The Paisley Cupcake: Easter

My mom once told me how in her first year of marriage to my father she made him an edible easter basket out of Rice Krispies. My dad, having an insatiable sweet tooth was sure to love it. She then filled it with all the easter goodies giving him 3x the sweetness of the average easter tradition.

I decided to try it for myself....

so technically this isnt my idea but rather,borrowed from my mamacita but,

Im sure she would love me sharing her genius:)

Instead of making a giant easter basket {using a large mixing bowl as the mold} I made a "my size" individual basket out of a large-ish cereal bowl.

(I say "my size" because my dad would disagree and say the mixing bowl is an individual size treat!)

Feel free to make a large basket, just double the recipe:)

I used the recipe for Rice Krispie treats off the box and added a little extra cereal so it wasn't too sticky to mold in the bowl. I also added some sprinkles for an extra burst of springtime color!

I then sprayed {rather generously} my cereal bowl with cooking spray...as well as my hands!

Taking a handful of the rice krispie mixture, I pressed it into the bowl until I achieved my desired thickness. Repeat this process until the entire bowl is lined.

When finished it looks something like this:

Making the handle was a little tricky. Had I planned on doing this earlier, I would have made sure I had a 'bendy' straw to mold the krispies around. But, I had nothing to use as support for the basket handle so I got inventive.

*side-note: This is where high school pottery class would have come in handy. Too bad I flirted my time away in there! Sorry Mr. Teacher {I cant remember your name.}

If your teen ever complains saying they will never use what they are learning as an adult, this is a prime example of how wrong they are. Haha!

Anywho, pretending your a child using play dough, 'roll' the krispies into a thick snake. If you get it too thin you will notice it starting to fall apart when bending. In that situation ADD MORE KRISPIE!!!

I used the side of that same cereal bowl to form a "C" shape with my rice krispie snake so it would look like a handle and then threw the "C" into the freezer to harden it up a bit.

After a few minutes take the treat out of the freezer and attach it to your basket, pressing the sides of the handle into the bowl.

I put a small childrens cup inside my basket for additional support. (Never having done this before, I was concerned the handle would cave in. It didn't. So this step is optional!)

This is what my "cup-tastrophe" looked like.

Ok, So it wasnt a catastrophe but, getting that cup out wasn't as easy as I thought it would be! That's why I am totally saying OPTIONAL!

After covering it with a dish towel {I didnt want to krispies to be too hard} and letting it sit over-night. I woke up, pulled out the cup and Wal-lah!!!