Super "Bowl" Youtube/Cereal Dessert Challenge

So. My friend gave me a challenge. A really geeky, really stupid, really fab challenge. Our conversation itself was geeky, with my actually saying "Challenge Accepted" when she described her proposed dare and then our friend taking our hands as we shook on our agreement in exact HIMYM style, (see these scenes to see how it exactly broke down).


For every dessert I made for our super bowl party, I had to fit the theme "Super Bowl". And I also had to have each dessert pay homage to a popular youtube video. 


Challenge accepted! She judged my treats at the party, and I apparently passed with flying colors. To fit the Super "Bowl" theme, I used cereal in each dessert. Get it? Because cereal is super and served in bowls? 




Ha? No? I laughed at myself throughout this. A lot. 


Anyway. So then I figured out which cereals and recipes would be most applicable for the youtube hits I'd decided on. Hope you enjoy my results!

Peanut Butter Capn' Crunch - Chocolate Rain Drops

These are chocolate cake with peanut butter, dipped in chocolate, and rolled in peanut butter crumbs. They. Are. Delicious. I used the same recipe I used for funfetti cake balls, just with some minor adjustments, and the youtube video inspiration was Chocolate Rain. Thus the name:

Chocolate Rain Drops

-1 cake mix

-1 can frosting

-1 package chocolate/almond bark for coating

Bake cake according to directions on box, in a 13 by 9 pan. Once cooled, crumble cake into large bowl, add can of frosting, and mix up til dough like. Round into balls approx the size of a cherry. Place on cookie sheet and put into freezer til solid, (try an hour, I never did this and mine therefore fell apart!). Melt chocolate bark and dip balls into chocolate. Set aside on wax paper til cool. Peel and serve :)

*To make this Peanut Butter Captin Crunch! Pulse 5 cups PBC in food processor until fine grains. Add approx 2 cups into the batter prior to addition of canned icing. With icing, also add 1 cup crunchy peanut butter. Dip in chocolate and roll in the remaining cereal dust. Allow to harden and serve. 

Fruity Pebbles- "Human Hand" Bars

This is probably my favorite youtube reference and, pretty much no one got it. Once they saw the youtube video, they thought it was hilarious. But! At first, no one at the party got the quotes "Well, I was hungry! And you know, when you crave hands..." or "My stomach was making the rumblies... that only human hands could satisfy!"


Hopefully, some of you have seen Llamas with Hats. Either way, you'll like these lemon cake cookies with glaze and fruity pebble crunch. I used my carrot cake cookie recipe, (please ignore the super blurred/dark pics if you check it out! that was my point and shoot and in my dark, scary, college apartment), adapted with a lemon poppy seed mix and a glaze I made with a simple mix of confectioners sugar, water, and lemon. I also made mine into a big cookie that i cut into hands/bars but, I recommend making them as individual cookies. I think they simply hold up better that way, although no one complained at our super bowl shin dig! Anyway. Make and enjoy :)

Rumbley Satisfying Hand Cookies

-1 Lemon/Lemon Poppy Cake Mix

-1 Egg

-1/2 Cup Oil

-2 cups crushed Fruity Pebble Cereal

-Glaze

Mix all ingredients, (excluding the icing can/cereal). Roll dough into spoonful sized balls, bake on cookie sheet at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool completely, and ice with glaze. Dip into fruity crushed pieces. Tada! 

Cinnamon Toast Crunch- Cinnamon Cavity Cake

This is a cinnamon toast crunch cake that is so sweet and delicious it's cavity inducing. Or, I just said that so I could reference the video David at the Dentist. Either way! I got this recipe from this lovely food blog but, adapted it to make it cereal friendly. And I used nutmeg instead of ginger so it tasted like a cinnamon donut. Yummmm.

Cavity Cinnamon Cake
-2 1/2 cups flour
-1 cup brown sugar
-3/4 cup granulated sugar
-2 tsp cinnamon
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp nutmeg
-3/4 cup Canola oil
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp baking soda
-1 egg
-1 cup buttermilk
-3 cups gently crushed cinnamon toast crunch cereal

Mix together 2 1/4 cups flour, white and brown sugars, 1 tsp cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Blend in oil until well combined. Remove 3/4 cup of mixture and set aside. To remaining flour mix add baking soda, baking powder, egg and buttermilk. Blend until smooth. Pour into greased 13×9″ pan. To 3/4 cup reserved mix, add 1/4 cup flour and 1 tsp cinnamon. Sprinkle over batter. Sprinkle cereal on batter/crumb topping as well and bake in a 13 by 9 at 350 (F) oven for 35-40 minutes.

Honey Nut Cheerios- Imma Bee-Butterscotch Clusters

My friend, Taylor, and I are relatively obsessed with the song Imma Bee. It is just so bad it's good. These treats are Honey Nut Cheerio Inspired, and a sweet childhood memory. Make them IMMEDIATELY. They are my favorite dessert shown here. They're butterscotch, peanut butter, deliciousness. I made mine into balls so they could be served in cupcake cups but, really truly, they are so much better just pressed into a 13 by 19, like rice krispie treats. They stay chewier that way, promise it's worth the lack of adorable. You should probably still make the bees though.


Imma Bee-Butterschotch Bars

Mix in a bowl:

-6 c. Cheerios
-11 oz. pkg. butterscotch chips
-1/4 tsp. salt
-1 tsp. vanilla

Bring to a boil:

-1 c. Karo syrup
-1/2 c. brown sugar

-2 c. peanut butter

Add syrup and sugar to first mix. Stir well until mixed. Put into a buttered 9x13 inch cake pan.

Lucky Charms- Double Rainbow Cupcakes

These are just from a mix and a can! I was making so many other things, I decided to cut corners here. I divided the white cake mix batter into 6 small bowls, dyed them each color, and poured them one at a time into cupcake pans. It created the rainbow marble look beautifully, and in the proper layers! I love this, really. It was so so fun. I just frosted them with a can of Whipped Vanilla icing and then put rainbow marshmallows from Lucky Charms cereal. That way, the cake AND the marshmallows were both rainbows, providing, OH MY GOSH! a Double Rainbow! A perfect match for the youtube vid :)


These were my favorite in terms of look and success. Everyone got the reference and they looked so pretty. Even the wrappers looked lovely from the dye! And it was pretty amusing how the dehydrated marshmallows became soft again from the moisture in the icing. Overall, rainbow cupcakes ftw!

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And that is that! Whew, what a post. Hope you enjoyed this challenge as much as I did. Cooking with cereal is going to become a repeat performance I think. Maybe without the youtube themes, as fun as they were ;)


Enjoy!