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Give your rice krispie treats a spooky upgrade and make these red velvet “raw meat” rice krispie treats! It only takes a few ingredients and a few minutes to put together these tasty Halloween treats but your guests won’t forget them!
Halloween Rice Krispie Treats
Warning! This Red Velvet “Raw Meat” Rice Krispies treats recipe is not for the faint of heart.
If you’re grossed out easily by gory Halloween food, check out my less intense collection of Halloween desserts.
If you love the idea of grossing your guests out with freaky, gross-looking, realistic food, read on! Are you ready to take your Halloween treats up a notch?
This recipe is perfect for an adult or teen Halloween party, and while these bloody “raw meat” Rice Krispies treats taste amazing, they are sure to gross out your guests! Which, in my opinion, is a good thing when you’re going for a creep factor! Serve them after a plate of Spaghetti & Eyeballs for dinner.
These “raw meat” Rice Krispies treats are ridiculously easy to make! They’re made with red velvet cake mix, Rice Krispies cereal, marshmallows, and red food coloring for a surprisingly yummy twist on an old classic.
They might even look a little too real sitting on your dessert table – your guests will wonder who left the raw meat next to the treats.
Ingredients you’ll need to make Red Velvet Rice Krispies Treats
Below is a list of ingredients with some helpful tips and suggestions for substitutions. Scroll all the way down for the full, printable recipe card with amounts & instructions.
- MARSHMALLOWS – I like to use mini marshmallows because they melt quickly. You’ll need a 10.5 oz bag.
- BUTTER – Salted or unsalted work, I personally like salted to balance the sweetness a bit.
- VANILLA EXTRACT – When possible, use real vanilla extract, not imitation. I buy mine in bulk at Sam’s or Costco.
- RED VELVET CAKE MIX – The red velvet cake mix gives great flavor and great color.
- CRISPY RICE CEREAL – Rice Krispies if you’re going with the name brand.
Tools you’ll need
One of the main reasons I like Rice Krispies Treats is that they are so easy to make, and you don’t need a million-and-one bowls, gadgets, or utensils to make them. All you’ll need for this recipe is a large pot, a spoon, and foam trays for serving!
- Large Pot – you can even make these in a large microwave safe bowl, if you want.
- Silicone Spoons – I use these for everything. They’re easy to wash and heat safe.
- Foam Trays – You can order foam trays or look for them at your market in the paper plates aisle.
How To Make Your Red Velvet Rice Krispies
- STEP ONE: First, in a large pot over medium heat, melt the butter with the marshmallows. Once melted, add in the vanilla extract and red velvet cake mix and stir together.
Alternatively, you can melt the butter and marshmallows in a large, heat safe microwave safe bowl and proceed from there. - STEP TWO: Once fully melted and combined, pour in the rice krispies and stir to evenly coat.
- STEP THREE: Finally, portion out the “meat” onto your trays – either a large lump to look like hamburger meat, or you can patty them up. Or shape them into a “brain”. Use your spooky imagination.
Turning Your Rice Krispies into Raw Meat Halloween Treats
What makes this recipe so creepy is the visual. Your guests will be struggling to convince their brain that what they’re about to eat is not really raw meat but a delicious sweet treat.
To really play on these Halloween Rice Krispies, foam trays are a must! You can make get them at your local grocery store in the paper plate aisle or, of course, order them off of Amazon.
Then all you have to do is form your red velvet Rice Krispies into a big lump of raw meat, or you can make “raw hamburger patties” and put two in a tray as well. Cover with plastic wrap and stack on top of each other, just like how they display meat at the grocery store. You could even make a brain.
If you want to take it up a notch, you can splatter strawberry syrup on the trays. Keep in mind this may make the Rice Krispies Treats soggy, so less is more.
You can also get red candy melts, dip one side of your patties in the melts, and let the excess pool and harden before transferring to the foam trays for a runny, blood effect.
Raw Meat Halloween Red Velvet Rice Krispies FAQs
Do I have to use red velvet cake mix in this recipe?
No, but as a word of caution, using too much food coloring will give your Rice Krispies an unpleasant taste. While we want the look of them to gross your guests out, that’s not the goal with the flavor.
Is uncooked cake mix safe to eat?
You add the cake mix into the butter and marshmallow mix and that time on the heat will treat the mix, making it safe for consumption (get it to 160°). If you’re still concerned, you can heat treat the cake mix beforehand, just like you would flour. Here is an article on how to do it.
What if I can’t find foam trays?
If you can’t find foam trays, you can always pile the meat patties on top of each other on a plate. Add some strawberry “blood” dripping down the sides right before your Halloween party starts.
Can I use large marshmallows instead of mini?
You sure can! Large marshmallows are perfectly fine, they tend to take longer to melt and don’t melt as evenly as the mini ones, but that is the only reason I suggest them for this recipe.
