Funfetti Puffed Popcorn

When a recipe begins to build momentum in the blogging world, or on Pinterest, I swear all my friends turn to me and say, “Can you make that?”

“Of course,” is my typical answer. But then I think about how that recipe has already saturated the market.  How do I switch it up some to make it still taste delicious, but have a stamp all my own?

When it comes to popcorn, there is only one thing I love more than air popped popcorn and that is “fake” popcorn!

I could eat a whole bag of puffed popcorn. Literally the whole bag in one sitting. No joke.

My mom loves to buy this stuff for my little brother since he is only 21 months and popcorn kernels can be slightly dangerous for munchkins.  Every time I visit, I go straight for the bag and start eating. Then I track down my little brother, and make sure I feed him one puff per my 10, so that when my mom goes “Rachel, those are your brother’s!” I can calmly reply, “I am sharing.”

I don’t buy these because of my addiction to them. I also don’t allow myself to buy cases of soda, Funyuns or Oreos.  I have no self-control. If I don’t have access to these addictive substances, then I can control my waist line.

Irrational? Yes. But it does work for me.

Most of the time.

In this case, I purchased the puffed popcorn for the sake of my blog. At least that is what I told my conscience. I didn’t tell my conscience that I bought a bigger bag than was needed for the recipe so I could eat the leftovers. Stuff she doesn’t need to know. Shhh!

I bet you could careless about my addiction to those ridiculous foods, and care more about the delicious recipe.  It was all to easy to make, and my step by step will not compare to the one on Tasty Kitchen, by Jenna from Eat.Live.Run, so I am not going to even try. Even though I changed things  up a bit, the step by step is still the same. Melt some chocolate, add in some shortening and cake mix, coat your popcorn, sprinkle on some colorful sprinkles, and devour!

 Now where is the rest of that bag of puffed popcorn….

Funfetti Puffed Popcorn

yields 8 cups

• 1 3/4 cup  white chocolate chips, melted
• ¼ cups butter flavored vegetable shortening
• 1 1/2 cup funfetti cake mix
• 8 cups puffed popcorn
• sprinkles from cake mix + any additional you like

1. Melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave. Microwave in 30-second intervals until fully melted, stirring between intervals.
2. Stir shortening into melted chocolate until all shortening is melted. You can place the chocolate back in the microwave for 10 or 15 seconds if needed to melt shortening.
3. Add the cake mix to the chocolate  and fully combine.
4. Evenly coat popcorn with batter, continuously stirring until all popcorn is coated.
5. Add sprinkles while stirring to evenly distribute sprinkles.
6. Place popcorn in an even layer on a greased backing sheet to cool.  Allow to harden.
7. Store in airtight container.

Recipe adapted from Tasty Kitchen- Birthday Batter Cake Popcorn