Basketball Krispie Treats

Last Spring, when my son played Little League Baseball, I made these cute Baseball Treats for his team.  This Spring, he played basketball for the first time and I wanted to make a similar treat for his last game this weekend.  They were really fairly simple to make and they were a big hit with the kids.  They'd also be fun for a March Madness party or any sports-themed event.

Here's what you need: (makes 24 treats)

• 8 cups Rice Krispie cereal
• 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
• 1 bag marshmallows
• orange food coloring (optional)
• orange melting chocolates
• brown melting chocolates

Here's what to do:

1.  Just like with regular Rice Krispie treats, melt your butter and marshmallows in a large pot over medium heat.  (Add some orange food coloring if you wish to tint the treats themselves. ) 

2.  Remove from heat, then stir in your 8 cups of cereal.  Stir until the cereal is coated with your marshmallow mixture, then spoon into greased muffin tins.  Use a piece of waxed paper coated with cooking spray to push the mixture into the muffin tins.

3.  Allow the treats to cool in the tins as you melt your orange melting chocolate.  (I have this Chocolate Melting Pot that I love for this kind of treats.  It keeps the melted chocolate at the right consistency so I can dip a whole bunch of treats without reheating.)  Dip one side of your Krispie Treats in the melted orange chocolate  (I dipped the smoother side that was pressed against the bottom of the tin).

4.  As the orange chocolate is cooling, melt your brown chocolate for the lines.  (When I made the Baseball Treats last year, I attempt to pipe it on using a ziploc bag and it was really tough.  This year, I used these  Mini Decorating Squeeze Bottles and it was SO much easier.  I just melted the chocolate, then poured it in the bottle.) 

 If you're just serving the treats on a tray at a party, I'm sure you could just use regular frosting instead of the chocolate.  However, the chocolate lines are great if you're packaging the treats up because they won't smear.

Excuse the crappy picture, it was late at night and I didn't see how blurry it was.

5.  Next, just squeeze on your lines on the basketballs.  I simply made a cross, then two curved lines on either side. 

6.  It went super quick with that squeeze bottle and I cranked out 24 cute basketballs in no time.

7.  I made up a simple little bag topper (printable here), then packaged up two basketball treats in a sandwich bag for each teammate.

Funny little story:  When I showed the bags to my son, he didn't understand it at first.  I had to explain that "had a ball" is an expression meaning "had a good time".  As he was passing out the treats, he explained the expression to each kid to make sure they understood.

Sharing our slam dunk at:

Brassy Apple 
Craft-O-Maniac 
Under the Table and Dreaming 
The Girl Creative 
Lines Across My Face
A Turtle's Life for Me 
Sun Scholars 
Tatertots and Jello
One Artsy Mama 
I heart NapTime 
C.R.A.F.T.