Good Humor (Strawberry Shortcake, Chocolate Eclair & Toasted Almond) Ice Cream Bar Cake Pops

Hey there Peeps! It's August and I just saw an ad that Pumpkin Spice lattes are coming back soon.

NOOO! I want to keep Summer for a bit more. 

We haven't even been to the beach yet.  So bummed but I have been trying to keep Summer going with one of my fav treats. 

Good Humor Ice Cream Bars - specifically the infamous Strawberry Shortcake! It's been one of my favorites since I was a little kid running to the ice cream truck when it came into the neighborhood.

I found some of the crunch sprinkles that coat those infamous ice cream bars so knew I had to use them to make some mini treats.

These are my mini versions of the Chocolate Eclair, Strawberry Shortcake, and the Toasted Almond.

The chocolate bar is a mixture of Funfetti cake and frosting plus some crushed up chocolate creme cookies (I used Trader Joe's Joe Joe's) 

The Strawberry Shortcake is the Funfetti cake, frosting plus some powdered freeze dried strawberries.

The toasted almond is plain Funfetti cake and frosting mixture.

Once the mixture is uniform shape into the ice cream bar shapes.

My local supermarket had "crunch" sprinkles in chocolate crunch, nut crunch, and "pink" crunch flavors.  See how you can make your own (recipe below!)

Add a popsicle stick (coffee stirrer) 

Freeze for about 15 minutes 

Coat "popsicle" with melted vanilla candy  

Add the crunch sprinkles 

Let harden

And you have some super cute ice cream bar cake pops!

Don't they look like mini versions of the real thing?? Bonus - they don't melt!

I'm going to try to enjoy the last few weeks of Summer before we head into pumpkin spice season!

Although I didn't make my crunch sprinkles it seems like many look for the recipe so below is how you could make your own.

How to make Crunch Sprinkles

Strawberry Crunch Sprinkles

• 2 cups of vanilla Oreo cookies
• 1/2 cup freeze-dried strawberries
• Pulse until small chunks
• Mix in 2 teaspoons of melted butter

Chocolate Crunch Sprinkles

• 1 cup of vanilla Oreo cookies
• 1 cup chocolate wafer cookies
• Pulse until small chunks
• Mix in 2 teaspoons of melted butter

Toasted Almond Sprinkles

• 1 cup of vanilla Oreo cookies
• 1/2 cup toasted almonds 
• Pulse until small chunks
• Mix in 2 teaspoons of melted butter
• For more almond flavor add 1 teaspoon of almond extract

Fruit (Fig & Strawberry) Halloween Monster Pops

I'm adding to all the fun monster themed foods that will be showing up from now until Halloween!

How about some fruit pops. Meaning fruit on sticks!  

I've been on a fig kick lately.  I know that most people (KIDS) don't gravitate toward figs but I'm trying because I love them.  Aside from a fig newton my kiddos haven't really ever had fresh figs. Let's be honest they don't always look so yummy.  You don't peel them and you have to get past eating the skin.  And inside, they actually did remind me of a monster face.  Hence the monster pops. 

But how fun do these guys look??!  

Add some spooky eyes and a little melted candy and you've got a simple sweet treat.

I did also use strawberries too as I knew they would eat these guys.

You can find fresh figs so much easier now in grocery stores or you may find other varieties at your local farmer's market.

My favs are the black mission but I love the kadota too. 

They don't store for long so make them the day you plan to eat them.  They are so quick to put together so that's easy to do.

Create your own gang of fruit monster pops this Halloween 

AND they'd also be great as an after school healthy treat! 

My kids did try them but still preferred the strawberry pops - but it was at least a first step!

Thanks for stopping by and have great weekend!

Fig and Strawberry Monster Pops

by Michelle Clausen September-16-2016

Ingredients

• 6 strawberries; 6 figs 
• candy coated chocolate candy (like m and m's)
• candy eyes
• 1/2 cup vanilla/orange candy melts/wafers
• 24 pop sticks or straws

Instructions:

1. Wash and dry fruit.  Cut each into 1/2 lengthwise (as in photos)
2. Insert pop stick into bottom of fruit 
3. Melt candy wafers in quart sized freezer bag in 15 second intervals in microwave.  Snip an end and add some candy to pop stick to adhere to fruit.
4. Attach candy eyes with melted candy.
5. Add more detail with melted candy.  Let harden 10 minutes.
6. Serve the day the pops are made.

Prep time: 15 mins Yield: 24 monster pops

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cookies

Um, did you know Valentines Day is this Friday? I know right, how the heck is that possible?? I mean there are hearts and red velvet stuff galore all over other blogs and Pinterest, but I still keep thinking that it's a couple weeks away.  Well less than a week away now.  

And the hubster is leaving us for sunny Florida for a trip this week.  I'm just hoping it doesn't snow anymore because I'm so not handy around the house, especially with things like gas powered snow blowers.   Thanks for deserting us hon - Enjoy your dumb sun!  

So to make us feel better I made some cookies.  Shaped like strawberries.  And dipped in chocolate.  Like chocolate covered strawberries.  My blogging friend Sue from Munchkin Munchies has made 3D sugar cookies before like these little apples and these strawberries! So adorable.  I knew I wanted to try making them so decided on doing some strawberries.

I also have a little confession.  I am not a huge fan of chocolate covered strawberries.  I mean I love strawberries on their own, and chocolate on it's own, just not so much put together.  In general I don't really like chocolate with my fruit.  I know some people LOVE it.  There are businesses dedicated to adding chocolate to fruit and fruit to chocolate, which is cool - its just not my favorite.  

