Broncos Cake Batter Puppy Chow

There's something about all those food dye concerns that goes straight out the window when it comes to food during football season.  Call me a hypocrite, but during the football season and especially during January football, I need food in Broncos colors.  If you are watching January football and see your team, I think food coloring is understandable. 

I made the funfetti cake mix puppy chow last year which was a pretty big hit with the group I served it up to, but who doesn't love puppy chow really?  

In truth this is just one batch of regular cake mix puppy chow with orange sprinkles and one batch using blue candy melts and blue powdered sugar.  I received quite a few e-mails from readers of the Broncos cake pops and Broncos popcorn post asking where to find navy blue candy melts and I have to tell you, I feel your pain.  These are Make'N Mold brand which I purchase from Hobby Lobby.  During the year I was in Vegas, I only found them once and proceeded to buy all three remaining bags.  I've had better luck here in Denver but it's still hit or miss.  You can also buy them directly via Make'N Mold's site but as of now, they are the only makers of navy candy melts that I've seen.  I guess that makes them the official supplier of candy melts for Super Bowl XLVIII foodie needs. 

I used white chocolate for this but you can also use almond bark.  My anti-white chocolate mind doesn't really differentiate.  I think it's really just the glue to hold the cake mix and powdered sugar on. 

I added orange sprinkles here, because when I made the funfetti cake mix version, I found that sprinkles didn't stick so well to the puppy chow when they were in the cake mix.  Turns out, sprinkles really don't stick all that well regardless.  They are fine here but fall off when mixed into the cake batter mix.  

Coloring powdered sugar and dry cake mix is kind of a funny thing.  It worked well here but next time I think I'll take my chances with regular white cake mix and powdered sugar.  While the coloring dries, I was forever concerned that fingers would turn blue if people licked their fingers. I left out the colored cake mix in the recipe below but it's really just adding the cake mix and powdered sugar to a mini food processor and slowly adding food coloring by drops and processing until you get the color you want.  I've found the Americolor food coloring (Hobby Lobby of course) dries faster and more thoroughly for this purpose than the Wilton gels. 

Crazy stuff right?  I would contend that this is more of a Denver blue than a Seattle blue. 

Since the sprinkles didn't stick all that well, I called an audible here and added orange Reeses Pieces.  This was definitely one of the easiest ways to get team colors on the party table.   And I'm guessing I don't have to tell you how addictive puppy chow can be. 

Broncos Cake Batter Puppy Chow

8 c Chex cereal

1.5 c chopped almond bark or white chocolate, melted

1.5 c navy blue candy melts

1 1/3 c dry cake mix

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1 cup orange Reeses Pieces

Directions:

1. Pour 2/3 c. cake mix and 1/3 c powdered sugar into gallon size baggie and mix well
2. Measure out 4 c Chex into a large bowl
3. Pour melted white chocolate over Chex mix and gently stir well to coat all cereal. 
4. Add cereal to gallon baggie, seal and shake well to coat.  
5. Spoon out coated Puppy Chow onto a baking sheet and allow white chocolate to fully harden
6. Repeat above steps with remaining ingredients and using the blue candy melts in place of the white chocolate.
7. When Puppy Chow is fully dry/hardened, combine in large bowl and mix in Reeses Pieces.