How to store them
If you wrap them up with plastic wrap to look like meat trays, you’ll be golden, that’s exactly how they should be stored. They are best when eaten within two days. If you want to keep them longer than that, you can wrap them in plastic, place them in a freezer bag, and freeze them for up to 6 weeks. Let them thaw on the counter before digging in.
How many does this serve? Can I double it?
As written, this recipe will serve about 12 people. You can easily double it, just make sure you use a big enough pot.
Need more Halloween recipes? Try these:
Halloween Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies
Halloween Chocolate Tunnel Cake
Jalapeno Popper Mummies
Brownie Bottom Halloween Cupcakes
Ghost Oreo Balls
Monster Munch Popcorn Mix
Layered Halloween Jello Shots
Click here for my entire collection of Halloween recipes.
Red Velvet “Raw Meat” Rice Krispies Halloween Treat
Equipment
Ingredients
- 10.5 oz mini marshmallows
- 3 Tablespoons butter
- ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ cup red velvet cake mix
- 6 cups crispy rice cereal
- ½ teaspoon red food coloring optional
Instructions
- In a large pot over medium low heat melt the butter and mini marshmallows.
- When the marshmallows are completely melted, mix in the vanilla and red velvet cake mix. If you feel it needs to be redder, add food coloring at this point.
- Remove from heat and gently stir in the rice krispies until evenly coated.
- Once all combined evenly divide between the foam trays.
- Cover the trays with plastic wrap and serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Now these are cool! LOVE THIS! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! =)
I made these but they were so hard. Looked great, but I was scared it would break a tooth. Suggestions?
They shouldn’t have been hard, you likely had the heat too high when you were melting the butter and marshmallows. Low/medium-low is the way to go for chewy.
OMG…I am SO making these for my Halloween Party this year! I’ll fool my daughter and son in law when I feed it to my toddler grand daughter!!!
Thanks for the recipe!
Love hearing that!
I have a concern about the cake mix being raw. There is a warning on the cake mix box as to not consume without cooking. I used to have a recipe for a red velvet cheese ball which I ceased making because of this issue. What has your research shown?
Hi. As mentioned in the post, you’re adding the cake mix to melted butter/marshmallow mixture so it is likely hitting a safe temp there, but I also linked to how to heat treat it if you’re still concerned 🙂
You can get a pack of 12 of the trays for $1 at Dollar Tree. Called “white foam trays”. Walmart should carry them too.
Yep, I thought I mentioned that above but maybe I just said “market” lol
Made these for Halloween – they were awesome!
Thanks, Lorna!
Made this for April Fools today. It’s tradition to make some kind of silly food for my kids. I shaped them into burger patties and printed out a label to put in between layers of plastic wrap. They were a hit! Tasty too! Thanks for the recipe.
I’m so glad it was a hit! =)
How many trays does this recipe make ?
It makes a standard size batch of rice krispies so it’ll depend on how large your trays are.
For the raw cake mix concerns, the cake mix says not to eat raw because they are assuming the raw cake mix has had raw eggs added already. Powdered cake mix is safe to eat if eggs have not been added.
Not true. It’s unsafe to eat because of the raw flour in the cake mix.
Definitely making these for my Halloween party! Thanks!
I hope you like them!
Well I tried this recipe BUT epic fail. Tried using devil food cake instead. Don’t.
Oh no. I haven’t tested with that one…and won’t lol
Three stars for idea, color, and taste but rock hard. Hard like 10 minutes after finishing. I was chiseling pieces for people who wanted to try them. I ended up having pieces of red Krispies all over. Such a cool idea though!!! Maybe the heat was high but I turned it down quickly. I just made another recipe of Rice Krispies tonight and it called for double the butter in this recipe. I will be making a version of this recipe probably every Halloween.
Three stars for idea, color, and taste but rock hard. Hard like 10 minutes after finishing. I was chiseling pieces for people who wanted to try them. I ended up having pieces of red Krispies all over. Such a cool idea though!!! Maybe the heat was high but I turned it down quickly. I just made another recipe of Rice Krispies tonight and it called for double the butter in this recipe. I will be making a version of this recipe probably every Halloween. 😉☺️
Ick. In other words: I love it!
This was super fun to make! Going to bring these to a Halloween party tonight! Sadly I can’t seem to post a picture.
Yay 🙂 If you post one on Instagram or Facebook, you can tag me!
Where can I get the labels?
I don’t put labels on mine. Maybe the butcher if you don’t want to diy?
I bought mine off of Esty, Printable version.
If I make and prepare them on trays today (a friday) for a party on Sunday, will they be safe at room temp with the seran wrap over the trays? Will they still be good Monday if we have leftovers? Thank you! Can’t wait to try this!
I think they’ll be ok but they’ll be better if you could make them the day before. Rice krispie treats tend to get stale pretty quickly but wrapped, they should be ok 🙂