Happy Memorial Day everyone. Remember to take a little time to think about the guys and gals keeping us safe all over the world. Whatever your political views are, it doesn’t change the fact that these people are working hard for us. Fire up the grill and salute them!
Here’s a recipe for Smore Kabobs from my Easter BBQ in case you missed it, just replace the peeps with jumbo marshmallows! Click on the picture below for the article!
I have baked a lot, but usually it’s pretty hard to make something really cute, let alone anything fancy. This year was different, I’ve been learning a lot about baking techniques so I wanted to make a 3D cake. Everything I found was for making big cakes (2-4 cake mix boxes) and I don’t know anyone who really wants/needs to eat that much cake. So I was armed with just the basic understanding of piecing together these kind of cakes and half an idea of how to do it on a much smaller scale with cupcakes.
The baking was easy enough, following the directions on the cake box I made 24 cupcakes and had enough batter leftover to make a small loaf of cake about 1 in x 3 in. Cupcakes was a wonderful idea because they’re small so if I mess up I have a lot to work with, and those suckers were room temperature in like 10 mins. I usually don’t have the patience to let my cakes cool enough before trying to get creative.
My first attempt is the flat bunny to the left, which is really just a cupcake made with cupcake parts put together, not really anything cake about it. The next attempt is the bunny in the middle (not a mouse, a bunny ^_^) That one is 2 cupcakes for the legs, 1 for the body and little pieces for the ears. Everything is held together with frosting and toothpicks, and can stand up on its own. The last thing in the picture is just a cupcake easter basket.
This guy is my pride and joy, it’s a loop eared rabbit, the kind with massive floppy ears. Each ear is half a cupcake, the body is the small bread loaf, and both back legs are about 2/3 of a cupcake each. The tail is a marshmallow, in both pictures the candies are jelly beans and the garnish is green dyed coconut. This one I could see on the shelf of a bakery.
One of the great things about getting into how to make special food is being able to put together this kind of stuff. And my masterful training came from watching Food Network!
Maximum burnination! Another segment of our Peeps Torture series is done. We’ve successfully doused an innocent little peep in lighter fluid and set it ablaze! Bwahahaha!
When brainstorming for our Easter special Peeps Torture series, I thought I’d figure out a way to torture a Peep AND make something tasty at the same time. It’s like killing two marshmallow birds with one stone! Or in this case, four spinning steel blades.
The addition of marshmallow Peeps to a strawberry smoothie give it a thicker and creamier texture. You really can taste the Peeps!
Strawberry Peeps Smoothie:
Ingredients
3 Peeps (I used yellow chicks because I’m old school)
1 Peep for garnishing (optional)
1 cup of frozen strawberries
1 cup of milk
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Directions
Add, in order, Peeps, frozen strawberries, milk, sugar and vanilla to the blender.
As part of our on-going Easter Peeps Torture series, we are now pan frying a marshmallow peep. If you’re going to do this at home, fair warning: there’s going to be a good bit of smoke!
Welcome to the first installment of our special Easter segment, Peeps Torture! Oh, sorry. I meant Peeps Advanced Interrogation Techniques. Better? Not really, but here we go!
From now until Easter, I’m going to find new ways to maim, mutilate and macerate these cute little marshmallow chicks! I figured I first should start with the classic torture- the microwave. Surprisingly, I’ve never actually microwaved Peeps. There are pop culture references to it, but I never got around to doing it. That’s about to change!
Here’s the video of microwaving Peeps for 30 seconds:
Wow, that was actually more than I expected. Microwaving Peeps cause them to fluff up and grow to almost 3 times the size. After about 20 seconds, the Peep starts to deflate. The other 10 seconds was more overkill than anything else. And the coolest part? It tastes awesome! Better than “live” Peeps, these nuked Peeps taste alot like those meringue cookies. Same texture and everything!
Our lesson today- microwaving defenseless marshmallow baby chicks is delicious.
Yeah, I thought it sounded weird and ghetto too. But Angela says her family used to drink this stuff in Alaska on cold nights(and there are alot of those). Well, it took hell freezing over a February snow storm in Texas to finally convince me to finally try it out. I’ve had unconventional hot drinks before, but that’s usually because I left something in the car in August. By the way, hot Gatorade really isn’t too bad!
Enough stalling, let’s get to the recipe!
Ingredients:
Dr. Pepper
Cinnamon
Directions:
Bring Dr. Pepper to a boil in a pot.
Pour Boiled Dr. Pepper into a mug.
Sprinkle a little cinnamon in or stir with a cinnamon stick.
Reflect on why you really needed a recipe to make Dr. Pepper hot.
Impressions:
Wow, this stuff is really good! Those Eskimos really know what they’re doing(and yes I know not everyone in Alaska is an Eskimo or a polar bear. Let me dream, damnit!) Dr. Pepper is made up of a secret formula of 23 different flavors. Somehow, boiling the soda really brings out the fruitiness of the flavors. The cinnamon counters with a really nice spiciness. If you do it right, you can even still taste a little of the carbonation.
You guys have really got to try this! I’m adding this to my list of winter drinks right next to hot chocolate and apple cider. And to a lesser(but very important) extent, mind erasers. I wanted to see how well hot Dr. Pepper fared against hot chocolate in the most important hot drink category: marshmallowability. Here’s my results:
It looks cool alright, almost fitting. And best of all, the marshmallows actually plump up in the soda! The taste however is a bit confusing. I don’t normally expect my marshmallows to taste fruity. Actually, I’m used to marshmallows tasting like sweet cardboard ala Lucky Charms so I guess this is at least better than that. I’ll have to try it again later and see how I feel. My taste buds were probably still confused about the 23 flavors without having to worry about jet puffed goodness.
Wow, we learned a lot today! Let’s recap:
Hot Dr. Pepper and cinnamon is awesome.
Marshmallows are (very) optional.
Strange white precipitation is not a sign that the sky is falling, even though Texas drivers seem to think so.
Angela is awesome too.
Marshmallowability is a sweet word and is now trademarked by ME!
Not everyone in Alaska is a polar bear or an Eskimo(only about 95%)
Roatha can write an awful lot about making Dr. Pepper warmer.