For Bailey's Baby Shower, I made a batch of Pink Birthday Cake Batter Popcorn. I had made this once before to bring to work and used this recipe as a guide. I have tweaked the recipe a little, so below is my version of it. I didn't take any pictures while I was making it because I didn't anticipate blogging about the recipe, so if you need step by step pictures, check out the original recipe I linked above!
I used:
Yellow popcorn kernels and microwave popcorn popper bowl (similar to this one) cooked according to the directions on the bag. (I think one batch was 1/4 cup kernels) You could just use regular plain popcorn from a bag as well.
Half a block of Almond Bark
1/4 cup Vegetable Shortening (or less)
1 cup Yellow Cake Mix (or less)
Food coloring (if desired)
Sprinkles (if desired)
As you can see you pretty much can do whatever you want with this recipe and not mess it up - more or less shortening, more or less cake mix, food coloring, no food coloring, etc. Just don't burn the almond bark! :)
First, pop your popcorn using whichever method you choose. Then, set the popcorn aside while you melt your almond bark. (White chocolate will also work for this) I microwave the almond bark for about 45 seconds, stir it a little, and then microwave for another 30 seconds and stir and just repeat until it's all melted. Then add the vegetable shortening. This will help the melted chocolate to be easier to use - more runny maybe... (Not sure if that's the right word to use!) Next, add in the yellow cake mix and stir until it's mixed in well. Finally, add in food coloring if you'd like to make this treat a little more festive!
Both times I've made this recipe, I have doubled it. I usually do the first batch of popcorn with the yellow cake mix and the second without and then combine the two batches in the end. I have found that the yellow cake mix makes it very sweet, almost too much, so it's nice to have some of the popcorn just be chocolate covered. If you're just making one batch, you could just halve the yellow cake mix and see how it goes from there. You can use as little or as much cake mix as you'd like! The recipe I found said to err on the lesser side though because too much yellow cake mix makes the chocolate mixture a little too thick... So beware!
It's then time to mix it together with the popcorn. Be sure to use a big enough bowl so you can adequately stir the popcorn without having a lot of the popcorn end up outside the bowl. Like I said before, I usually do two batches, but I do one batch at a time, so it's a lot easier to stir and be sure all the popcorn is coated. (I can also do my one batch with cake mix and one without a lot easier that way)
After it's all covered, you can add sprinkles if you'd like or you could even throw in some other candy with it. I think I prefer it plain, but I might try it with sprinkles sometime just to see how it goes!
When you're all done, let it cool and harden and then have at it!
Enjoy!
