These Rice Crispy Treat Hearts are as delicious as they are cute with my secret ingredient! Plus, I have 16 Valentine’s Day Recipes from your favorite bloggers to share with you today!

Today, I am proudly participating in the Good Cookies Food Bloggers’ Valentine’s Event, organized by Julie from The Little Kitchen. We are all linking our Valentine’s posts together today to show our support for Cookies for Kid’s Cancer!

So, if you are looking for a fun treat for the classroom Valentine’s Day party or something to tuck into lunch boxes, you will love Rice Crispy Treat Hearts!

I am so glad you stopped by today, because I’ve joined other bloggers for an AMAZING day of Valentine’s recipes!

Rice Crispy Treat Hearts 101

I am going to share with you my secret ingredient that I use for ALL  my rice crispy treats, and two neat tips to make them come out just the way you want them to!

Let’s start with the secret ingredient. This will change the way you make crispy treats FOREVER! And, your whole house will smell like one of those divine candy shops on River Street in Savannah. That in and of itself is a reason to make Rice Crispy Treat Hearts!

My secret ingredient? Cake mix. That’s right! The directions for most rice crispy treats instruct you to let them cool in the pan before cutting. This is fine, but it yields globs of sticky squares that are not easy to transport to bake sales, tailgates, etc.

OH…and if you like tips like the ones you are about to see, tailgate with me on Pinterest ,where I always share a ton!

Take It To The Tailgate Tip #1

Put the entire pan of crispy treats in the fridge to flash cool them! The butter in the treats will solidify, which makes cutting a snap with a knife or cookie cutters!If you want another peek at  how easily the treats are cut into shapes, check out my Football Cocoa Rice Crispy Treats. 🙂

Once you cut Rice Crispy Treat Hearts using a heart shaped cookie cutter, it is important to bring the treats back down to room temperature before eating. Otherwise, the fullness of the buttery flavor is not as intense
and the treats are not as easy to eat.

Take It To The Tailgate Tip #2

If you want to decorate your rice crispy treats and plan to transport them to somewhere other than your kitchen table, make sure you use Royal Icing instead of regular icing! Royal Icing hardens when exposed to air, whereas regular icing retains it’s stickiness. The latter is yummy, but causes a mess when stacked into containers like…lunch boxes!

If you want to jazz up the flavor of Royal Icing, add a few drops of peppermint or butter extract.

So, why did I partner with bloggers from all over the U.S.A today? It’s simple, really.

Did you know that cancer is the #1 cause of death of children by disease in the U.S.? There are 40,000 U.S. children actively battling cancer right now. With less than 4% of the National Cancer Institute’s budget going to all childhood cancer combined, I knew it was important for me to get involved.

Help us make a difference by donating to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer! Our goal is to raise at least $3000. Because these three companies: Dixie Crystals, Land O’Lakes and Mediavine have each pledged to match our donations raised through this campaign up to $3000!!!

Currently, we have raised: $1,465 ALMOST half way towards our $3000 goal, will you help us with a donation today? Every little bit helps!

Donate here.

For more Valentine’s Day inspiration, please stop by the following awesome blogs:

Heart-Shaped Pink Velvet Bundt Cake from Julie of The Little Kitchen
Melt In Your Mouth Sugar Cookie Bars from Julie of Julie Blanner
Frosted Sugar Cookies from Becca of The Salted Cookie
Triple Chocolate Cherry Cookies from Sue of It’s Okay to Eat the Cupcake
Fudgy Chocolate Mug Cake from Gwynn of Swirls of Flavor
Cannoli {in support of Cookies for Kids’ Cancer} from Sheila of Life, Love, and Good Food
Red Velvet Pizzelle from Liren of Kitchen Confidante
Microwave Chocolate Ganache from Melanie of Melanie Makes
Brownie Ice Cream Valentines from TammyJo of The Chocolate Cult
Frosted Chocolate Sugar Cookies from Deborah of Taste and Tell
Soft Sprinkle Sugar Cookies from Lisa of Blogghetti
Rice Crispy Treat Hearts from Heather of Totally Tailgates
Vegan Banana Chia Pudding with Blackberry Sauce from Marly of Namely Marly
Spicy Double Chocolate Chip Cookies from Becca of Two Places at Once
Coconut Almond Biscotti from Kathleen of Fearlessly Creative Mammas
Strawberry Valentine Marshmallows from Serena of SerenaLissy
Strawberry Sugar Cookies from Miranda of Cookie Dough and Oven Mitt

Happy Valentine’s Day!

xoxo,
heather

Rice Crispy Treat Hearts

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

  

• 5 cups rice cereal
• 3 tbs butter
• 1 10 ounce bag marshmallows
• red food coloring
• 1 cup cake mix vanilla, butter or white flavor

Instructions

 

• In a large Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat.
• Slowly add marshmallows, stirring until completely melted.
• Blend cake mix and food coloring into marshmallow mixture. Stir in rice cereal until it is completely coated with marshmallow mixture.
• Pour cereal mixture into a greased 13x9x2 pan. Let cool at room temperature before serving. To make cookie cutter shapes, refrigerated mixture until hardened. Use cookie cutter coated with non-stick spray. Bring treats back to room temperature before serving.