Popcorn cake
(todo: post a picture!)
My mom had a couple of quirky recipes that she cooked every year around the holidays. Probably the strangest was popcorn cake. It's simple in concept, you take plain popped popcorn, and mix it with melted marshmallows (like a Rice Krispy treat), and embed mixed nuts and gumdrops in it. You set this in a bundt cake pan, and slice pieces off of it like a normal cake. People outside my family tended to be wary of popcorn cake, maybe because the gumdrops and nuts in it make it a little bit like fruitcake, or maybe just because it's a little intimidating, so big and white and popcorny and marshmallowy.
In any case, my brother got the recipe off my mom a couple of years ago and started making them as well. Here's his recipe. He just does the quantities by hand, but I've listed the amounts that I use (which I arrived at by trial and error)
Ingredients:
(These are sufficient for my ring cake mold, which is about 1500mL in volume. Scale up or down as needed.)
100g butter (or 1 stick, in US measurements)
250g marshmallows
1/3 cup popcorn seeds for popping (stovetop/popper, not microwave)
250g trail mix with nuts and dried fruit
(or, instead of trail mix, 1 cup salted mixed nuts or peanuts, and 1-2 cups spice drops or gum drops)
1) Pop a bunch of popcorn, enough to fill your bundt pan. This should be popped in a hot-air popper, or in a stove-top pot with a little bit of oil. Don't use microwave popcorn for this. Pop a bunch of popcorn, then when done, pour it into your bundt pan to see how much you need. Pour off the excess into a separate bowl to eat while you cook.
2) Pour your bundt pan full of dry popcorn into a large mixing bowl. This is where you'll mix the popcorn and the melted marshmallow mixture later. Important: When you pour the popcorn into your mixing bowl, do the best you can to get rid of any unpopped kernels (these will be tooth-busters if you leave them in).
3) Prepare your now-empty bundt pan: spray it with Pam or other non-stick spray. Keep it nearby. Also have your large mixing bowl with your popcorn nearby.
4) In a large non-stick pot, melt a stick of butter over medium-high heat. Wait for it to become completely melted.
5) When it is melted, dump in your bag of marshmallows. Stir them with a wooden spoon until they too are completely melted.
6) At this point the clock is ticking because you don't want to overheat the marshmallows and burn them. Dump in the mixed nuts and stir them around to get them evenly distributed (and coated with marshmallow). Dump in the gumdrops too and stir those around, but not for too long because they'll melt.
7) Soon after you dump in the gumdrops, pour the whole marshmallow mixture from your non-stick pot into your mixing bowl. It's like sticky napalm at this point so be careful with it. Pour it all over your popcorn and use a couple of wooden spoons to start mixing it around. (I find it helps if I have a friend holding the mixing bowl here while I pour.) At this point the clock is ticking so you have to move fast before the marshmallow gets too cool to work with.
8) Quickly mix the marshmallow mixture all over the popcorn. It will cool quickly and in a minute or two, it should be cool enough that you can use your hands. Rub some oil over your hands first so that it won't stick, and get in there and get everything all mixed together. Work quickly while the marshmallow is still pliable.
9) When it's all mixed in, transfer the mixture from your mixing bowl to your bundt pan. Again, work quickly. Get it all in there and formed around your bundt pan, and try to make it flat on top. I usually push down on it a bit so that the popcorn gets a little denser and tighter, while I flatten out the top.
10) That's it, the hard work is done. Put some plastic wrap over the pan and put it in the refrigerator overnight to set. As a reward, you now get to eat all the marshmallow-covered popcorn and nuts that are stuck to the sides of your mixing bowl.
11) The next day, pull out the bundt pan, invert the pan over a plate, and knock out the cake. Usually a few hits will do it, but you might have to pry it out with a spatula or butter knife (don't scratch the non-stick interior of your bundt pan).
12) Wait for it to come to room temperature, slice, and serve.
In preparing to make this myself, I have discovered that it's not a very NZ-friendly recipe. There are no bundt-cake pans here, though there are slightly differently shaped ring cake pans. There are no gum drops here, though there are a variety of other gummy candies. Perhaps most importantly, there are no bags of plain white marshmallows here. Marshmallows here are treated as a candy instead of a baking item, and they always come in a mix of colors. The best I can find is a bag of pink and white mixed, with the pink ones slightly cherry flavored. I'm making up my mind whether to separate them, or make a pink cake.
How do people make Rice Krispy treats in NZ if there are no marshmallows, you might ask? Well it turns out they don't. Instead they make "Chocolate crackles", a similar item which uses a coconut-based vegetable shortening called Kremelta (Copha in Australia) in place of marshmallows. So, I may try a Kremelta-based popcorn cake. Or I might try making my own marshmallows from scratch.
