Building a snowman sounds really fun until your boots fill with melted snow and your fingers have gone completely numb. Now, you can finally build a snowman without going outside in the freezing cold! A great activity for those days when you’re snowed in—try experimenting with details using different candies to dress up your snowman (or snowwoman!).

Crispy Rice Snowman

Ingredients

• 8 cups crispy rice cereal
• 6 cups marshmallows
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 10 drops white food coloring

Special Ingredients

Instructions

1. Coat the inside of the cookie cutter with cooking spray and place it on the parchment-covered work surface. In a large stockpot, melt the butter over low heat until it’s 80 percent melted (see photo), about 1 minute 20 seconds. Note: If the butter begins to sizzle, lower the heat. It should melt very slowly.

2. Add the mini marshmallows and stir gently, coating them with melted butter, about 30 seconds.

3. When the marshmallows are about 80 percent melted (when you can still see the individual marshmallow shapes but they are beginning to run together), add the food coloring. Stir for another 15 seconds and then turn off the heat.

4. Stir gently until the color is well distributed but the marshmallows are still only about 80 percent melted, about 35 seconds (you should still be able to identify individual pieces within the melted ones). Note: If the marshmallows melt too much, the mixture will be too hot to handle—wait 1–2 minutes and then mold quickly!

5. Add the cereal and mix well, until the marshmallows and cereal are fully combined, about 40 seconds. Do not overmix!

6. Pour the mixture onto the parchment-covered template on the work surface. Generously coat your hands with cooking spray. Use both hands to mold the mixture over the template, rounding the surface and using the side of your hand to make depressions between the three parts of the snowman.

7. Using black icing with a round tip, draw dots for the eyes, smile, and buttons. Adhere three black M&M’s to the dots of the icing on the body to form the buttons.

8. Use scissors to cut the orange Twizzler into a carrot shape by making a diagonal cut about 1½ inches from one end. 

9. Using orange icing with a round tip, draw a dot for the nose. Adhere the orange Twizzler carrot to the dot of icing to form the nose of the snowman.

10. Use scissors to cut the chocolate Twizzlers into two 4-inch pieces and several 1-inch pieces. Following the instructions on page 10, remove the treat from the template and adhere it to a cardboard cake board or serving surface.

11. Using brown icing with a round tip, draw a line on both sides of the body for the arms. Adhere the 4-inch Twizzler pieces to the icing to form the arms.

12. Using brown icing with a round tip, draw lines for the twig hands. Adhere the 1-inch Twizzler pieces to the icing to form the twig hands.