Number 25: Make Pop Rocks Cupcakes

Pop rocks cupcakes are something I’ve wanted to try for a while. I love pop rocks! But I knew that I had to do some research in order to make them work…

I do not know what makes pop rocks tick. I mean, I don’t know what makes them explode in your mouth. Do they explode in heat, on impact or is it moisture? Through my intensive and extensive research I learned it is the moisture that makes pop rocks pop. Of course cupcake batter happens to be very moist, so I can’t just dump a bunch of pop rocks packets into the bowl and call it a day.

Through my research I discovered that if you coat the pop rocks in fat, it preserves the pop until you put those little suckers in you mouth. 

Fat? Ew! Like lard? No. Like butter or peanut butter or one of several interesting combinations I stumbled upon on the interwebs. 

Through my research I also learned a few other interesting things. For instance, pop rocks are gluten free, they are not Kosher, and they were first patented in 1956.


I decided that the cupcakes should also be rainbow, another thing I've always wanted to try and something that looked fairly easy to accomplish. All you do is mix the cupcake batter as directed and then separate into bowls. You add different color food coloring to each bowl and then pour each color into the cake pan (or cupcake pan) one at a time. You can even swirl them together if you want. The batter is thick enough that they don't all run together. 


For the Pop Rocks part, Andy went out and bought me 39 packets of Pop Rocks. I decided to use a recipe I found for the Pop Rocks filling using cashew butter. Since I'd never heard of cashew butter before and the store didn't seem to have it, I ended up with regular peanut butter.


Turns out, the peanut butter worked! I brought the cupcakes over to the Columbia Entertainment Company Theatre before one of their performances of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and allowed the cast and crew to be my unsuspecting taste testers. I had to warn them of the peanut butter in case of any allergies (turns out there was someone allergic to peanuts).


As far as I know they really liked them! They may  have just been nice because I was standing right there. Who knows? The tasters did admit to having an explosion in their mouths upon reaching the creamy center, so the Poping Pop Rocks part was successful! I did what I set out to do and my scientific research was not in vain.  I also brought them Oreo Pops that looked like bumble bees. I got that idea from Bakerella. Bakerella's turned out much nicer than mine, but c'mon, she is Bakerella! 


I did not taste one of my Pop Rocks cakes. I think I'm a little scared. I promise I will today as soon as I get home. Now here are some photos!

Above: 39 packets of Pop Rocks!

Below: Making the cupcakes rainbow...

Above: Rainbow cupcake before peanut butter and chocolate Pop Rocks Filling is added

Below: Rainbow Pop Rocks Cupcakes all iced, garnished and ready to go!

Above: Bee Oreo Pops

Below: Oreo Balls with the left over stuff from Bee pops

Below: Dirt and Worm cups I made yesterday for Father's Day (Just wanted to add this in there. Be impressed.)

So if you're interested in seeing the amazing play The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, please click HERE for more info. This week (June 23rd through 26th) are their last performances and you don't want to miss out! The cast is FABULOUS and so talented and the show is HILARIOUS! Check it out!

The Bee, My Awesome Hubby, & Upcoming Goals

Oooh I am in such a bloggy mood right now. Let me tell you a little bit about why my husband is super awesome…

So ya know that play I auditioned for, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, as one of my goals?  Well, Andy and I have been helping out. I am the Props Mistress (I love that title) and Andy is doing video. We also both acted as volunteer audience spellers for the dress rehearsals. It was SO much fun! I was an audience volunteer for both nights of dress rehearsal. The first night I got the word “Jihad” as my first word to spell. Although I can’t recall seeing the word spelled out on paper and had an intense internal struggle over whether is began with a “G” or a “J”, I spelled it correctly. I got out on the next word which was Gnocchi. I actually know how to spell that one, but had never heard it pronounced so I was confused. The definition confused me as well as apparently it’s actually an Italian dish made with potato, but I have all these years confused it with ganache and thought that it was a desert. So I idiotically spelled it “Nyioki”.

Anyway, when you get out, the whole cast sings this good bye song to you, the character of William Barfee (pronounced Bar-fay) literally kicks you off stage and Mitch, the comfort counselor, hands you a juice box. On the second night I got out on my first word. I spelled it horrendously incorrectly and cannot even remember what it was, as it was a word I’ve never heard before. As I made my way off stage Mitch handed me a little purple pouch and said “Here, Instead of juice box”. For a moment I thought it was a little pouch of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavoured Beans (the jelly beans made famous from the Harry Potter books). But then I read the words written in gold and it said “Disney Couture”. Andy had gotten me this gorgeous Snow White themed necklace I have been dying for! Snow White is my favorite Disney movie. She is also my favorite princess and the first movie I ever saw back in 1987 at the age of 3 when they brought it back into theaters for it’s 50^th anniversary. It was such an amazing surprise!

Next, since neither of us had eaten Andy took me out for a late dinner and then to see Bridesmaids, which makes him a very good husband indeed. After that he took me to the store and had me pick out a tie dye kit so I can accomplish goal number twenty-four: Tye Dye Some Stuff. He also told me we will be taking a Yoga class this afternoon so I will also accomplish goal number one: Take A Yoga Class At The Gym. I will tell you how it goes since I know you are just dying to know.

