Doing popcorn and a movie every Friday night can put one in a popcorn rut. The reality is there are really only so many ways to make popcorn and even my marshmallow caramel can get dull fairly quickly, so we needed a new idea to try. Enter my love of all things cakey and sprinkled.
I no longer keep boxed cake mix on hand, so if you’re like me you can refer back to our homemade cake mix. Making a batch of this popcorn is super easy and quick and it will disappear just as instantly.
First we pop our corn. I have a handy stove top popper, just like the one I grew up with. I enjoy turning the crank and the way the kids gather listening for the sounds of the first pops. We pop in coconut oil and the smell is awesome and if you’re keeping your popcorn traditional it lends a flavor that trumps any other plain popcorn. You won’t be sorry. Or ratio is about 1/2 cup kernels to 3 TBS oil. The popper can’t handle more than that when they all pop.
A couple corn popping tricks:
- Pre-heat your oil before adding the kernels, then drop the temp to medium heat while popping.
- Store your kernels in the freezer, your kernels need internal moisture to pop, dropping them into hot oil from a cold freezer helps ensure the condensation required. This means less unpopped kernels in the bottom of your pan when you’re done and your kernels stay fresh longer.
Using a microwave safe dish melt the white chocolate chips and the coconut oil in the microwave. I do it in 30 second intervals stirring between each nuking. It takes me about 3 rounds to get it all incorporated.
Then you add your cake mix and stir well. If you add too much it will be all lumpy and won’t coat the popcorn as nicely.
Pour over your bowl of popcorn and mix well. This is easiest to do in a large bowl as mixing popcorn can get messy. The little bits love to jump right out of your bowl. Once mixed you can enlist the assistance of little helpers. I let him shake till his heart’s content. We used about a half bottle of sprinkles.
Once you mix in all your sprinkles you should try to let it sit for a bit to harden back up, though we find this a near impossible feat. You could also form this into balls or a cake pan for a fun shaped treat or use seasonal sprinkles for holiday specific cake popcorn.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups white chocolate chips, or chocolate for chocolate birthday cake 🙂
- 1/4 cup coconut oil (you could substitute shortening or lard, butter makes it kinda clumpy and weird)
- 1 1/4 cup cake mix
- Popped popcorn, 6 cups ish
- Lots of sprinkles