My mom had a couple of quirky recipes that she cooked every year around the holidays. Probably the strangest was popcorn cake. It's simple in concept, you take plain popped popcorn, and mix it with melted marshmallows (like a Rice Krispy treat), and embed mixed nuts and gumdrops in it. You set this in a bundt cake pan, and slice pieces off of it like a normal cake. People outside my family tended to be wary of popcorn cake, maybe because the gumdrops and nuts in it make it a little bit like fruitcake, or maybe just because it's a little intimidating, so big and white and popcorny and marshmallowy.
In any case, my brother got the recipe off my mom a couple of years ago and started making them as well. Here's his recipe. He just does the quantities by hand, but I've listed the amounts that I use (which I arrived at by trial and error)
Ingredients:
(These are sufficient for my ring cake mold, which is about 1500mL in volume. Scale up or down as needed.)
100g butter (or 1 stick, in US measurements)
250g marshmallows
1/3 cup popcorn seeds for popping (stovetop/popper, not microwave)
250g trail mix with nuts and dried fruit
(or, instead of trail mix, 1 cup salted mixed nuts or peanuts, and 1-2 cups spice drops or gum drops)
1) Pop a bunch of popcorn, enough to fill your bundt pan. This should be popped in a hot-air popper, or in a stove-top pot with a little bit of oil. Don't use microwave popcorn for this. Pop a bunch of popcorn, then when done, pour it into your bundt pan to see how much you need. Pour off the excess into a separate bowl to eat while you cook.
2) Pour your bundt pan full of dry popcorn into a large mixing bowl. This is where you'll mix the popcorn and the melted marshmallow mixture later. Important: When you pour the popcorn into your mixing bowl, do the best you can to get rid of any unpopped kernels (these will be tooth-busters if you leave them in).
3) Prepare your now-empty bundt pan: spray it with Pam or other non-stick spray. Keep it nearby. Also have your large mixing bowl with your popcorn nearby.
4) In a large non-stick pot, melt a stick of butter over medium-high heat. Wait for it to become completely melted.
5) When it is melted, dump in your bag of marshmallows. Stir them with a wooden spoon until they too are completely melted.
6) At this point the clock is ticking because you don't want to overheat the marshmallows and burn them. Dump in the mixed nuts and stir them around to get them evenly distributed (and coated with marshmallow). Dump in the gumdrops too and stir those around, but not for too long because they'll melt.
7) Soon after you dump in the gumdrops, pour the whole marshmallow mixture from your non-stick pot into your mixing bowl. It's like sticky napalm at this point so be careful with it. Pour it all over your popcorn and use a couple of wooden spoons to start mixing it around. (I find it helps if I have a friend holding the mixing bowl here while I pour.) At this point the clock is ticking so you have to move fast before the marshmallow gets too cool to work with.
8) Quickly mix the marshmallow mixture all over the popcorn. It will cool quickly and in a minute or two, it should be cool enough that you can use your hands. Rub some oil over your hands first so that it won't stick, and get in there and get everything all mixed together. Work quickly while the marshmallow is still pliable.
9) When it's all mixed in, transfer the mixture from your mixing bowl to your bundt pan. Again, work quickly. Get it all in there and formed around your bundt pan, and try to make it flat on top. I usually push down on it a bit so that the popcorn gets a little denser and tighter, while I flatten out the top.
10) That's it, the hard work is done. Put some plastic wrap over the pan and put it in the refrigerator overnight to set. As a reward, you now get to eat all the marshmallow-covered popcorn and nuts that are stuck to the sides of your mixing bowl.
11) The next day, pull out the bundt pan, invert the pan over a plate, and knock out the cake. Usually a few hits will do it, but you might have to pry it out with a spatula or butter knife (don't scratch the non-stick interior of your bundt pan).
12) Wait for it to come to room temperature, slice, and serve.
In preparing to make this myself, I have discovered that it's not a very NZ-friendly recipe. There are no bundt-cake pans here, though there are slightly differently shaped ring cake pans. There are no gum drops here, though there are a variety of other gummy candies. Perhaps most importantly, there are no bags of plain white marshmallows here. Marshmallows here are treated as a candy instead of a baking item, and they always come in a mix of colors. The best I can find is a bag of pink and white mixed, with the pink ones slightly cherry flavored. I'm making up my mind whether to separate them, or make a pink cake.
How do people make Rice Krispy treats in NZ if there are no marshmallows, you might ask? Well it turns out they don't. Instead they make "Chocolate crackles", a similar item which uses a coconut-based vegetable shortening called Kremelta (Copha in Australia) in place of marshmallows. So, I may try a Kremelta-based popcorn cake. Or I might try making my own marshmallows from scratch.