Baby Mud Monsters-Pinterest

Baby Mud Monsters- Pinterest

I needed to make a bakery product for my grandson's school Fall Festival. I found these simple and creative little cakes on Pinterest. Pinterest used cupcakes, I used a whoopie pie cake pan, which makes more like a cupcake top, similar to a muffin top. It makes more sense to just do these because kids only want the tops of cupcakes anyway. So, chocolate cake, dipped in a chocolate sauce then into crushed Oreo cookies with 2 M&M's for eyes to complete the monster.

Cake:

2-1/2 c. cake flour
2 c. sugar
3/4 c. Dutch-process cocoa
2 tsp. baking powder                              
1/2  tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
4 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups water or cooled brewed coffee

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease pan(s).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients until well combined. Set aside.
3. In a mixer bowl, beat together the remaining ingredients until well combined.
4. Add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, beat until smooth.
5. Pour batter into the prepared pan (s). If using whoopie pie pan, it only takes 1 heaping tablespoon per round.
6. Bake the cake until the center feels firm. For whoopie pie cakes, it's about 5 mins. 
7. Cool. Loosen edges and turn out.

Frosting:

8 oz semisweet chocolate chips

1 c. heavy cream

1/8 tsp. salt

10 oz crushed Oreo cookies                                  

M&M's

1. Put chocolate into a large heatproof bow.
2. In a saucepan bring cream just to a boil. 
3. Pour over chocolate.                                  
4. Add salt.
5. Stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth and shiny.
6. Let cool at room temperature, stirring often.
7. Dip cakes in chocolate, then into crushed Oreos.
8. Add M&M's as eyes.
   

Results: These were easy and a bit messy. They all sold at the Festival. However, I made 2 dozen for the Festival and I had a lot of batter leftover. So, I made 6 ice cream sandwiches and 1-6" cake. I cut the cake in 1/2, put ice cream between the slices, poured the extra chocolate frosting over it and added the Oreo cookies. One more thing, put the Baby Mud Monsters in the refrigerator to firm up the chocolate.

Bottom Line: Quick and easy. The ice cream sandwiches were even better. Actually, the ice cream cake was the best.