Rainbow Popcorn
This Rainbow Popcorn recipe is the perfect sweet and colorful treat for your unicorn birthday party, movie night, or Pride celebration! It’s an easy caramel popcorn recipe for shiny candy coated popcorn, colored with any color you can imagine.
So read on all for all the detailed instructions to learn how to make rainbow popcorn and my secret for keeping it crunchy for days. Or just grab your favorite popcorn, hit that purple Jump to Recipe button, and let’s make a popcorn rainbow!
Jump to:
Ingredients
Use your favorite popped popcorn for this rainbow popcorn recipe. In our house, that means oil and salt in a large pot on the stove top. If you use microwave popcorn, choose an unflavored, low-oil or butter popcorn and reduce or omit any added salt.
Caramel popcorn means white, granulated sugar – caramelize brown sugar, and you’ve got homemade butterscotch. Recipe taste testers preferred a bit of butter added to the caramel, but the batch I made with baking soda – something many recipes call for – tasted off.
Food coloring – add a drop or two of your favorite food coloring to make a popcorn rainbow. One recipe test, I popped the popcorn with food coloring added to the oil, but the popcorn was coated inconsistently.
Please see the recipe card below for complete information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations and substitutions
- Add roasted peanuts for homemade Cracker Jack (prize not included!)
- Flavored Rainbow Popcorn: Add a half teaspoon of vanilla or another extract to a batch.
- Holiday Themes: Customize colors for specific holidays or your favorite sports team.
Recipe tips and tricks
Put three cups of popped popcorn in a heatproof bowl in the oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit. This helps slow down the cooling of your rainbow caramel when you mix it. This gives your rainbow popcorn a better candy coat and will keep it from getting stale as quickly.
Ready the butter and food coloring by your stove top so it’s close at hand. Then heat your sugar over medium low heat until it is bubbling gently and a light copper hue. Every time I make my caramel espresso brownies, I’m amazed at how much easier it is to make wet caramel, but you can also do this with dry caramel.
It’s hard for me to get photos at this stage because you need to move quickly! Remove the caramel from the heat, stir in the butter cubes and your food coloring, grab the popcorn from your oven – use an oven mitt or potholder – and use a spatula to toss the popcorn in the caramel until it is coated as much as possible.
Turn the caramel popcorn out onto a lined baking sheet, breaking up any large popcorn clusters. Repeat as desired to make red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple batches.
If you have two large pans and are comfortable making caramel or have a helper in the kitchen, you might be able to speed this up by doing two colors at a time! The nice thing about caramel is that it’s so easy to clean – soak it in water, and the caramel just dissolves.
I know that other recipes have you bake your rainbow popcorn after coating. But all that did with my caramel popcorn was melt off the caramel!
So now let your colored popcorn cool completely before mixing with any other colors. And store your rainbow popcorn in an airtight container with a food-safe desiccant packet for crispy, crunchy caramel popcorn for up to a week.
Other rainbow recipes
Make other rainbow foods including rainbow desserts and savory rainbow recipes like:
Recipe FAQ
If you’ve coated your caramel popcorn well and you’re storing the rainbow popcorn with a dessicant packet, your popcorn should stay crunchy for about a week.
Yes, feel free to use your favorite liquid natural food coloring.
I get mine from our vitamins, over the counter medication bottles, and even my kid’s snacks, but you can always buy them on Amazon or other marketplace.
Related snacks and appetizer recipes
Enjoy other simple snacks and fancy appetizers from the archives, like:
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-heart 💜💜💜💜💜 rating in the recipe card below. Let me know how much you loved it, or any problems you had, in the comments section further down.
Recipe
Rainbow Popcorn
Ingredients
- 3 cups popped popcorn
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons water for a wet caramel
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ¼ teaspoon salt if using unsalted popcorn
- Gel food coloring 6 colors
- Food-safe desiccant packet optional, for storage
Instructions
- Turn on your oven to 200°F (93°C) and put three cups of popcorn in a heat-safe bowl in the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.3 cups popped popcorn
- In a wide frying pan, combine the sugar and water, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Heat the mixture over medium-low heat without stirring just until it turns a light copper color. It should not smell burnt.½ cup granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons water
- Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the butter cubes, salt if your popcorn is unsalted, and one color of food coloring.1 tablespoon butter, ¼ teaspoon salt, Gel food coloring
- Quickly grab the popcorn from the oven and use a spatula to stir the popcorn to coat it with the caramel as much as possible.
- Spread the caramel coated popcorn on your prepared baking sheet, breaking up large clusters with the spatula, and let cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container with a food-safe desiccant packet for a durable crunch.Food-safe desiccant packet
Notes
Nutrition
Bored with the recipes you’ve been cooking and baking lately? Get inspiration here:
I absolutely love the idea of this popcorn. So fun!
Thanks, and so easy to make too!