Birthday Cake Rice Crispy Treats

Whitney & the Creels' hostesses
Mattie, Sam, Kate, Whitney, Amy, Britnee, Keri, & Kristie
Not pictured: Frances

July 21, 2013: My best friend, Whitney, is due September 18th with a baby boy, Kolt. I joined up with a group of our girlfriends (Kristie, Keri, Sam, Frances, Britnee, Amy, and Mattie) to host a pool party to  honor the parents-to-be yesterday.

Gift & Snack tables

We had all kinds of baby boy & pool/beach themed decorations, but we needed a cool and unique party favor for our guests, so i made Cake Batter Rice Crispy Treats.  I've made these for all kinds of occasions- co-workers' promotions and birthdays previously, and I knew they'd be easy and quick (not to mention a crowd-pleaser).

"Smooth as a baby's bottom buns"

The shower turned out beautiful. The Pinsons’ home was perfect- they have a great living room that spills out onto a huge patio with a pool.  Right past the pool, the guys had ample room to play washers while the girls ooh’ed & ahh’ed over Whitney’s belly and baby onesies. 

Whitney & me Hookin' & Giggin' 'em!

I’ll admit, I got a lot of ideas for the shower from Pinterest, but it all came together perfectly. I have a pet peeve of people asking “What is this?” (who cares, just try it! Unless you have a food allergy. In the case, ask. But if you don’t- go on, be adventurous!) so I made signs that said what each food item was, and the signs were baby/boy/beach themed.  We had “Smooth as a Baby’s Bottom Buns” and “Cheeseburgers in Paradise,” “Sailboat Salad,” “Ocean Water,” and “Weiners(!)”

"I like mine with lettuce & tomatoes... Heinz 57"

For snacks, we had goldfish, Swedish fish, “drift wood” (pretzel sticks), life savers, “pool noodles” (twizzlers), “kickboards” (Starbursts), and dips for the chips that said “Take a dip.” Kristie made the super cute banners, which ended up matching the theme perfectly.

Snack table

Here’s the wreath I made for Kolt’s nursery. It’s by far my favorite wreath that I’ve ever made. It matches the colors in his nursery very well (if I do say so myself!), and I am ready for him to be here so we can meet the little nugget!

"Thank you for swimming by! Take a treat!"

Oh, and the Birthday Cake Rice Crispy treats? Judging by Whitney’s niece, Kaylee,’s picture below, they were as big of a hit as I’d hoped. They had tags on them that said “Thanks for swimming by! Love, Kolt.” In fact, they were such a hit that I’ve decided to make them for another shower that I’m helping through in November. Who knows, perhaps Kaylee’s chowing down will be the new face of Katherine in the Kitchen!

Kaylee chowing down on a Birthday Cake Rice Crispy treat

Birthday Cake Rice Crispy Treats
Servings: 30
Modified from www.gimmesomeoven.com

"Thanks for swimming by! Love, Kolt"

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 (10 oz) bag mini-marshmallows
• 3/4 c funfetti cake mix (the dry cake mix, not prepared into batter)
• 6 c rice crispy cereal
• 1 container of sprinkles, color of your choice
• Non-stick cooking spray
• 2 sandwich bags
• 9x13 pan, coated in non-stick cooking spray

Birthday Cake Rice Crispy Treats

Directions

1. Spray a large bowl with non-stick cooking spray
2. Melt butter in bowl in microwave
3. Add marshmallows- melt again in microwave
4. Stir well with a spoon that has been coated in non-stick cooking spray
5. Satire in the funfetti dry cake mix
6. Add in cereal, coating cereal, in butter/marshmallow mix
7. Sprinkle in 3/4 of the sprinkles, coating well
8. Put the sandwich baggies on your hands, and coat them also in non-stick spray
9. Use your bag-covered hands to scoop the bowl of marshmallow covered cereal into the pan
10. Smooth out mix in the pan
11. Add last 1/4 of sprinkles on top
12. Allow to sit for 30 mins before cutting

I made three batches for the shower!

