August is TOMORROW, you guys! I’m not ready! August pretty much means that summer is winding down and that school will be starting again soon (boo; but also yay! Because I’ve only got one more year to go!). August is also the month where you try to do everything summer-ish you’ve procrastinated away until now. If you don’t have the time to take your kids fishing, make these cupcakes instead!

I’m trying to make more boy-themed treats (though trust me, I know that girls can and do enjoy fishing). I’ve had an overdose of Disney princesses lately, so I’m making an effort to go in the other direction for a while. These fishing cupcakes were so easy to do — I hope you give them a try!

Gone Fishin’ Cupcakes
Print Recipe

A batch of cupcakes (I made mine from a box mix — doesn’t matter what flavor you use)
A batch of buttercream icing (my favorite recipes are listed here)
Blue food coloring
Pretzel sticks
Colored Goldfish crackers
A large star pastry tip
A small round pastry tip

1. Make your batch of cupcakes and allow them to cool entirely.
2. Make a batch of icing. Leave about a cup of icing aside. Dye the rest of the icing blue. I used two shades of blue, a lighter and a darker, to give the water more dimension. But this isn’t required!
3. Fit a pastry bag with the star tip — and pipe the blue icing onto each cupcake. If you use two shades of blue, fill half of your pastry bag with one shade and half with another — this will cause the two shades to blend and swirl when you pipe. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, see Sally’s great tutorial at Sally’s Baking Addiction.
4. Place a pretzel rod on each cupcake. Using a different pastry bag fitted with the small round pastry tip, pipe a curvy line of white icing onto each cupcake — starting at the rod.
5. Place a Goldfish cracker at the end of your curved line of white icing.

That’s it!

Note: if you don’t own pastry tips, it’s OK! You can spread the blue icing onto the cupcakes with a knife — and you can just snip the end off of a pastry bag with a scissors for the white icing step.

Planning a summer bonfire? Taking a road trip with the kids? Need a quick and easy snack? I have expressed my deep and profound love for puppy chow on my blog before, I’m sure. And I’ve also expressed my even deeper and more profound love for Oreos. (I know, I need to get a grip.) So the thought of trying cookies ‘n’ cream puppy chow was pretty great to me. As with all puppy chow derivatives, this was easy easy easy to make. Hope you enjoy!

Cookies ‘n’ Cream Puppy Chow
Recipe source: Your Cup of Cake
Print Recipe

“Cream” Puppy Chow:
5 cups rice chex cereal
1 cup white chocolate melts (or chocolate chips)
8 Oreos finely crushed
1/2 cup powdered sugar

“Cookies” Puppy Chow:
5 cups rice chex cereal
1 cup milk chocolate melts (or chocolate chips)
8 Oreos finely crushed
1/2 cup powdered sugar

+ Extra chopped Oreos

1. “Cream” Puppy Chow: Measure out rice chex cereal and place in a large bowl.
2. Measure out powdered sugar and crushed Oreos and place in a large plastic bag or in a large tupperware with a lid (you’ll need to shake the bag/tupperware later).
3. Melt white chocolate and stir until smooth.
4. Pour melted chocolate over rice cereal and stir until coated.
5. Transfer chocolate coated rice cereal into your plastic bag with sugar/cookies. Shake, shake shake until coasted.
6. Dump onto a cookie sheet to cool.
7. Repeat steps 1-7 using “Cookies” Puppy Chow ingredients.
8. Once cooled, mix the “Cookies” and “Cream” Puppy Chow together and fold in extra chopped Oreos.

YOU GUYS. These are weird, but amaaaaaaaaaaazing! One of my all-time favorite foods is potato chips. Probably because I’ve been eating them since birth. My family used to own a potato chip factory in my hometown of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Potato chips everywhere… all the time. I was even posed with a box of potato chips in my 4-year old professional photos. Pretty fab, right? ;)

I don’t know why these haven’t been done before — or how I’ve gone this long without thinking to combine potato chips and marshmallows. These are just like rice krispie treats — but instead of rice krispies, use potato chips. I loved them. My dad (and treat tester), however, did not. He thought they were too weird and oily.

So I don’t know where you, my dear readers, would fall on this issue. It’s worth making them to see if you love or hate ’em!

Ruffles Krispie Treats
Recipe source: Lauren’s Latest
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3 Tablespoons butter
4-1/2 cups mini marshmallows
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 cups crushed original ruffles chips, crushed (1 8-oz. bag)

1. Melt butter in large pot over medium low heat.
2. Stir in marshmallows and melt completely.
3. Remove from heat and add in vanilla and crushed chips.
4. Coat completely in marshmallows and pour into greased 9×9 dish.
5. Press to flatten using greased fingers and cool to room temperature. Cut into squares and serve.

I made these beauties a few months ago… but forgot to blog about them until now! Whoops. I think I’ve mentioned this before in a different post, but Nutter Butters are a delicious cookie that I always forget about. These bars are super sweet (duh, marshmallow + peanut butter!) — so be aware of that. But look how easy they are to make — only three ingredients!

Nutter Butter Bars
Recipe source: Picky Palate
Print Recipe

1 pound package of Nutter Butters
5 cups large marshmallows
4 Tablespoons butter

1. Place Nutter Butters in food processor and pulse until ground.
2. Melt marshmallows and butter in microwave until puffed, 2 minutes max.
3. Remove and pour in ground cookies.
4. Stir to combine then transfer to a foil lined 8×8 inch baking pan. Let set up for 10 minutes. Remove bars out of pan with edges of foil and cut into squares.

I think we can all agree that chocolate chunk cookies are approximately 3,287x better than chocolate chip cookies, right? Especially when warm and right out of the oven. :) I don’t have much to say about these – no big story, no big point to make – they were just really good!

Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Recipe source: Cookies & Cups
Print Recipe

1 cup butter, cold cut into cubes
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cups flour
10 oz milk chocolate chunks
10 oz semi sweet chocolate chunks

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In bowl of stand mixer, beat butter until smooth and then add brown sugar. Beat them together for 2 minutes on medium speed, scraping the sides down as needed.
3. Next add the eggs and vanilla, mixing until smooth.
4. Beat in the baking powder, baking soda and salt.
5. Turn mixer to low and add in the flour until incorporated.
6. Stir in both chocolates.
7. Form about 1/4 cup of cookie dough into a balls and place on baking sheet about 2 1/2 inches apart.
Place remaining dough in the refrigerator until ready to bake. [I used a 1-1/2 Tablespoon cookie scoop]
8. Bake for 9-10 minutes until edges are golden. Tops of cookies might seem undercooked. [My cookies didn’t spread much at all, so you don’t have to space them too far apart]
9. Remove from oven and allow the cookies to cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling. Repeat with remaining dough.

Makes a couple dozen cookies.