basketball team snack idea :: rice krispies basketballs and hoop

Oh Pinterest, all the clever things you help us find. Once in a blue moon I come up short when I’m looking for a specific idea. I was the mom in charge of snacks for my son’s basketball team last week. I saw a few cute ideas to make a basketball ball hoop out of a cup, but the “basketball” was a clementine. Previous snacks have been donuts and brownies so I knew fruit would wrinkle those cute 9 year old noses. So I found my inspiration on Pinterest, but made it my own.

BASKETBALL TREATS

I followed the Rice Krispies recipe found HERE. Before you add the cereal, color the melted butter and marshmallow mixture. I found that liquid food coloring worked the best, but Wilton food coloring pastes are okay too. Work quickly, if your marshmallows get too hot, your treats will turn to stone when they cool. Start with a few drops of yellow and then carefully add the red. Too much red will leave you with treats that look like raw ground beef. 🙂 As you may suspect, I didn’t get the color right the first time and I had my treats turn to stone. It was a first for me to mess up this recipe.

Let your basketball colored treats cool for a couple of minutes. Shape them into balls when the temperature is comfortable for your hands. I put a little bit of vegetable oil on my hands so they didn’t get too sticky while making the basketballs. Place them on a plate and when they have completely cooled you can add the stitching. Simply melt a handful of chocolate chips and put the melted chocolate in a baggie. Snip a teeny, tiny corner and pipe the stitching on to your balls. I only did chocolate stitching on the top of the balls. Once they are in the cup, you can’t see the bottom of the ball.

HOOP

The hoop was a bit tedious because I had to make 10 of them, but just draw lines at an angle with a sharpie. Then go back around the cup and draw the lines at the opposite angle. I drew it on the outside of the 9 oz plastic cup so the treat didn’t touch the marker. Try to get a smooth cup vs. the wavy ones.

BACKBOARD

Do you still have any rolodex cards around? Do you know what a rolodex is? 🙂 I had a stack of rolodex cards that I transformed into the backboard. Cardstock could work too. I used picmonkey.com to design the hoop with the square and our team name. I printed it on a 2×4 label that I attached to the card, but you could certainly just draw on your board by hand. Don’t over complicate it. I’m a secretary so I had the expertise and labels on hand to do it quickly. Hook the backboard on your hoop (cup) and secure with a tiny piece of tape on the back.

When the chocolate stitching is dry, plop a ball in each hoop. 2 pts for you! You’ll be THAT mom that nobody will want to follow on the team snack schedule. 🙂 My son, Jack was super excited to show his teammates the snack. It made my mommy heart happy to see all the kids faces light up when they got their snack. It wasn’t difficult to make, but it took a little bit of time and planning to execute. Have fun and make it your own.