Mickey Mouse Rice Krispie Treats

The day Maddie and I left for our trip to South Carolina, some friends from church were throwing a baby shower for the wife of one of the teachers at our school.  I was sad to have to miss the shower, but I offered to help if there was something I could do ahead of time, since I knew I would be busy packing and preparing for our trip that week.  They asked me if I would make some rice krispie treats, dipped in chocolate, and I readily agreed.  I thought it would be a quick and easy project, and it would have been, until a friend suggested making Mickey Mouse shaped rice krispie treats.  The mother-to-be loves everything Mickey and Disney, and since it was going to be a Mickey-themed shower, the Mickey treats would be perfect, but much more labor-intensive than simply making treats the ordinary way (as I had planned to do!).

I started by mixing up a batch of rice krispie treats.  I just used the recipe on the back of the box, but I will share it here.

Rice Krispie Treats

6 cups rice krispie cereal

10 oz. package of marshmallows

3 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place butter and marshmallows in a large microwave-safe bowl.  Heat on high for 3 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes.  Add vanilla and stir until smooth.  Add cereal and stir until coated.

 Once I had it all mixed up, I took large sheets of aluminum foil and lightly misted them with cooking spray.  I put the Mickey cookie cutter on the foil, and then I started packing hunks of the rice krispie mixture into the cookie cutter.  I made sure it was packed all the way to the edges, and I patted down the tops of the treats to make them as level as I could.  It was a sticky job, and I found that it helped to periodically spray my fingertips with cooking spray to keep the sticky mixture from caking to my fingers.

 Once the treats were shaped, I pushed down gently on the treats with one hand, while carefully lifting the cookie cutter with the other.  The treats held together pretty well as I removed the cookie cutter, but they were still very pliable, and I could fix them up a bit if they got misshapen.  After I had each batch shaped, I took the foil sheet of treats and placed it in the refrigerator to harden a bit.  I found that each batch made about 9 large treats, but the number would obviously depend on the size of your cookie cutter (mine was quite big).  By shaping my treats right in the cookie cutter (instead of cutting them from a larger sheet of treats with the cookie cutter), I was able to eliminate a lot of wasted treats and use every bit of the mixture.
I had planned to dip the Mickey ears in melted chocolate, but because of the angle of the ears, I had trouble dipping them and making them look nice.  I ended up frosting the ears with the melted chocolate.  I just used melted chocolate chips, and they worked well.

Here's how the ladies decorated for the shower.  SO cute!

I was pretty happy with the way the treats turned out, and I heard that the ladies at the shower enjoyed them.  They were a fun little project (that would have been a little less stressful had I been making them on a normal week), and they were perfect for the shower.  I was glad I got to have a little part in the shower even though I couldn't be there myself.