Gobble it up

It's turkey time. I was looking for a kid-friendly treat for my son's class's Thanksgiving Feast that stayed in the theme of pumpkin pie but still appealed to 12 five-year-old boys. So I came up with "Pumpkin Turkey Balls". We had them last night for dessert and they were good. Both of my kids ate them.

Pumpkin Turkey Balls

Ingredients:
1 can pumpkin purée
1 box yellow cake mix
1 tub cream cheese icing
White chocolate bark coating
Candy corn
Black icing (for eyes)

The cake:
Mix can of pumpkin with cake mix (no other ingredients - just the powder). Mix with an electric mixer and it will be thick. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. That's all!

Allow cake to fully cool before next step.


The Balls:

Crumble cake into crumbs.
Soften container of icing in microwave for 10-20 seconds. Add 1/2 of container to crumbs.

Mix with hands until all of cake crumbs are moist. (Add more icing if needed)

Form into balls (mine are like the size of ping pong balls)

Chill in fridge until firm.

The Turkey:

Dip in melted bark coating and set on wax paper to cool.

Cut candy corns for beak. Use melted bark coating to attach candy corns. Use icing to make eyes.

I was able to yield 36 with this recipe.

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Tricky-or-Treat

So I signed up to make the treat for W's Fall Fest at school. This is the event they have instead of Halloween (which means no costumes. Yay!). My husband always asks me why I can't just be a normal mom and send in brownies or Rice Krispie treats. So Rice Krispie treats it was - just a variation.

Rice Krispie Pumpkins

Ingredients:
Rice Krispies cereal (6 cups)
Mini marshmallows (4 cups)
Margarine or butter (3 Tbs)
Orange food coloring
Tootsie rolls
Green decorating icing
Black writing icing that hardens (I got mine at Michael's)


Follow your regular Rice Krispie recipe but add orange food coloring to the marshmallows before you add the cereal.
Mix it really well until everything is orange.

Now here's the hard part. Put it in the fridge and let it cool. (I tried to skip this step, but the mix was too sticky to form. My balls fell apart)

After it has cooled for a good long time, (it took mine over an hour) form into balls squeezing them tight so they hold. Then place them on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper and again place in the fridge to firm up.

After they are firm, cut tootsie rolls in half. Use small dab of green icing to adhere tootsie rolls to the top. Add a leaf with green icing.

Make faces with black icing.

Cool until icing sets.

Serve.

I was able to make 16 pumpkins a little smaller than a tennis ball. (And a pile of stuff that wouldn't form)

My son's class lived them and they were even safe for the kid with nut allergies.

Score one for mom!

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Maybe I am Supermom debut

For years I have been making creative birthday cakes for my boys. )I'll post the all later.) But let's start with this year. As my oldest was turning 5 in October I was faced with the repeated question "what kind of cake should I make this year?" After past years, I can't just go back to making a box cake in a 13x9 pan and putting icing and candles on it.
I should start with the statement that I do NOT bake from scratch. I am a proud user of making a cake out of a box and sculpting it into something cool.
So W is into superheroes. I went online to look up ideas for superhero cakes and they were INSANE! Multiple layers, fondant, sculpted Hulk hands. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed. I was just about ready to make him a sheet cake and stick action figures on it.
Then I remembered Spider-Man's face is just an oval. So I borrowed a friend's oval shaped pan (no, I don't own one) and came up with this.


I did get "fancy" and make the inside of the cake a rainbow cake. The key to the shiny icing is using a crumb coat first and refrigerating it for an hour (Fondant freaks me out!)
The key to the RED icing , not pink (I've made that mistake before) is GEL food coloring. The drops from the grocery just don't cut it.
Then I used cookie icing for the lines and eyes since they harden.

I can tell you it was a big hit. My son asked me "Mom, how many weeks did this tale you?" I told him it took no time because I'm Supermom!

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