Lucky Charms® Leprechaun Hat Cake

Steps

• 1

  Line 10-inch round cake pan with sheets of plastic wrap. Lightly coat plastic wrap with cooking spray.
• 2

  In large heavy-bottomed stockpot or Dutch oven, melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows; cook, stir occasionally, until marshmallows are melted and well mixed with butter. Stir in cereal with large rubber spatula. Pour cereal mixture into pan; press in pan with buttered fingers. Cover; refrigerate until solid, about 2 hours.
• 3

  Meanwhile, heat oven to 350°F. Spray 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray; lightly flour pans.
• 4

  In very large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and eggs with electric hand mixer on low speed until combined. Scrape down side of bowl; beat again on medium speed until well combined and no streaks of dry cake mix remain.
• 5

  Divide batter evenly among 6 bowls, about 1 1/3 cups each. Using food color, tint 1 bowl of batter red, 1 orange, 1 yellow, 1 green, 1 blue and 1 violet. Pour 1 color of batter in each pan. Cover remaining 4 bowls of batter; refrigerate until needed.
• 6

  Bake cake layers 18 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans 5 minutes; remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely.
• 7

  Wash and dry cake pans. Bake 2 more colors of batter, repeating above steps. Repeat process until all 6 cake layers are baked and cooled.
• 8

  Remove Cereal Treat from refrigerator; unwrap. Place upside-down on serving platter so flattest part of cereal treat is turned upright. Spread small amount of vanilla frosting in center of cereal treat layer. Top with violet cake layer; lightly frost top of violet layer. Place blue cake layer on top of violet layer; lightly frost top. Continue in this manner with green, yellow and orange layers. Place red cake layer on top but do not frost.
• 9

  Place remaining frosting in large bowl. Add green food color; mix with electric hand mixer on medium speed until a vibrant green shade is achieved. Frost entire cake with green frosting.
• 10

  Using chocolate cupcake icing fitted with plain round tip, draw lines of frosting around base of cake to create “hatband.” Fill in lines with more chocolate icing; smooth with off-set metal spatula. Press 4 pretzels into chocolate icing to create “square buckle.” Break last pretzel in half; place 1 half horizontally to right of center of buckle to create “buckle latch.” (Eat remaining half of pretzel!) Store cake loosely covered with plastic wrap at room temperature.