Treats

Modeling the rice Krispie treats has been an essential part of the cake modeling industry in the recent past. In earlier days when simple iced cakes used to be the highlight of birthday parties or weddings are now outdated.

The cake decorating specialists have upscaled their skills in recent years, leading to a boom of a new career option known as cake modeling. That’s why, for bakers and cake decorating enthusiasts, I have brought a tutorial on how to shape Rice Krispie treats from scratch.

How to Shape Rice Krispie Treats

Today, cakes, along with other ingredients like non-edible elements, also add to the edible aesthetics. However, rice Krispie treats serve as a mid-way solution to this case. Like cakes, they are tasty and can be flavored using ganache and even flavored marshmallows.

How Is Molding Rice Krispie Treats Easier Than Molding Cake?

Rice Krispie treats, along with marshmallows, act similar to modeling clay. You can sculpt them in any shape and figurine you want. And what’s more interesting is that modeling rice Krispie treats is way easier than modeling cake.

Unlike the lump of rice Krispie treats, the cake is not sticky and cannot expand and contract with applied stress. Thus, cake pieces often fall apart while modeling. 

Another disadvantage of modeling cakes into elaborate figurines is that you cannot make moderate to large hanging parts like arms or swinging cake or belly bottom of a four-legged creature as it would act against the law of gravity.

That’s where rice Krispie treats bridge the hiatus and make the cake modeling industry more competitive. The decorators now can make hanging figures, and complex structures which were earlier were unachievable.

Method #1: Rice Krispie Treats Cookie Bars

1. Coat your palms with nonstick cooking spray before distributing the mixture into the baking dish. Gently pat the mixture into the pan’s sides. The spray prevents the marshmallows from adhering to your hands and makes it easier to smooth the top.
2. Pre-coat a blade with melted butter to make cutting the treats a snap. The marshmallow will not adhere to the knife if you do this. 
3. To increase the ante on the garnishes, dip your delights in melted cocoa or toffee sauce and roll them in your preferred toppers. To keep your hands clean, insert a dowel rod or popsicle stick into the dessert.
4. Peanut butter, browned butter, chocolate chips, assorted candies, nuts, extracts and flavorings, food coloring, and various cereals are all excellent toppings to your Rice Krispie bars.

Method #2: Rice Krispie Figurine – Modeling Rice Cereal Treats Using Tools

Modeling rice cereal Krispie treats with hands can turn time-consuming and tiring. The easiest way to get over this is to use molds of different shapes.

Spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray to get started. To prevent the goodies from sticking, line the dish with overlapping sheets of wax paper.

Use a metallic mold to shape your rice Krispie treats. Many metallic molds are available in the market that can cut through the semi-hardened rice Krispie treat mixture.

For example, you can use a fish-shaped mold to make a fish figure out of the rice cereals, or you can buy clay stencils to do the same.

Method #3: Modeling Rice Krispie Treats With Hands

Most of the cake decorators use their bare hands to build something out of the lump of the Rice Krispie treats and marshmallows.

Once you have mixed the rice cereal treats with marshmallows, the lump starts coming together. However, modeling on a soft lump isn’t possible as the model would fall apart. Therefore let the mixture rest for about 15 -20 minutes or until it feels pretty hard.

Once the mixture is hardened, take a small amount of butter and rub gently on your hands to avoid the sticky mix sticking to your hand. Also, don’t forget to coat the countertop with oil, or else cleaning would be difficult.

Making a Puppy From the Rice Krispie Treats

Divide your rice cereal mixture into three parts and follow the following steps to make a puppy from the Rice Krispie treats:

1. Use the first portion of the rice cereal treat to mold the body of the puppy.
2. If you are sculpting the rice cereal treats for the first time, I advise you to use a picture for reference.
3. Also, an essential thing to remember is maintaining the alignment of the figure along with its symmetry. To ensure that what you are making doesn’t get skewed, use a support mechanism rather than building the figure without support.
4. To make the support for the figure, you can use a thick metal cable. Just cut a half-meter length of the wire and fix the cable in a dummy cake while folding it in halves for firm support.
5. After fixing the support mechanism, take a small amount of melted marshmallow and apply it to the fixed metal cable.
6. Start sticking the first part of the rice cereal lump on the metal cable. Press against the rice cereal mixture. It will make the body of the puppy more robust. If you think that the first portion wasn’t enough and your puppy looks skinny, then you can use the third portion of the rice cereal mixture to increase the volume. 
7. After making the body of the puppy, it’s time to shape its face. Use the second portion of the rice cereal treat to make a medium-sized ball. Refer to the reference photo to confirm the size of the head.
8. Apply a moderate coat of marshmallow on the top of the body and start building the head of                          
9. Now, make a small ball using the third portion of the rice cereal treat mixture. It will be the nose area of the puppy. Shape this small ball according to the reference photo.
10. For eyes, recoat your fingers using butter, and this time, use your thumbs and press on the big ball to make two small depressions on it. 
11. Finally, coat the model using a chocolate ganache as it will fill in the holes and unevenness of the surface and result in a smooth textured surface.
12. Store the puppy model in the refrigerator overnight. Lastly, for final touches, cover it with fondant and paint it using edible paints.

Conclusion

Today the demand for Rice Krispie cereals is exponentially increasing in the market. It is because of its versatility and convenience which attracts people towards it.

This is because a large part of the American population does not have breakfast in the morning. Most of them are young adults who need the energy to work bricks and bones throughout the day.

That’s why many companies came up with a convenient and full of energy food item, which is rice cereal that you can combine with marshmallows to make delicious cookies.