If you live in the Columbia, Missouri area and are interested in seeing the 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, click here for more info on dates and times. It’s a fabulous show! Very funny. The cast is incredible! It opens tomorrow night (Thursday, June 9^th) and I’ll be in the audience with my whole family!

Above: Andy (#14) on stage as an audience volunteer during The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Below: My new Disney Couture Snow White Necklace. For info on the necklace click here.

We have been together six years this month! 

Number 9: Audition For A Musical

(I thought I should fill you in on the goals I accomplished before I started this blog. I am going to begin with Number 9)...

I am a theater geek. Well in high school I was. I was a member of our Thespian troupe. In order to be inducted you need 100 hours of theater service both on and off stage. I worked very hard painting sets months before our shows opened and backstage during performances. Wait, did I say worked really hard? I think I might have meant goofed off for 92 hours with about 8 hours of actual hard work. Yup, I am pretty sure that is what I meant. I am sure Audrey Miller, the set painting club supervisor and awesome-est art teacher I never actually had as a teacher, would agree. Ahhhh, high school theater. The glory days. I was stage manager for “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying”, co-directed “Free To Be You And Me” with my friend Tracy, and all around had a blast. Some of us would go every weekend to get rush tickets for the Rocky Horror Show on Broadway (Oh yeah I am from New York for anyone who doesn’t know me reading this). These were some of the best times I’ve had in my life and I knew it then.

What I really wanted was to be in the musicals. I auditioned for one musical and didn’t make it. Just one. My dream was, and is to this day, to be in a musical. But just because high school is long over doesn’t mean I can’t still make this happen right? And just because I am not really a strong singer or dancer or actress doesn’t mean I couldn’t be, right?

My friend, Monica, is really involved in the Columbia Entertainment Company (our local theater group). She let me know back in November that she would be directing “The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and that I should audition. I immediately agreed.

Suddenly I got this image in my head of myself on stage with the lights shining in my eyes and the silhouettes of my family in the audience. I had a vision of typing up the Facebook status, “I’m in a musical!” and all the congratulatory comments that would follow. And so goal number 9: Audition For A Musical (and the idea for this entire list) was born.

Then I came down from my cloud and remembered how I kinda suck at singing and dancing. Well, I’m not that bad. I have just never had any kind of training in either. Kindergarten ballet and those three months I was in chorus in sixth grade do not count. So I downloaded part of the soundtrack from Spelling Bee off of iTunes. I did some research on the internet and read (and memorized) some of the audition sides. I watched some Youtube videos of the characters. I decided I would be best for the role of Logaine SchwartzandGrubeniere. I learned her song “Woe Is Me” and decided, even though it is not traditional to sing a song from the show you are auditioning for, to do just that. I practiced from about January to April about 1-2 times per week for about an hour each time.

Ok, I sound crazy, right? But you can tell just how badly I wanted this. A few days before the audition I began having second thoughts, but I pushed them out of my head. I was going to do this no matter what.

The day of the audition came and I was pretty nervous. Then I arrived at the Church where the audition was to be held and my nervousness turned to excitement. I am really going to do this!” I thought. I was so happy when I was called up third, because I don’t think I could have sat still much longer.

I got up there and I ROCKED it! I had little moves that went along with it and I belted it out, which I have NEVER been able to do before when singing in front of people. The character I auditioned for has a lisp and I had that lisp down PERFECTLY. Judging by the other auditions I could tell that I shouldn’t count myself out yet. They weren’t bad, I just meant I was just as good as they were. And I wasn’t delusional this time either!

I got a callback! I could not believe it. I had never in my life gotten called back for anything. I continued to practice. When I arrived back at the church, I knew I was out of my league. Way out of my league. This other girl there, Jordan, was up for the same part I was. She was AMAZING. I had seen her in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar just a couple of months earlier so I already knew she was going to be good. She had experience and charisma and I’d like to say moxy. I’m probably right about that, but I have no idea what moxy is. I guess I should have just Googled it instead of letting you all think I’m an idiot.  Anyway when I saw her I knew I didn’t have this part. As if my inability to sing along with accompaniment and my completely moronic dance audition weren’t already tell tale signs. When it was all over and I found out the next day that I didn’t have the part, I didn’t feel at all disappointed. Monica obviously saw something in me that was enough to put me up against these other girls with experience and amazing natural talent. I didn’t feel like I belonged there, but I felt honored that I was good enough to be up against those girls.

I really feel like I accomplished something. I will audition for musicals in the future. I think I might find a pianist to help me work on singing with accompaniment and maybe take an aerobics class or two at the gym to help me to learn how to catch on to dance moves quickly and keep up with everyone. For now I will concentrate on some of my other goals. I will be revisiting this one, however.

By the way, Monica asked me to be the props mistress for the show and I am beyond thrilled. I am so excited to be involved and to meet all these new people! I’d like to thank everyone in that audition and especially at the callback for not laughing at me. Thanks guys!

Above: Some us Thespians being Thespians

Below: Me with one of my besties, Mary Orzano, when I stage managed How To Succeed... and she was the leading lady, Rosemary.