Lucky Charms Cake Bars

If you are looking for a sweet treat for St. Patrick’s Day or Easter, these Lucky Charms Cake Bars are the perfect dessert recipe! A layer of dyed cake is topped with marshmallows and finished with a mix of buttery white chocolate cereal.

Lucky Charms Cereal Bars

St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner and it is a big deal in our small Irish town of just 600 people. Every year we have a parade, pub crawl and a Mulligan stew community dinner. Needless to say, you don’t forget about this late winter holiday in these parts!

St. Patrick’s Day Dessert

I wanted to make a special treat that would be festive for St. Patrick’s Day, but not overly complicated. I was inspired by these Peanut Marshmallow Bars made with cereal, and put a fun and colorful Lucky Charm twist on them! These would also be great for Easter or just about any celebration with rainbows and colors.

A layer of green cake made from box mix to keep it simple is topped with fluffy marshmallows. The Lucky Charms Bars are finished off with a mix of white chocolate, butter, corn syrup and cereal mixed into one delicious bar with lots of flavor and crunch.

• Peanut Marshmallow Bars

10 Simple Ingredients

You can probably find everything you need for these easy Lucky Charms bars in your kitchen pantry and refrigerator. This recipe only calls for 10 simple ingredients. Here is what you will need

1 package white or yellow cake mix

7 Tablespoons butter

1 egg

food dye

4 cups miniature marshmallows

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

How to make Cereal Bars

Prep – These bars are a quick 30 minute recipe and you will need to have everything ready to go before you get started, so you can work quickly through each step. Do these things before you start baking, Preheat oven to 350°FSpray a 9X13 pan with non-stick sprayRemove 1/3 cup of the colorful marshmallows from your 5 cups of cereal and set aside.

Bake – Add one white or yellow box cake mix to a bowl along with 1/2 cup butter, 1 egg and a generous amount of food dye. Mix just until combined and crumbly.

Top – After the cake has baked, immediately top it with 4 cups of mini marshmallows. Return the pan to the oven and bake an additional 3 minutes.

Mix– While the bars are baking, add 2/3 cup light corn syrup, 5 Tablespoons butter and one bag of white chocolate chips to a saucepan over medium low heat. Mix until just melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla extract and salt. Immediately stir in the cereal until it well coated.

Assemble – Working very quickly, top the marshmallow layer with the cereal while it is still warm and soft. Spread the cereal evenly over the bars. Allow to rest until the bars are completely cooled before cutting into them.

Finish– Use that 1/3 cup of marshmallows you reserved and sprinkle them on top of the cereal mixture AS SOON as you spread it in the pan. Lightly press down on the marshmallows so they stick to the bars.

Pro Tips for Success

If you haven’t made many cereal bar recipes in your time, then here are a few important tips you will want to check out to be sure you have the best success with this easy Lucky Charm Bar recipe.

Press the cake into the pan lightly – Don’t pack it in hard or the cake will be dense.

Use fresh marshmallows – Save those old hard marshmallows for a cup of hot cocoa. It is important to use fresh marshmallows when baking.

Don’t overcook your sugar – For your corn syrup, butter and white chocolate mixture, be sure not to bring it to a boil and overcook it. Your chocolate could seize up and it would make the mixture too thick and chewy. You only want to heat the mixture until melted and smooth over medium-low heat.

Grease your hands – If you are using your hands to press the cereal into the pan and cover the marshmallows, butter your hands or add a quick spray of non-stick spray first. This will keep the sticky cereal bar mixture from sticking to your hands.

Don’t Fret – If there are a few marshmallow peeking out of the cereal bars, don’t worry. It happens to the best of us and they wills till taste equally delicious!

• hot cocoa

Decorating Holiday Bars

You will have 1/2 cup white chocolate chips left in the bag from this recipe. If you want to go above and beyond, melt the chocolate and drizzle it over the top of the bars. Add some color with candy dyes, but just be sure to use actual candy dyes and not food coloring. Food coloring will make the chocolate seize up.

Seasonal Decorations

If you want to add more St. Patrick’s Day flair, add some golden sprinkles or candy sequins to the top of the bars or the drizzle of chocolate.

If you are making these for a Rainbow party, then you could pick out the shamrock marshmallows and perhaps add some unicorn sprinkles. For Easter, add some chick and egg sprinkles.

Lucky Charms Marshmallows

If you manage to get your hands on a bag of Lucky Charms Just Marshmallows, you could mix in puffed rice cereal, Cheerios or just about any cereal you want. I’m sure if you have a bag of those around they won’t last long though. Who doesn’t love these nostalgic little treats.

Easy Rainbow Dessert

If you are hosting a rainbow themed party, you could dye the bottom cake layer with pink or purple and they would be such an adorable mix of sweet rainbow colors. Use just about any color or leave the cake mix without dye if you are sensitive to artificial dyes.

Lucky Charms Dessert Recipe

You can buy Lucky Charms Soft Baked Bars, but why not make these from scratch and add a fun layer of color and way more great texture!

More Bar Recipes

If you want to bring a pan of bars to your work potluck or family party, here are some more great bar recipes that are easy and impressive!

• Lemon Cheesecake Bars
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Oatmeal Bars
• Caramel Oatmeal Bars
• Strawberry Rhubarb Custard Dessert

Serving: 1 grams | Calories: 342 kcal | Carbohydrates: 54 g | Protein: 3 g | Fat: 13 g | Saturated Fat: 8 g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4 g | Cholesterol: 32 mg | Sodium: 538 mg | Fiber: 1 g | Sugar: 36 g