Count Chocula Cereal Clusters

Turn this fan favorite Halloween cereal into a treat with this recipe for Count Chocula Cereal Clusters!

Ah, the 1980’s.  The era of Ghostbusters, MC Hammer pants, Bo Knows, and Nintendo.  I am wholeheartedly a child of the 80’s, and I remember all of these fads quite well.  (I may or may not still have a pair of hammer pants in the back of my closet.)  Another fond memory of the 1980’s was going to the grocery store with my mom and riding along in the bottom of the shopping cart.  My favorite stop was the cereal aisle, and I always found some new cereal I wanted to try.  (Partly because of the promise for a special baseball card or top-secret spy zapper that could make my sister disappear.)  I still remember seeing Count Chocula cereal from my awesome hiding place on the bottom of the cart.

Over the years, the sugary kids’ cereals have been replaced in my cupboard with healthier options, but I still have fond memories of the Count and his other cereal monster friends.  So when I found out that General Mills was relaunching all 5 monster cereals this year, I was pretty darned excited.

I have to say that the new design of Count Chocula is a bit…well, disturbing.  The original Count Chocula was awesome!  He even made appearances on Saturday morning cartoons.  (Talk about genius product placement.)  But the Count Chocula for the new millennium is just downright creepy.  And not creepy in the spooky, Halloween creepy kind of way.  My friend Molly pointed out that the new Count has some sort of a bucktooth rather than fangs.  Take a look at the boxes below…which one do you prefer?  (Can I also point out that the retro box came with Count Chocula bike spinners.  Ummm…AWESOME!!)

All talk of packaging aside, I was still excited to grab a box of Count Chocula when it showed up in the market this year.  That’s when the thought hit me.  I should make a dessert using Count Chocula cereal.  It’s already loaded with marshmallows and delicious chocolate flavor, so I added some pretzel sticks and enough melted white chocolate to hold it all together.  That’s it.  Count Chocula Clusters!

My wife also has fond memories of this cereal from the 80’s, and she quickly claimed the leftover clusters for dessert.  These clusters are incredibly easy to make…so they would be perfect for a neighborhood Halloween party with the kids.  But be careful, if the adults remember Count Chocula cereal, then you might need to make a double batch!

I also picked up a box of Boo Berry along with the Count Chocula and made a batch of these clusters with Boo Berry cereal.  While I prefer the chocolately goodness of Count Chocula, the berry version is still pretty darned tasty, too!