St. Patrick’s Day Rainbow Pudding Cups

These amazing St. Patrick’s Day Rainbow Pudding Cups are adorable and so fun to make with kids! Simple ingredients for a lucky treat!

My kids have a thing about rainbow food. I don’t know when it started or why, but anything with a rainbow in it gets an immediate and enthusiastic yes. So when I needed a St. Patrick’s Day treat that would actually get eaten and not just looked at, this was the obvious move.

Blue pudding as the sky. Mini marshmallows piled on top like clouds. A rainbow candy strip arched over the whole thing. Five minutes. Three ingredients. No oven, no cleanup, no stress.

The best part is that kids can assemble these themselves — and they will want to. Setting up a little station with the pudding cups, a bowl of marshmallows, and the candy strips and letting them build their own is genuinely more fun than a craft project, and you end up with dessert at the end of it. Win all the way around.

WHAT YOU NEED AND WHERE TO FIND IT

Jell-O Unicorn Snack Packs — These are vanilla-flavored pudding cups with a blue/purple swirl color. You’ll find them in the pudding aisle at most grocery stores, usually near the regular Jell-O pudding cups. Target, Walmart, and Stop & Shop all carry them. If you can’t find the Unicorn variety, any blue or purple pudding cup works — or make your own by preparing a box of vanilla instant pudding, tinting it blue with a few drops of blue gel food coloring, and dividing it into small cups to set in the fridge for 2 hours.

Rainbow candy strips — You’re looking for a flat, rainbow-colored candy strip that you can arch into a rainbow shape. Airheads Xtremes Sourfuls or Rainbow Berry strips work well — they’re flexible enough to bend without breaking and hold their shape. Sour Punch Straws twisted together in rainbow colors also work. You’ll find these in the candy aisle; they’re common at Party City and Target in the seasonal candy section around St. Patrick’s Day.

White mini marshmallows — Standard Jet-Puffed mini marshmallows. One bag makes many pudding cups — you need about 15–20 per cup depending on how full you want the cloud layer.

HOW TO ASSEMBLE

Open each pudding cup. Cover the entire surface with mini marshmallows, pressing them lightly so they sit flat and look like a fluffy cloud layer. You want full coverage — no blue pudding peeking through the marshmallow base.

Take one rainbow candy strip and gently arch it from one side of the cup to the other, pressing each end slightly into the marshmallow layer so it stays put. The arch should clear the marshmallow surface — that gap between the cloud and the candy rainbow is what makes the visual pop.

Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to a few hours before serving. The marshmallows will start to soften if they sit in the fridge too long, so assemble as close to serving time as you can.

TIPS

Assemble right before serving. Mini marshmallows start to absorb moisture from the pudding within an hour or two and get soft and sticky. If you’re making these for a party, bring the components separately and assemble on-site in 5 minutes.

Make your own blue pudding if you can’t find Unicorn cups. One box of vanilla instant pudding + 2 cups cold milk + 4–5 drops of blue gel food coloring (not liquid food coloring — gel gives a brighter, more saturated color without thinning the pudding). Mix, divide into small cups or mason jars, refrigerate for 2 hours to set. Makes 4–6 cups depending on size.

Press the candy ends into the marshmallows. Don’t just lay the rainbow on top or it will fall over. Gently press each end into the marshmallow layer at an angle so the arch holds.

Make it a kids’ activity. Set up a station with the pudding cups, a bowl of marshmallows, and the candy strips and let kids assemble their own. It takes about 2 minutes per cup and kids are very invested in getting the rainbow arch just right.

Larger batch math. One standard package of Jell-O Unicorn pudding cups contains 4 cups. One bag of mini marshmallows covers approximately 8–10 cups. One package of Airheads Xtremes strips contains about 6 strips. Scale accordingly for class parties.

VARIATIONS

Pot of gold version. Add a few gold foil-wrapped chocolate coins at the base of the rainbow on top of the marshmallows. Or use yellow Sixlets or gold sprinkles to create a “pot of gold” effect on one end.

Homemade from scratch. Skip the snack packs entirely — use small mason jars, homemade vanilla pudding tinted blue, mini marshmallows, and rainbow candy. More work but more impressive for a party table display.

Whipped cream clouds. Swap the mini marshmallows for a swirl of Cool Whip or whipped cream for a softer, creamier cloud effect. Assemble and serve immediately — whipped cream deflates faster than marshmallows.

Leprechaun hat version. Use green-tinted pudding (vanilla + green gel food coloring) instead of blue, skip the rainbow candy, and top with a marshmallow “brim” and a chocolate-covered pretzel stick as the hat stem. A completely different look from the same basic concept.

Green pudding swirl. Use vanilla pudding tinted green and top with a rainbow of fruit — sliced strawberries, mandarin segments, blueberries — for a fresh, less candy-forward version.

FAQs

Last-minute St. Patrick’s Day treat, handled. Five minutes, three ingredients, individual portions, and kids think you planned this all along.

If you want more St. Patrick’s Day ideas, the Rainbow Pancakes, the Rainbow Charcuterie Board, and the Shamrock Shakes are all linked below and equally low-effort for high visual impact.

Here are some more amazing St. Patrick’s Day Treats