Popcorn Cake

For celebrating a birthday at school tomorrow, I wanted to try something different.  I searched through Pinterest and found a Popcorn Cake!  It was super easy, and it tastes pretty good too!  I guess the challenge will be if the kids like it tomorrow, or not.

Ingredients:
10.5 oz. package of marshmallows
16 cup popped popcorn (I used three 82.3g bags, and had about 2 cups left over)
1/4 cup butter (plus 2 tbsp for greasing the pan)
1 large bag Peanut M&M's (I have a kiddo with a peanut allergy, so I used mini Rolos instead)

1 bundt cake pan

First, grease your bundt cake pan.  

For this, I melted 2 tbsp of butter into a small dish.  Using a paper towel, I dipped it into the butter and gently rubbed it on the sides of the pan.  Set the left over butter to the side--we'll use it later.

Next, pop the popcorn.  I didn't have a mixing bowl big enough to mix all 16 cups at once, so I put 8 cups into the bowl.

I melted 1/8 a cup of butter on the stove (over medium heat) and added half of the 10.5 oz bag of marshmallows.

Heat until smooth.

Pour the marshmallow mixture over the popcorn.

Stir it all together.

Pour into the greased bundt pan.  Using the extra melted butter, dip your fingers in to grease them.  Use your fingers to press the popcorn into the pan.

I decided to add the layer of Rolos here, giving us a chocolate/caramel middle.

Now, repeat the steps to mix the other 8 cups of popcorn.  Once done, press into the bundt pan.

Let it sit for 10-15 minutes.  Using a knife, gently (so you don't scratch your pan) scrape the sides.  Invert the pan, and you've got your popcorn cake!

To make it more festive, I added on colorful sprinkles!

Enjoy!

~Buttons

Baking Polvorones

I work at an elementary school with 4th-6th grade autistic children.  The sixth graders are currently doing country reports, where they pick a country and research it.  For extra credit, they were able to dress up in that country's native garb, or bring in some food from that country.

One of my boys is having a hard time a home--with deaths in the family, surgery for his mother, chronic illness for him--so to help out, I volunteered to make the treats to bring in for his presentation.  His country was the Philippines, so I decided to make polvorones.

I found a recipe from Pinterest, and it was pretty easy to do!

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups powdered skim milk
2 cups white sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened but not melted

 
First, put the flour into a skillet over medium heat.  Cook for 20 minutes, stirring constantly, to brown the flour.



This was the trickiest part.  At first, the flour didn't change colors, so I was concerned.  But eventually, it took on a light brown color.  The smell was a bit strong--though not unpleasant.



The left is the browned flour.  The right is normal flour.

Next, put the flour in a mixing bowl and let it cool slightly.  Then, add the sugar and powdered milk.  Mix together.



Next, add in the butter.  Mix together with your fingers.  It will produce a very loose, grainy dough.



Apparently, this is normal, as the desserts are called "buttery, fragile and literally melt-in-your-mouth powdered candies."

Next, you need to compress the dough into shapes.  The recipe calls for a specific mold, but I just used mini muffin tins.



I used a spoon to shovel the dough inside, and then compressed it (like when you measure out flour into a cup).

Refrigerate for at least two hours.  Then, remove from the mold.




These turned out very, very tasty, BUT the consistency was so grainy!  It was a bit off-putting because it felt like a bunch of sand in my mouth.  I explained this to the kids before they ate, suggesting they take little bites.  Of course, the sixth grade boys saw this as a challenge and nearly half of them shoved the whole cookie into their mouths at once.  *sigh*  Either way, most of the kids enjoyed this treat.  I would definitely make them again, but probably add a bit more liquid (butter was the ONLY liquid in the recipe), to give it a more dough-like consistency.  And the polvorones were better tasting when chilled, so I kept them refrigerated until we passed them out.


~Buttons