But it will only be a small one.
One thing I learned about my kids this Christmas – they like toys more than candy.
When I was growing up, my Christmas stocking held things like necklaces, dresses for my dolls, Barbie’s horse… And I always got Peanut M&Ms. Because those are my dad’s favorite.
Now that I’m older, I get scratch-off lottery tickets and Peanut M&Ms. My mom loves stuffing stockings.
So naturally, I was trying to get the boys super-excited to dig into their stockings at Mom’s on Christmas eve…but they didn’t care. Too busy with Thomas the Tank Engine and Bakugans…
She gave them socks. In their stockings. Hilarious. And candy. Lots of candy.
Of course, I’m my mother’s daughter, so the boys also got candy from Santa. Lots of candy.
So we are the Robinson House of Candy. Someone help me, please. Here’s about 1/3 of what we got at Christmas…
Maybe only 1/4 of what they got. We’ve eaten a lot of candy this holiday.
So I was trying to come up with a way to use up this candy…I made candy pie pockets at Halloween. Which my husband totally dug. And ate them all.
I remember my mother making these popcorn cakes…They were popcorn and marshmallows, she put cinnamon Red Hots and peanuts in them. She made them at Valentine’s Day and I gave them to all my teachers.
Well…that sounds like something we can make work, right?
A quick trip across the street to snag the recipe and let’s go.
1 stick butter, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 1 1/2 bags of mini marshmallows, 1/2 cup popcorn kernels (popped, natch)…I used 5 regular bags of M&Ms.
Yep, 5. And that doesn’t count the bags Matt and I ate on New Year’s Day.
Spray a baking pan…I used my angel food cake pan…
Well used, I know.
Pour the M&Ms into the popcorn. There’s kind of no point stirring…the M&Ms fall to the bottom…
Melt the butter and oil, add the marshmallows and stir until it’s all melted together…
Pour that mixture over the popcorn and M&Ms…
Stir until it’s all coated…
Then press this into the baking pan.
It doesn’t take long for it to cool…
And best of all: It slices just like a cake.
“Mommy? Will you take my picture wiff dis cake?”
But you didn’t think I was done, did you?
Remember, I have tons of candy.
Tons.
I made the same recipe again, but threw all of this in when I melted the marshmallows:
There’s chocolate kisses, Cookies and Cream bars, “Crispie Kringle” chocolates, peanut butter cups…and I used the Peanut M&Ms instead of regular…
Same all the way around…except it looks like this:
Holy Chocolate Popcorn Cake, Batman!
Look, it’s like some weird Chanel logo:
“Mommy? Will you take my picture with boff of dese cakes?”
You make one. With your leftover candy!
Popcorn Cake
From the recipe file of Alice Sherwood
½ cup popcorn kernels, popped
1 stick butter
⅓ cup vegetable oil
1 ½ pkgs miniature marshmallows
Candy as desired
Heat the oil, marshmallows and butter until smooth. Mix candy with the popcorn. Pour marshmallow mixture over the popcorn mixture and stir until completely coated. Press into a greased baking sheet, turn out and slice when completely cooled.
Anything can go into this: Salty peanuts or cashews would be awesome. As I said, my mom put red hots and shaped them into heart pans for Valentine’s day. I kinda feel like gummi bears might be crazy good.
I had originally thought to do this for Joey’s Kindergarten snack on Friday, but decided that the teacher probably didn’t want 20 5 – 6 year-olds all hopped up on M&Ms and marshmallows. She should thank me, right?
