Lucky Charms® Leprechaun Hat Cake

When I was a kid, the ditty went “pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, green clovers, blue diamonds and purple horseshoes.” The Lucky Charms marshmallow shapes have changed a bit through the years (I especially loved the addition of red balloons in the late ‘80s) but the quirky mascot Lucky the Leprechaun is still the same. And 50 years later, we’re still after his delicious Lucky Charms! 

In honor of Lucky’s 50th birthday, I created a cake with him in mind. It starts with a 10-inch round layer of Lucky Charms cereal treats (clearly, this will be his favorite part) which makes a sturdy base for the many colorful 8-inch cake layers that get stacked on top. This stacking creates a unique shape that, when covered in green frosting, looks much like a leprechaun hat. It’d be so party perfect for St. Paddy’s day, too, and there’s plenty to share. 

Here’s how to make it.

Step 1:

First, you’ll need to make the cereal treats layer, which simply consists of marshmallows, a little butter and Lucky Charms cereal.

Step 2:

Line a 10-inch round cake pan with sheets of plastic wrap. Lightly coat the plastic wrap with cooking spray.

Step 3:

Melt the butter in a large heavy-bottomed stock pot over low heat.

Step 4:

Add the marshmallows and continue to cook over low heat.

Step 5:

Stir occasionally until the marshmallows and melted and well incorporated with the butter.

Step 6:

Stir in the cereal with a large rubber spatula. Giving your spatula a good coating of cooking spray will help a little, if you find it too difficult to stir.

Step 7:

Pour the cereal mixture into the prepared pan. Press the mixture into the pan with buttered fingers. Cover and place in the refrigerator until solid, about two hours.

Step 8:

For the rainbow cake layers, heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans – if you have three pans – even better! In a large mixing bowl beat together the cake mix, water, oil and eggs with an electric hand mixer on low speed. Scrape down the bowl and beat again on medium speed until well combined and no streaks of powdered cake mix remain.

Step 9:

Divide batter evenly between six bowls, about 1 1/3 cups each.

Step 10:

Using the food color, tint one bowl red, one orange, one yellow, one green, one blue and one violet. Pour two of the colors in each of the prepared pans. Cover and refrigerate remaining bowls of batter until needed.

Step 11:

Bake the cakes 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for five minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Wash cake pans and bake two more colors, repeating the above steps.

Step 12:

Repeat process until all cakes are baked and cooled.

Step 13:

Remove cereal treat from refrigerator and unwrap.

Step 14:

Place on a serving platter upside-down so the flattest part of the cake is turned upright. Spread a small amount of vanilla frosting in the center of the cereal treat layer and stack on the violet cake layer. Lightly frost the top of the violet layer and place the blue layer on top of the violet layer. Continue in this manner with the green, yellow orange layers. Place the red layer on top but do not frost.

Step 15:

Place remaining frosting in a large mixing bowl and add green food color.

Step 16:

Mix with an electric mixer on medium until a vibrant green shade is achieved.

Step 17:

Frost the entire cake with the green frosting. This is a big cake, so I recommend using a large off-set spatula with which to spread the frosting.

Step 18:

Using the chocolate cupcake frosting fitted with the plain round tip (provided) draw lines of frosting around the base of the cake creating a “hatband.”

Step 19:

Fill in the lines with more chocolate frosting and smooth with an off-set spatula.

Step 20:

Press four pretzel sticks into the chocolate frosting to create a square buckle. It may be necessary to break the pretzels to make them fit inside the chocolate hatband. Break the last pretzel in half and place one half, horizontally, to the right center of the buckle to create the buckle latch.

This cake looks cute when surrounded with foil-covered chocolate coins. Store the cake loosely covered in plastic wrap.