But I do like the look of chocolate covered strawberries, and these happen to be really easy to make.  Start with a store bought sugar cookie mix (you could use homemade too of course).  Mix as directed plus 1 tablespoon more flour.  Tint red.  You could even add strawberry flavor/extract if you wanted.  I didn't because I just wanted the look, not taste of strawberries here.  Then shape the dough in tablespoonfuls like strawberries.

Add sesame seeds to look like strawberry seeds.  And the most important part FREEZE them for at least a few hours.  Overnight would probably be great if you have the time.  Then bake the cookies directly from the freezer at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes.  They will flatten too much if you bake for longer or don't freeze them well.  

You can see they still flattened a little once baked 

Once cooled, dip in good dark chocolate.  And add stem/leaves with some melted candy wafers.  I used dark green mixed with a little of the chocolate.  Pipe leaves and stems onto parchment and once hardened add to the cookies with more melted candy wafers.

And you get some pretend chocolate covered strawberries.  For anyone that doesn't like chocolate and fruit (like me!).  Just in time for Valentines Day!

Wishing you all a great week and a special Valentines Day for you and your special ones! 

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Striped Blueberry and Strawberry Rice Krispie Treats

So I think I've mentioned my love of cereal treats before right?  Because 1) they are ridiculously simple to make (you don't even need to bake anything!) and 2) most kiddos and grown ups love them.  I've yet to find someone that doesn't smile when they see a plate full of cereal treats or have a visceral aversion to them. I've made them plenty of time before like these peppermint krispie treats, fruity pebbles cereal treats, trix and chex cereal treats, and these turkey day cinnamon rice krispie treats.

To make these a little more fun and because I love color, I went with 3 batches and flavored 2 of the 3 layers.  You can find the basic recipe for rice krispie treats here, but it's really so simple:  

4 cups of mini marshmallows (or 1 - 10 ounce bag of regular sized marshmallows)

3 tablespoons of butter

6 cups of rice cereal

For the strawberry and blueberry layers, you'll need about 1 cup of freeze dried fruit

On a stove top, melt butter, add marshmallows until all melted, then mix in rice krispies.  

The blueberry and strawberry flavors are from freeze dried fruits, which you can find everywhere now. I got mine from Trader Joe's but most food stores or even Target carries them now too.  I love using them because you can add natural concentrated flavor and color without adding any extra water to your recipe.  

Crush up the freeze dried fruit of your choice - I used my good old mortar and pestle to crunch them up (see I am using my pharmacy degree!)

After you melt the butter and marshmallows together, add the powdered freeze dried fruit.  It will look like this when you mix it up:

Then turn off the heat and add the rice cereal; mix it well.  Press it into a pan (spray the pan with non-stick spray and spray a piece of wax paper or your spatula with non stick spray too otherwise it will stick to everything you touch)

Repeat with other layers and press well between each later. 

 Cut into what ever fun shapes you like.

And you get a plate of some fun and colorful stripped rice krispie treats.  You could even dip in some white chocolate, but I really like the simple lines of these treats.  And I did mention the color and flavor are from fruit right? No food colorings or food gels used here.  Not that I don't use food colors - you really can only get the bright colors you want for some projects with them.  But I do like to experiment to see what I can get with natural food colors.  And these definitely have the look I was shooting for!

Here are some other goodies made with natural food dyes/colors for anyone interested:

Whoopie Pies

Ice Cream Topped Angel Food Cupcakes

Red, White and Blue Madeleines

Ghost Cupcakes

Thanks for swinging by and have a GREAT week! We have a mini vacay next week and I can't wait --there is chocolate involved!

Tidy Mom's I'm Loving It

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vanilla cupcakes with fruit glazes...!

....so ever since seeing these cupcakes in an issue of martha stewart's living...they've been on the "to do" list....the glaze colors are so pretty!

...these are homemade vanilla cupcakes from the magnolia vanilla cupcake recipe.....the glaze icings are cantaloupe, blueberry, strawberry, and mint....and the color is all natural...only from the color that comes from the fruit (or mint).....i love that as i tend to use a lot of color in my stuff (well because stuff looks more awesome with a lot of color!) but if i can get the same cool look without adding the extra coloring gels...even better....

...the blueberry, strawberry, and mint glaze icings are made like in the ms recipe....decided to add a cantaloupe glaze because we had a super ripe melon that the kiddos probably wouldn't eat (you know kids, kinda mushy fruit and it's "yucky")....so cut it up and food processed it into a mush....

...then added a little sugar (maybe 2-3 tablespoonfuls) and heated it until it reduced and thickened a bit....then strained out all the big particles....

...and you are left with a super condensed and thick cantaloupe syrup....

...i did all the fruit syrups ahead of time and stored them in the fridge til i was ready to use....for the mint syrup (we have a small herb garden so it was great to use some of the ton of mint we have growing!).....make sure you blanch really quickly in boiling water to brighten the green color...then puree with a small amount of the blanching water.....then follow the ms recipe...it works great and has such a great fresh mint taste!.....

...then just add some powdered sugar to the syrups until you get the glaze consistency you want (thick enough for dipping the cupcakes so it keeps the color without becoming transparent through the glaze).....

...the strawberry, blueberry and mint glazes' flavor are definitely yummy and pretty concentrated....cantaloupe is tough for a fruit flavor because it's so subtle....using really ripe fruit and concentrating by cooking it down definitely helped....you do get a cantaloupe flavor from this glaze icing but it's not as intense as the strawberry or blueberry....the mint is my fav though and i love the color that is ended up being (oh and the mint syrup is great for drinkee drinks too..!).....

....then just dip (or drizzle the glaze) over your favorite cupcakes....and you get some super moist vanilla cupcakes with a bunch of au natural colored and flavored glazes....!

....i need to figure out something to do with the left over glazes....i'm sure they'd be great on a lot of things....thanks for stopping by, and have a great 1st week of august....!

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