Little Ivy Cakes

Fruity-Marshmallow 
Rice Krispie Treat Cupcakes

My sister and I made this fruit salad for a Fourth of July barbecue.

It's a traditional recipe from Sean's family and is called, Aunt Elsie's Fruit Salad. Along with this recipe, I have several others that are in a cute little family recipe booklet Sean has given me to hold onto. A few years ago his wonderful sister, Barbie, gave each family member one of these recipe booklets and I love having it. Whenever Sean wants me to make something he had when he was a kid, there's a chance I can make it for him with the exact recipe. :)

This time, I added 8 oz of whipped cream cheese with 1/4 cup powder sugar and vanilla bean paste. And I used mini fruit marshmallows instead of plain. I almost added chopped pecans because the recipe says to add nuts if so desired. BUT, As I excitedly mentioned *out loud* to my sister in the kitchen, "And.. we CAN EVEN add nuts into the mix!", Sean happened to hear and yelled out, "DO NOT put nuts in the salad, it's really gross with nuts!" So I took his advice. :) *Phew, that was a close one*
He's probably right, nuts in a creamy goey fruit salad isn't always that good and they get soggy sometimes.

Yes, the salad was REALLY, REALLY GOOD! I happen to love this salad every time.

ANYWAY, I had some left over marshmallows from the fruit salad and I wanted to do something with them before they melted and stuck together in the bag. So I made some rice krispie treats.

Recipe for 16 rice krispie treat cupcakes:

4 cups mini "fun mallows" fruit flavored marshmallows, plus a handful of extra for decorating.
4 cups rice krispie cereal
3 tbs butter
1 tsp vanilla

-Butter 16 cups in your mini cupcake pan w/o papers and set aside.
-In a medium to large size pot, melt butter on medium heat.
-Stir in vanilla.
-Stir in 3 cups marshmallows, contantly stiring until all marshmallows are melted.
-Stir in rice cereal and stir until cereal is coated evenly with goo.
-Take the pot off burner.

-Be careful beacause the stuff will be a bit hot, with a wooden spoon and as quickly as you can, spoon treats into the cupcake cups.
-Coat your fingers and hands with butter(butter spray is the easiest in a project like this) and lightly press the treats into the cups shaping a round top like a cupcake.
-Place in the fridge for 5-10 minutes.
-Take the treats out of the pan and place each one in a cupcake paper. Set aside.
-Make your frosting for the top. I used whipped cream.

Small batch of whipped cream frosting:
1/2 a pint whipping cream
1/4 cup powder sugar
2 tsp vanilla bean paste(or whatever vanilla you have)

-Whip the cream until you have stiff peaks.
-Mic in vanilla and sugar. Chill.
Finishing:
-Pipe a small amount of whipped cream on the krispie treat cupcakes and top them with a mini fruit marshmallow and sprinkles if you want.

THE END!