Frankenberry Treats
Every year this cereal hits the shelves and every year I fall for it and buy it, especially when it’s at the after sale. This year I decided to dress the cereal up in its own costume as a marshmallow treat!
ingredients:
2 Tablespoons butter
4 cups mini marshmallows
6 cups Frankenberry cereal
Grease a 9″x13″ pan with melted butter. Set aside.
In a large pot heat the marshmallows and the butter. Once it starts to break down and melt, stir well.
Fold in the cereal, careful not to crush it.
Once the cereal is coated in the marshmallow mixture, pour it into the prepared pan.
Push down to even it out flat, and let sit to cool. Cover with plastic wrap until you are ready to serve. Then cut into squares.
Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween!
Halloween treats!
Halloween is a few days away and if you are hosting a party that needs a few sweet treats, well I’ve got a rundown for you!
Back from the Grave cupcakes (recipe here)
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Trick or Treat Cupcakes (recipe here)
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Bug cupcakes (recipe here)
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Spider cupcakes (recipe here)
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Gingerbread Haunted Library (recipe here)
Mustache cupcakes for Chrissy’s bday
My friends Christine and Grant both had October birthdays and they had an epic joint-bday party! For Grant’s birthday I made custom Geoff the Robot cupcakes and for Chrissy – well, it called for a good ol’ hipster mustache. A chocolate one.
I am addicted to molds lately. I buy a ton of them, and I’m always trying to think of new ways to incorporate them into my baking. In this case I knew that chocolate mustaches on a stick would be a hit at a party.
I tempered the chocolate over a mock double boiler until it was just the right consistency.
Then I carefully filled the molds, making sure I got all the crevices of the form. I added a stick and then covered that up with more chocolate. I tapped the mold on the counter to make sure all the air bubbles were out.
After I let it set, they popped right out! Man, I love molds! I made up some white chocolate ‘staches as well and placed them in some red velvet cupcakes.
They were so much fun and quite the photo opp at the costume party!
(Yes, she is purple. But not all the time.)
Geoff the Robot cupcakes for Grant Imahara
My friend Grant had a birthday this weekend and since my gift is usually cupcakes I try to make them customized just for the bday person.
Grant is known for being on Mythbusters and he also has an impressively robotic resume. He has worked on BattleBots but he even worked on R2D2 – the ultimate loveable robot. He also designed and created Craig Ferguson’s sidekick Geoff Peterson on the Late Late Show. Geoff The Robot has quite the following and is very popular.
I thought making Geoff the Robot cupcakes would be something different and also in the ‘spirit’ since Halloween is so close. After all, Geoff’s head is, well – a skull. (And I do love working with skulls, especially ice cream ones.)
Because I am a total perfectionist, I just couldn’t find the right sized skull for the cupcakes. Just as I was about to hand carve them (because I am nuts) – good ol’ Wilton came to my rescue and I found these sugar skulls
Geoff is most known for his glowing blue eyes and signature mohawk. For the eyes I used a #3 tip and piped in some frosting to secure the edible sugar balls – they totally looked like his blue optic eyes.
For the mohawk I just simply took a Jumbo Heart Sprinkle
My ‘Geoff heads’ went on top of Root Beer cupcakes covered in ganache. The dark ganache was a good backdrop for the white skulls.
I took them to Grant’s big co-birthday bash (he shared his party with our other friend, Chrissy. More on her bday cupcakes in the next post) and they were a hit! They also fit right in with the costume/Halloween theme!
Pumpkin carving
I love carving pumpkins, it’s tedious, messy, sometimes aggravating but man, what a payoff! Just me and my x-acto and suddenly I have Batman come to life…in gourd form.
Here’s a rundown of some of the pumpkins I’ve carved for Halloweens past…
Batman in action (how-to, here)
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Peter Pan pumpkin
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Julius the monkey from Paul Frank:
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Batman face
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Star Wars pumpkin (how-to here)
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And even…MYSELF.
Mocha Matcha Cupcakes
My friend Deb is a cartoonist – her strip “Bento Box” is currently running in the Honolulu Star Advertiser. I am lucky to have friends that love comics and food as much as me and when they come bearing gifts, I always know it’s going to be good!
Back in July at SDCC Deb stopped by my table and gave me a can of Matcha cocoa. Very cool stuff! The minute she put it in my hand I knew exactly what I was going to do with it…
ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup Valrhona cocoa powder
3 Tablespoons Matcha cocoa
2 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coffee
chocolate frosting
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, matcha cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time. Then the vanilla.
Alternating the flour mixture and the buttermilk until combined. Add in the coffee.
Pour the batter into the prepped liners. Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.
Frost with chocolate frosting and serve!
Mochi Brain Freeze
When I went to the Wilton Tent Sale in Chicago it was all I could do to control myself and not bring home every single pan they had. But to pack heavy cake pans in my suitcase? Hm. I had to really pick and choose. The one I absolutely could not live without was the Wilton Skull Pan
I had an idea in my head: a skull entirely made out of homemade ice cream and when you sliced into it…oh the brain you would find. Sweet, delicious, a mochi brain is the only brain I would ever want to eat.
ingredients:
2 batches vanilla ice cream (recipe here) (2 half gallons if you’re going store bought)
tiny mochi balls
As with all things I mold out of ice cream – I lined the pan well with plastic wrap. It makes for a much easier release.
Once the pan was lined I filled it with vanilla ice cream. Using a spatula I pressed the melty ice cream down deep, hoping to get every crevice of the skull face.
Only in Hawaii can you find the world’s most kawaii and tastiest mochi balls. These things are so tiny and each has their own distinct fruity flavor. If you can’t get to Hawaii for shopping, there are places that sell mochi balls online. (here)
I dug a little well in the back of the head and filled it with the teeny mochi balls. Then I put the skull back into the freezer.
Removal of ice cream molds is always tricky, but wrapping a warm towel around the pan pretty much ensures a quick release, plus the plastic wrap helps if you need to yank it out. This pan gives really nice detail!
This particular skull pan comes in two parts, the back being a base for the front face to sit on. Now in cake form this makes sense, in ice cream form it’s a heck of a lot of extra work to get that to line up. Just sayin’.
Once the skull was put together I was ready to chop into him…
…and just as I had hoped – the lovely fruity mochi brain was revealed! Best lobotomy ever!
Chocolate Milk Pancakes
A sweet breakfast treat? Definitely.
ingredients:
1-1/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup chocolate milk
1 egg
In a bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the chocolate milk and egg and mix til just combined.
In a pan over medium-high heat, melt some butter and then ladle out your batter. When bubbles appear and pop, flip over. (how to make perfect pancakes, here)
An easy twist to your everyday pancakes!
WWVE – Mac ‘n’ Cheese Waffles
~From the series of my kids lunches including ‘What Would Yoda Eat‘
Only the leader of the Galactic Empire would conceive of something so sinfully good for lunch.
Mac ‘n’ cheese, everyone’s fave. In waffle form? Easy to eat and nice and hearty. My kids love breakfast foods and these waffles merge breakfast and lunch together in the tastiest way possible. And really, Vader would have a Hello Kitty waffle maker, am I right?
Mac ‘n’ cheese waffles (recipe here)
*All lunches are kept frozen or cold w/ice packs because of my complete and total paranoia.
**Vader’s other lunches, here.
