Super Bowl Food Fun | Football Cake Plus Two More Recipes for Little Hands
So, yeah. My team, alas, entered the off season with a whimpering loss in Denver in the playoffs. I’m not bitter or anything, but this time last year, we were talking smack and whipping up batches of our family’s famous Pittsburgh Dip, loads and loads of Ben’s Bunches and trying to find an Oklahoma retailer who would sell us some Penn’s Brewery Dark Ale.
This year? Not so much. I am looking forward to Super Bowl Sunday with a listlessness reserved for laundry and dirty dishes. But, there will be the ads, I guess. Ho hum.
I decided to let my kids help me get in the mood. We will hold the World’s Somethingest Table Football Game. On Sunday, we will stripe the kitchen table with painter’s tape, marking off equal intervals to resemble a football field. One kid constructed goal posts out of an empty egg carton. Those will be adhered, somehow, to then ends of the table, and we will take turns flicking a paper “football” toward each end zone.
After that, we will plant our faces in this little piece of glory. We give you our football cake.
I made a chocolate sheet cake and asked the little whippersnappers to help me decorate it for the game, since cake is better than rooting for teams that don’t matter to us. We used food coloring to make green frosting, reserving some white frosting to pipe yard line markings. The end zone pylons are orange candies, the goal posts are pretzel rods. But I think the best part of all of this was just letting them do whatever they wanted. They don’t care about football like their mother does, and this decorating job is something that will keep other disinterested people busy while fans watch the game.
We refrained from making Ben’s Bunches* as the Steelers are all busy playing golf now. Ben’s Bunches are a recipe we modified and now make every football season.
Ben’s Bunches*
Ingredients:
1 bar almond bark
1 cup peanut butter
1 bag mini marshmallows
6 cups krispie rice cereal
1 c salted, roasted peanuts (optional)
Directions:
Melt bark in large microwave safe bowl. Stir in peanut butter to melt. Add the rest of the ingredients, stirring to cover. Drop by spoonful onto wax paper or spread into a large jelly roll pan. For single servings at a party, consider dropping into cupcake papers. When solid, serve, or cut the giant pan into bite sized pieces.
*Our daughter named these Ben’s Bunches during the 2009 season, after the Steeler’s QB. I know how the name sounds. Still. That’s what she named them.
And finally…
Chocolate Covered Yum
Ingredients:
1 bar almond bark
peanut butter
sleeves of Ritz crackers
Directions:
Melt the chocolate in the microwave. As it melts, spread peanut butter on Ritz crackers and top with another cracker. When the chocolate is melted, dip the crackers into the chocolate until covered. Place on wax paper to harden. When hardened, stuff into your face.
These are all fun things to do in the kitchen with people uninterested in the Big Game.
Category: Features, Parties/Entertaining
About the Author (Author Profile)
I'm a Pittsburgh transplant in Tulsa, OK, where I live with my husband of 16 years and our 3 wild things. They are 13, 11 and 7. I keep my feet, fingers and head busy running, crafting and writing. My first book, "Run With Me: An Accidental Runner and the Power of Poo," is available on amazon and b&n.Subscribe
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Love this! I’m going to share it on my facebook page. The cake is a great idea. We are having a gathering with lots of kids, so this article came at just the right time. Thanks for sharing!
Hey, thanks. It was so much fun. They had a blast. Then we made jokes about how we were “marching down the field” as we ate the cake, cutting away the 50 yard line. We think we are hilarious.