Keep on cookin'!
-Katherine

Birthday Cake Popcorn

The wreath I made for Charleigh Marie's nursery

My friends, Natalie and Thomas, who I have mentioned many times in previous blog entries, were expecting a baby girl, Charleigh Marie, on May 4, 2012.  I offered to help Natalie's sister, Lauren, throw a baby shower.  Lauren and Natalie's friend, Kara, had most of the shower covered, so she assigned me to party favors.  After seeing numerous cute baby shower posts on Pinterest for "_____ is about to pop!" pop-themed parties, we decided to go with that.  I had my friend, Michelle, make up some cute labels for both the party favors and the champagne bottles.  Michelle's labels for the champagne said, "Natalie is about to pop!" and the labels for the party favors said, "Thanks for popping by!"

"Thanks for POPPING by!"

I looked up recipes for creative popcorn, but I wasn't really pleased with any one in particular.  Again, in true Katherine in the Kitchen style, I took a recipe, and I made it my own.  "Birthday Cake Popcorn" was basically candied popcorn with an assortment of sprinkles mixed into it, but for Natalie's shower, I chose pink sprinkles for a baby girl.  The popcorn was sweet from the candy coating and salty and crunchy from the popcorn- one of those "M&M's and popcorn" or "fries dipped in milkshake" kind of tastes- you don't know why the contrasting flavors taste so good- they just do.

Itty bitty Charleigh!

Natalie and Thomas' Benbrook home was beautifully decorated for the shower, complete with modern decor and delicious food.  Natalie chose to have her guests bring their gifts unopened, so we could all see each of the presents- from the itty bitty teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini to the wreath I made with a large "C" for Charleigh.

Welcome, Charleigh Marie! Harper's Bluebonnet Bakery Cake

I made this popcorn again for a staff meeting at work, but the meeting was cancelled due to inclement weather.  Good thing, too, because there was a grand total of seven tornadoes that touched down in the metroplex that night.  I am the Birthday Coordinator for the unit, so I was bringing the March birthday cards and birthday treats to the meeting.  I took my ginormous bag of Birthday Cake Popcorn to my Intake and Inpatient co-workers, despite the weather, because God knows that I didn't want to be hunkered down in "the room in the most central area of my house with no windows" with a hugmongous bag of sugary goodness. Everyone absolutely loved it! I was asked for the recipe by six people, and my co-worker, Meredith, even claimed to have dreamt about it the next night.  That may be the best compliment that I've ever gotten about my food!

Andy and Charleigh

Making this stuff is MESSY.  You get it all over your hands, but it's not like I was complaining to have to lick the candy coating off of my fingers (when I was done of course!)  Because the coating gets so thick, you can't really drizzle it on the popcorn, so you have to just stick your hands in it, pick up some of the popcorn, and toss the popcorn with the coating.  Despite being super easy, like I said it is super messy, but would definitely be fun to make with kiddos.

Natalie is about to Pop party favors

So instead of just zapping a bag of popcorn in the microwave next time and dumping in a bag of M&Ms, try Birthday Cake Popcorn.  Just making it is deliciously fun, and it's a yummy snack to take to any celebration!

Birthday Cake Popcorn

Pinterest.com/Kate Strickland

Servings: 30

Birthday Cake Popcorn

 

• 3 bags un-buttered/un-salted popcorn
• 1 c vanilla candy wafers (available at Michael’s/Hobby Lobby in the cake decorating section)
• 1 c vanilla cake mix (just the powder- don’t mix up the mix)
• Small sugar sprinkles

1.       Pop popcorn in the microwave & allow to cool
2.       Melt wafers (about 1 min in microwave)
3.       Add cake mix to melted wafers & stir
4.       Melt wafers/cake mix another 10 secs
5.       Toss wafers/cake mix mixture with popcorn so popcorn has the sticky mixture all over it
6.       Sprinkle on sprinkles (the smaller sugar sprinkles work/stick best)
7.       Allow to dry

Keep on cookin’!

-Katherine