It's easy to make pale yellow or bright yellow Rice Krispie Treats using just 4 ingredients. These no-bake desserts can be colored to match your team or school colors or can be used to make cute baby chicks for Easter or Minions or Big Bird treats for a birthday party.
No matter the shade of yellow you'd like to color your Rice Krispie Treats, you can do so by simply adding yellow food coloring to our Best Rice Krispie Treat recipe.
The trick is knowing when to add the coloring and how much coloring to use to get the desired shade of yellow.
Keep reading and I'll tell you how.
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Ingredients
- Rice Krispies Cereal - We always recommend using Kellogg's Rice Krispies. We think they have the best texture and flavor.
- butter - We recommend using salted European-style butter (with a higher butterfat content than American-made butter). It will give your treats the very best flavor. See our taste test results for more information.
- marshmallows - We recommend using Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows because they produce perfectly chewy treats. Some store-brand marshmallows are too sticky once melted and are difficult to blend with the cereal. If you do use them, you may need to add up to an extra cup of cereal. You can use mini or large marshmallows. See our marshmallow conversion chart for details about measuring marshmallows.
- yellow food coloring - You can use liquid food coloring that you buy at the grocery store or you can use gel or paste icing coloring. We don't recommend using powdered coloring as it is more difficult to dissolve in melted butter and marshmallows.
See the recipe card for quantities.
Equipment
- extra-large mixing bowl - You want to use a bowl that allows you room to mix the cereal and marshmallows together.
- medium-large (3 or 4-quart) saucepan - I like using a non-stick pan so the marshmallows don't stick too badly.
- 9x13-inch baking pan - If you use a non-stick pan and grease it with butter, the treats will easily slide out of the pan. If you use a glass pan or aluminum pan, you might want to line it with parchment paper or non-stick tin foil.
- silicone spatula - If you grease a silicone spatula (or Spoonula) with butter or baking spray, the cereal treat mixture won't stick. You can also use a wooden spoon but I'd grease it too.
- optional, zip-top bag or disposable pastry bag - Use this or a spoon to drizzle the white chocolate over your treats.
Instructions
Follow the directions below to make yellow-colored cereal treats.
Cut the butter into small pieces and place them in a medium-large saucepan set over LOW heat.
Allow the butter to begin to melt then pour in the marshmallows and toss to coat in the butter.
Stir often until about 75% of the marshmallows have melted.
Remove the pan from the heat so the marshmallows don't get too hot.
Stir until the marshmallows completely melt.
Add a few drops of yellow food coloring and stir until blended.
If the color is not bright enough for you, add a few more drops of coloring.
The color should be slightly brighter than you want your treats to be. Once you add the cereal it will dull the color.
Tips
It's always best to add a few drops of food coloring to the marshmallows at a time. You can always add more but you cannot lighten the color if it gets too bright.
Rice Krispies are light tan in color which can affect the final color of your treats. That's not too much of an issue when mixing warm colors like yellow but it can affect cool colors like blue and purple.
Pour the yellow-colored marshmallows over the Rice Krispies Cereal.
Stir the marshmallows into the cereal until it's well blended and the color is evenly distributed.
Gently spread the cereal treat mixture into a well-greased 8-inch or 9-inch square pan.
Let the treats cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting them into 12 rectangles or 16 squares.
making bright yellow treats
You can create varying shades of yellow treats by adjusting the amount of liquid yellow food coloring or you can use a variety of gel or paste food coloring instead.
To make brighter yellow Rice Krispie Treats, you can continue to add more liquid yellow food coloring until you get a really bright yellow.
Or you can add drops of AmeriColor Electric Yellow Food Coloring. This gel coloring will give your treats a super bright, almost neon-yellow color.
AmeriColor has a variety of yellow food coloring including yellow, lemon yellow, egg yellow, electric yellow, and even lemonade. You will be able to achieve any yellow color you like.
I used the AmeriColor Electric Yellow to color these marshmallows.
It made very bright yellow Rice Krispie Treats.
You can see the difference between the yellow treats in the picture above. You can achieve any shade of yellow that you want by adding more or less coloring. You can also add a drop of orange to get a nice orange-yellow color or add a drop of green to make yellow-green treats.
Substitutions
You can swap out coconut oil for the butter and use vegan marshmallows and vegan and gluten-free crisp rice cereal to make vegan and gluten-free cereal treats.
Variations
Once you've made a batch of yellow crispy treats, you can use them to make something cute like these Baby Chick Rice Krispie Treats.
Or, these fun Emoji Rice Krispie Treats.
Top tips
Do not overheat your marshmallows! The sugar in the marshmallows will caramelize when heated too much and this will cause your treats to be hard.
Also, do not smash the cereal into the baking pan or you will compact the treats too much which will also make hard treats.
Storage
Store these treats in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
To keep them longer, you can freeze them in an airtight container or zip-top bag for up to 3 months.
Related Recipes
If you'd like to make other colored treats, be sure to check out these recipes.
Recipe
Yellow Rice Krispie Treats
Ingredients
- 4 ⅔ cups Rice Krispies Cereal
- 4 tablespoons salted butter
- 10 ounces marshmallows
- 3-15 drops yellow food coloring
Instructions
- Grease an extra-large mixing bowl, an 8-inch or 9-inch square non-stick baking pan, and a silicone spatula or wooden spoon with butter or baking spray.
- Pour the cereal into the mixing bowl and set aside.
- Cut the butter into small pieces and place in a medium-large saucepan.
- Set the pan on the stove over LOW heat.
- Allow the butter to begin melting then add the marshmallows.
- Stir every few minutes until about 75% of the marshmallows have melted. Then, remove the pan from the heat and stir until melted, allowing the residual heat in the pan to continue melting the marshmallows.
- Alternatively, you can melt the marshmallows and butter in the microwave. Heat on high power for 1 minute then let the bowl rest in the warm microwave for 3 minutes. Remove and stir until melted and smooth. If needed, heat for additional 10-second bursts of high power, resting and stirring after each until melted. Do not overheat the marshmallows or your treats will be too hard!
- Add a few drops of yellow food coloring and mix until well blended.
- Continue adding more drops of yellow coloring until you achieve the desired shade of yellow. It needs to be a little brighter than you want your treats to be because the cereal will dull the color.
- Pour the yellow marshmallows over the cereal and stir until the yellow marshmallows are well blended with the cereal.
- Gently spread the cereal treat mixture into an even layer in the greased pan.
- Set aside for at least 30 minutes before cutting into 12 rectangles or 16 squares.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Tips
Use European-style salted butter for the very best flavor. Do not overheat the marshmallows or your treats will be too hard.Storage
Store your treats in an airtight container for up to 5 days or freeze them in a zip-top bag for up to 3 months.Large Batch Ingredients
If you want to make a larger batch of yellow Rice Krispie treats, follow the instructions above using this list of ingredients. Spread the mixture into a 9x13-inch pan.- 7 cups Rice Krispies Cereal
- 6 tablespoons salted butter
- 16 ounces marshmallows
- yellow food coloring
Elizabeth Mawder says
Thanks for all the great tips. These treats are sooooo good! I used them to make bumble bees for my daughter's birthday party. The kids loved them.
Beth Klosterboer says
How fun! It's great to hear the kids loved their yellow bumble bee Rice Krispie Treats.
Terry Fallsgrave says
I made some yellow smiley face treats and your tips were very helpful. The treats were really delicious too! Thanks!
Beth Klosterboer says
That's great! I'm happy you loved the taste and found the tips helpful.