Darcie Bakes //

Baking from scratch… because good things take time.

RBE // Homemade Lucky Charms Cereal!

The roommate and I have officially lost our minds. This installment of “RBE” {Roommate Baking Endeavors} entails – as you have probably gathered – making homemade Lucky Charms. Oh yes.

luckycharmscover

I have been told by more than one person that I’m “crazy” for doing this. And you know what… Those people aren’t wrong. I’ll tell you one thing: I will NEVER make homemade Lucky Charms again. Ever. The amount of work involved was kind of insane. It took a lot of time, attention to detail, patience, frustration, and sore hands to accomplish. Making homemade Lucky Charms isn’t for the faint of heart. All that to say, I am glad that we did it. It’s a fun accomplishment, even though it’s kinda whack.

marshmallows
{A closeup of the marshmallows. Yes, the heart is broken. Probably because of the amount of labor that goes into making these darn things…}

Now, this is going to be one of those posts where I’m not about to reinvent the wheel with detailed instructions and recipes on here. At the end of this post, I’ve listed all of the resources for recipes. Brave Tart, The Cupcake Project, and Kath Eats are all fine blogs who have already done the footwork for me here. Instead, I just wanted to share photos, some fun facts on the original Lucky Charms cereal, and some tips/tricks/warnings from the experience that Dani and I had. Just in case you’re actually whack enough to attempt this challenge on your own. πŸ˜‰

PS: Shout out to Cooper for helping us with the marshmallows. You’re a champ. (Just no more shenanigans with my kitchen/living room decor, got it? :P)

fortunatetrinkets
{I thought it would be fun to put our marshmallows and cereal in these little peach bowls that were my Grandma’s. I think they’re ice cream bowls, but hey, they look nice holding homemade cereal, too. If Mamaw were here, she’d probably think I’m nuts for making homemade cereal. But “nuts” in the best way. :)}
cerealandmarshmallows
{Top view.}
spilledmilk
{No need to cry over spilled milk when you’ve accomplished making homemade Lucky Charms!}

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Homemade Lucky Charms [Aka Fortunate Trinkets].

+ Dani and Darcie’s Baking Notes [Tips/Tricks/Warnings]:
– Dani actually researched the marshmallow to cereal ratio (yes, she’s that dedicated to our RBEs). We determined that the best ratio is 3:1. Therefore, you’ll need about three pieces of oat cereal to each single marshmallow.
– Enlist a few brave people to help you cut out the marshmallows. All of your fingers/thumbs will be sore. {Or maybe find someone you don’t like so you can torture them? Juuust kidding. Maybe.}
– Don’t overcook the homemade corn syrup, or it will get crystallized real fast. It still worked out fine, but I was worried for awhile.
– Have your food coloring [preferably the good quality gel coloring] ready to go when you divide up your marshmallow “batter.” You’ll need to color everything very quickly to get the marshmallow paste to spread out before it gets more solid.
– Try to spread your layers of marshmallow as evenly as possible. It’ll make the cutting out process much easier later on.
– For the oat cereal: Maybe I did something wrong [entirely possible], but the dough was a pain in the arse to roll out. It’s maddening. You need just the right amount of moisture so that the dough will stick together, but not too much, or else it will get overly sticky.
– You can use a skewer to poke the holes in the oat cereal and shape them around the skewer. It’s a very tedious process, so only attempt this if you really like tedious processes. πŸ™‚
– Think of a clever name for your cereal if you do attempt this. Dani came up with “Fortunate Trinkets,” which I think is entertaining. πŸ™‚

+ Lucky Charms Fun Facts:
– These facts and more can be found here.
– Lucky Charms cereal first debuted in 1963. I didn’t realize it was that old!
– The marshmallows in Lucky Charms are actually called marbits. Interesting word.
– The only original “marbit” that is still in the modern version of Lucky Charms is the heart shape.
– Lucky Charms featured a mail-in order for a free, real tree in 1991. My only response to that is: Lolwut.
– I told Dani that the marshmallows reminded me of those nasty, sawdust-esque circus peanuts that all of the older folks loved buying at the hardware store I used to work at. Turns out I was spot-on with that assessment, because… “The cereal was created by product developer John Holahan. He developed the original prototype based on Cheerios cereal pieces and chopped up pieces of his favorite candy – Circus Peanuts,” according to the General Mills website.

+ Recipe Resources:
– Inspiration for this crazy endeavor is from The Cupcake Project.
– Crispy cereal marshmallow recipe and instructions from Brave Tart.
– Oat cereal recipe from Kath Eats Real Food.
– You can find the Ateco cutters for the marshmallows on Amazon. I found mine in Germany, but I’m pretty sure they’re the exact same as the Ateco cutters here.

2 responses to “RBE // Homemade Lucky Charms Cereal!”

  1. Stef Avatar

    Wow! First of all, I’m so excited to meet people as crazy as me who are willing to try making Lucky Charms from scratch. I want to give you guys a hug! You understand! And, it is so awesome that you made the cereal too! Huge kudos! Great post!

    1. Darcie Avatar
      Darcie

      It was awesome, so thanks for the inspiration! πŸ™‚

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