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Today is one of those rare times that I have more to write about than I typically allot myself in a weekday post. So far I have: a funny story, a carrot cake confession, and an the revealing of a revolutionary breakthrough in Muddy Buddies recipe development.
I’ve decided to keep you dangling on the edge of your seat by saving the funny story for another time (hopefully I’ll remember it 😉 ), and tackle the second 2 discussion topics. Starting with: my carrot cake confession.
If you’ve been around these parts for the past couple of years, you already know that I’ve declared my hate of carrot cake pretty vehemently on several occasions. It’s not really much of a secret. But my husband loves it, so on a rare occasion or two (usually his birthday), I’ll bust out a carrot cake recipe.
So here’s my confession: I CANNOT stop thinking about Carrot Cake recipes. It’s like some switch just went off in my head! And you know how Red Velvet is sort of my Valentine’s Day crutch? I think Carrot Cake is going to be my Easter crutch.
But it feels SO wrong! I feel so duplicitous! I can’t preach a hatred of carrot cake, and then turn around and post twenty different carrot cake recipes! So I’ve had to face an unlikely conclusion: I must not hate carrot cake as much as I thought I did. And, in fact, upon further investigation, I have found that there is a very specific way I can enjoy carrot cake and carrot cake flavored goodies– minimal carrot chunks, absolutely no raisins, and an overabundance of cream cheese frosting is a must. As are chopped pecans.
So basically, I like the cheapest boxed carrot cake mix cake you can find, smothered in cream cheese frosting and doused in chopped pecans. (Hey– that’s progress!)
Ah, cream cheese frosting. That leads me to that amazing Muddy Buddies secret ingredient discovery I mentioned!
Ok. So. Muddy Buddies. A classic, right? And even better than that, so many fun variations have been popping up all over the place! It’s been Muddy Buddy heaven on the blogs lately!
The classic Muddy Buddy recipe calls for you to melt together peanut butter and chocolate chips which will coat the cereal before tossing it in powdered sugar. It’s amazing, we all agree on this. The trouble enters when you try and create a Muddy Buddy recipe with no peanut butter. Various bloggers have solved this problem in their own ways. Some people just chuck the peanut butter altogether and simply coat the cereal in melted chocolate. Others (including myself) have tried substituting butter or shortening for the peanut butter. I opted for the latter, because I want to mimic the “softer” texture of the chocolate you find in the classic original recipe. When the melted peanut butter and chocolate cools, it doesn’t return to the completely solid state cooled chocolate has. And I really like that.
The problem with using butter and shortening is that it can make your Muddy Buddies a little oily if you use even a little too much and if you don’t use the right kind of chocolate. No one wants to eat oily Muddy Buddies.
So what is the magical solution?? Canned frosting.
And I cannot believe I didn’t think of it sooner. You just sub it exactly for the peanut butter in the original recipe and it melts and incorporates with the chocolate perfectly. And, just like I wanted it to, it keeps a softer texture after completely cooled. And the best part???????
All. the. flavors! Just think of all the Muddy Buddy doors this opens!! Seriously, I’m getting ready to go nuts making Muddy Buddies over at my house. Consider yourself warned.
I was SO excited to get to incorporate that cream cheese frosting flavor into these Muddy Buddies. Because carrot cake and cream cheese frosting MUST go together, and this is seriously an amazing way to enjoy the flavor combo. Plus, you can totally stash Muddy Buddies in your purse– and it’s a lot less messy than carrying around a piece of cake 😉 .
Disclaimer: Someone has pretty much always thought of something first. So I’m sure someone out there has already done the frosting-in-the-muddy-buddies thing. In an effort to credit that person, I did do a quick Google search. And the only thing I pulled up was this recipe that suggests you can use canned frosting in place of the chocolate chips, which is pretty clever!
Adapted from: Betty Crocker and Chef-in-Training
Ingredients
- 9 cups Rice Chex Cereal
- 1 cup white melting chocolate
- 1/2 cup cream cheese canned frosting
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3/4 cups powdered sugar
- 3/4 cups carrot cake cake mix
- 1 cup roughly chopped or whole pecans
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, microwave the white chocolate and the frosting for 1 minute, add the vanilla. Mix together until smooth.
- Pour the cereal and pecans into the bowl, and use a large rubber spatula to mix the cereal and pecans until they're coated in the chocolate mixture.
- Pour the cake mix and powdered sugar into a gallon sized zip top bag. Seal and shake together until mixed.
- Use a large spoon (or whatever method works for you) to scoop the cereal into the bag. You can work with half of the batch at a time, but I've had no problems fitting all of it into the bag. Seal the bag and shake until the cereal is coated in the powdered mixture.
- Serve and eat up immediately if desired! It's great at any stage-- days later, room temperature, refrigerated, or even all fresh and melty. Whatever you like 🙂
Muddy Buddies from Friends:
- Thin Mint Muddy Buddies from Shugary Sweets
- Red Hots Muddy Buddies from Crazy For Crust
- Skinny Muddy Buddies from The Recipe Critic
