July Baking Fun

Last week I was on a "stay"cation at home and had some time to try out a few recipes inspired by Pinterest. I also had two occasions for such special treats, my son's birthday and Independence Day.

I made birthday pancakes (complete with funfetti) for my son's birthday breakfast and not one, but two birthday cakes. However, these were the easiest cakes I have ever "made." First, I was inspired by this No Bake Ice Cream Cake I found on Pinterest.

Basically, you take a box or two of ice cream sandwiches, layer them, ice them (I used the new Cool Whip Icing) and garnish. It tastes heavenly! I decided to go with a Cars theme and created  my own Mater with chocolate and white chocolate baking disks for eyes and teeth and yellow M&Ms for the headlights and Samoa cookies for the wheels.

Since the no bake ice cream sandwich cake was such a success, I decided to try this whole "no bake" thing out with Litte Debbie snack cakes. I alternated between the white cakes and the chocolate cakes, placing them in a square and putting vanilla icing in between each layer. Then I frosted the entire cake with more vanilla icing and added sprinkles. When I cut into it, it had a pretty checkerboard pattern. This was also very tasty and I would make this again when time is short and there is no time to bake.

And for my final baking project, also inspired by Pinterest, I made pop rocks fireworks sugar cookies.

For this I used a sugar cookie mix and a knock-off of Pop Rocks candy from the Dollar Tree (I  could not find Pop Rocks candy at the grocery). I made the cookies as directed. After they cooled for 2-3 minutes, I sprinkled the candy on top and lightly pressed it in the still soft dough. I did try adding some icing, but all I had was the Cool Whip kind and it melted too easily diluting the popping sensation. Regular frosting would have been okay. I did find if you add the candy too early, the heat from the cookie will initiate the popping right on the top of the cookie! These cookies were delicious and did not last more than an hour at my home.

What special desserts did you make this holiday weekend?