"This classic sweet snack gets a festive makeover! Cereal coated in white candy melts, colorful sprinkles, and dusted with a sweetened white cake mix."
A long time ago I had big dreams of making a whole series of recipe posts devoted to nothing but different flavors of puppy chow – from classic to fluffernutter to peppermint to red velvet to pretty much anything else you can think of – and I still really want to do it, because quite frankly I absolutely love this stuff.
It was one of the first treats I ever (successfully) made that tasted great without having to put in a ton of work.
And really, that’s the true goal we all have in life, isn’t it?
To get great results for minimal effort.
I know that’s what I wake up each day trying to do.
So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that puppy chow is like the embodiment of my life goals… Â and I’m totally okay with that.
I don’t know how or why, but something magical seems to happen between the Chex cereal leaving the box and shaking the bag full of powdered sugar, because I’ve yet to have a batch of puppy chow (or muddy buddies or monkey munch or whatever oddball name we all call this stuff with a completely straight face) that I didn’t like.
Which, of course, is both good and bad, seeing as how I can easily take out a whole batch of puppy chow within a day of making it.
But to get back to the true topic of this post, by now you might be wondering: with all the flavors of puppy chow out there, why did I go with funfetti?
Well, for one, funfetti has been on my list of must-make puppy chow for quite some time.
Like all my puppy chow recipes, this post was long overdue.
And for two… Â well, the batch of puppy chow pictured here was actually the second batch I made that day. My first batch was supposed to be the elusive red velvet puppy chow, but the results were… Â less can optimal. Basically, my red velvet puppy chow was not red or festive at all – the red and pink sprinkles were completely covered up, and it turned out more of a tan color – and really, how could I possibly call a puppy chow red velvet if it’s not even read? I’ll tell you how: I couldn’t. So I ate all the evidence of my failure (seriously, all puppy chow tastes good) and took that recipe back to the drawing board for now.
In the end, I was able to “save the day” by mixing up more sprinkles (from red and pink to all the colors of the rainbow) and swapping out the red velvet cake mix to some white cake mix I still had on hand from last week’s recipe. And voilà , recipe saved and I still had a fun and festive puppy chow to add to my (slowly growing) list!
And the best part?
I got to enjoy the end result: colorful puppy chow with the taste of sweetened white cake.
Life goals really do taste better with sprinkles.
Funfetti Puppy Chow
Ingredients
- 4 1/2 cup Chex Cereal roughly half of a 12 oz box
- 8 oz white candy melts
- 2/3 cup sprinkles round or cylinder, but not sanding sugar
- 3/4 cup white cake mix
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a large bowl, measure out Chex cereal. Place white cake mix and powdered sugar in a large plastic bag and shake to mix. Finally, cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set all three aside.
- In a medium microwave safe bowl, add white candy and melt per package instructions.
- Pour white candy over Chex cereal. Using a spatula, gently toss the Chex cereal so that it's covered in a thin layer of white candy. Tip: I like to scoop the spatula under the Chex and gently turn it over.
- Let candy coated Chex cool for 2-3 minutes.
- Add about 2-3 tablespoons of sprinkles on top of candy coated Chex, then gently toss once. Add another 2-3 tablespoons and toss again. Continue to do this until all sprinkles have been used, but be careful not to overmix - you don't want the candy melt to begin covering the sprinkles.
- Pour candy coated Chex into the bag with the cake mix and sugar. Seal bag and shake until Chex is covered and no longer tacky.
- Spread funfetti puppy chow out on prepared parchment paper. Allow to dry completely, about 1 hour. Store in an airtight container.