Carla's Strawberry Cake Batter Popcorn

The challenge with embarking on a popcorn recipe week is this: popcorn itself is the best part of popcorn.  Popcorn is great on its own (in my opinion) and serves as a marvelous vehicle for tons of flavor.  Like Alyssa's Chipotle Lime Popcorn earlier in the week, savory flavor opportunities abound!  My absolute favorite is browned butter with a sprinkle of garlic powder and parmesan cheese (the one in the green can) (really).

But I'm interested in the sweet, fun varieties too and so when I remembered seeing this recipe for Cake Batter Popcorn several months ago, I knew it would be perfect for a makeover, Carla Style.

Strawberry Cake Batter Popcorn

- About 10 cups of air popped popcorn (One version of the original recipe used microwave popcorn, but once you see the rest of the ingredients you'll notice this is a Special Occasion Treat.  I figured I should start with air-popped, if possible.  Also, I don't have a microwave.)

- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening

- 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

- 1 cup of strawberry flavored cake mix

- sprinkles

In a small saucepan, melt the vegetable shortening over low heat.  Once it turns liquid, add the white chocolate chips and mix constantly until melted.  (Make sure that you are using very low heat here.  The melted shortening will help to melt the chocolate quickly, but it is very easy to scorch chocolate when you're using direct heat in a saucepan.  Plan for a slow melt and it will work out just fine.)

Add the strawberry cake mix and stir until blended.

Arrange your popcorn in a baking pan.  The one I used is 9x13 and fit perfectly.  Pour the mixture all over the popcorn and mix until all the popcorn is coated in the chocolate mixture.

Add your sprinkles!

Set the pan aside to cool.  Look, you've probably already stolen a few pieces just to "make sure it's not poison".  But letting it cool completely makes the mixture less like a sweet, pink pan of Rice Krispie Treats and more individually coated.

Turning on the stove in my kitchen generates quite a bit of heat, so I set mine on a chair in front of my open door.  

It didn't work fast enough (I was on a schedule), so I ended up throwing the pan in the fridge for about twenty minutes.  With cooler chocolate, I was able to break up the clumpy pieces by hand into a more standard popcorn size.

The Verdict:

One sister and two nieces LOVED this.  They were savoring the individual popcorn morsels (I think maybe I didn't give them enough) and were SO excited.  The girls especially loved that there was chocolate AND popcorn AND pink involved, so it's pretty clear that this would be an awesome party item.

Another sister thought it was super tasty (albeit rich), but that it's a bit soft.  The heat and creaminess from the chocolate mixture end up making the popcorn less crispy than you might expect, but I think that's only a problem if you're thinking "popcorn" and not "super strawberry tasty treat of white chocolate delight".  If you tend to like a lot of crunch, I would try adding more sprinkles!  Another tip is to make sure that you chill the popcorn and keep it cool until you're about to serve it.  It definitely softens up easily at room temperature.

I think this is a super tasty treat, easy to make and super versatile.  I love strawberry cupcakes (the fake, shockingly bright pink kind) and so I knew using that flavor of cake batter would be amazing.  But you could use spice cake mix for a gingerbread-y holiday version- and don't forget chocolate cake mix (with milk and/or dark chocolate chips) for the chocoholics in your life!

PS- Since I'm always trying to figure out how I feel about corn in my diet in general (those of you who see me often have probably had me exclaim at you about how popcorn is a GRAIN! Not a VEGETABLE!), I thought it'd be interesting to point you to this article about popcorn's healthy attributes.  Go, popcorn!