Birthday Cake Popcorn
The ultimate birthday cake popcorn recipe from The Ultimate Kids' Baking Book is the perfect birthday party treat for kids.
Cupcakes are a fun birthday treat, but the frosting isn't always popular with little kids and can make such an enormous mess.
When my Peanut was in preschool, her school had a no-cupcakes rule for birthdays. We were allowed to bring in a homemade nut-free treat to share with the class, as long as it wasn't covered in frosting.
As a clever work-around, I decided to bring in birthday cake-flavored white chocolate covered popcorn mix and it was such an enormous hit with the preschoolers that this recipe instantly became a family classic.
In fact, this has been one of our readers' all-time favorite recipes for over 8 years!
It is so beloved, I just had to include it in our party cookbook: The Ultimate Kids' Baking Book.
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Ingredients
What to know the supplies you'll need before you get started? The ingredient list is really very simple:
- Plain popcorn: You can buy a big bag at the grocery store or pop your own.
- White Chocolate Chips or Candy Melts
- Yellow Cake Mix (just the powdered mix, don't prepare the actual cake batter)
- A bag of M&Ms
- Sprinkles
Why This is the Best Popcorn Recipe
Birthday party popcorn is covered in white chocolate and tossed with sprinkles and M&Ms. You can mix and match the color theme to match your child's party, but this pastel candy and rainbow sprinkle version is our very favorite.
There are quite a few recipes for popcorn mixes out there, but our version involves actual cake mix melted into the chocolate to make it taste officially like a birthday cake!
This makes it the perfect substitution for cupcakes.
It didn't hurt that the Peanut has always loved popcorn like crazy. It is still one of her absolute favorite treats all these years later.
Serving Tips
I always make a big batch and love to portion it out in individual serving cups so guests each get their own special treat.
When I first took those party cups to the preschool birthday party, not a single cup came back to us at the end of the day. Even the teachers got involved in the festivities because they couldn't' resist the unique party snack.
Variations
All it takes to make a fun variation on this recipe is a different set of sprinkles and different colored M&M candies.
Look at how cute a red and pink Cupid's Crunch popcorn mix could be:
For other holidays, you could try:
- Halloween Popcorn: Orange and Black candies and sprinkles
- Christmas Popcorn: Red and green candies and sprinkles
- St. Patrick's Day Popcorn: Rainbow colored candies and sprinkles
- Fourth of July Popcorn: Red, white, and blue candies with star shaped sprinkles
More Party Treats
Looking for more birthday party treats that aren't cupcakes or have messy frosting? Here are some of my favorites:
📖 Recipe
Birthday Cake Popcorn
Ingredients
- 24 cups prepared plain popcorn or 2 batches of homemade popcorn made from 1/2 cup kernels
- 3 cups white chocolate chips
- 3 heaping tbsp yellow cake mix just the powdered mix, don't prepare the actual cake batter
- 1 (11.4 oz) bag M&Ms
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- Place the popcorn in a very large mixing bowl.
- Place the white chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat on HIGH for 30 seconds and then use oven mitts to remove the bowl. Stir the chips and then continue to heat in 15-second intervals until the chocolate is melted. When the chocolate is nice and smooth, stir in the cake mix.
- Pour the chocolate mixture over the popcorn and use a large cooking spoon to stir the popcorn and coat it with the chocolate.
- Spread out the popcorn onto a large sheet of waxed or parchment paper. To avoid having the candy colors run everywhere, be sure to let the popcorn cool for 2 to 3 minutes. Don't wait too long though, or the sprinkles may not stick.
- Sprinkle the candies and sprinkles evenly over the popcorn. Let the mixture completely cool and harden.
- Break the popcorn into large pieces and serve in party cups.
HELPFUL TOOLS
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You mean there is still school that you can take homemade snacks to?
What a great idea, and hershey mini chocolate chips are peanut free.
I don't have any children does anyone have a good excuse for me to try this?
Tammara, I have a friend who used regular chocolate chips in place of the M&Ms. If you could find some that are peanut-free, that would be great. Otherwise, I love Teresa's suggestion of raisins or craisins!
What about rasins or crasins since you are using white chocolate.
I always add a little bit of food coloring to the melted chocolate. It makes it easier to see how evenly coated the popcorn is, makes it a little different each time, and makes it so much more fun! Especially doing a holiday theme... one color for the whole batch, or make separate colors then mix them once the chocolate solidifies. i.e. green for St, Patrick's day, red and green for Christmas, pastel colors for Easter, etc.
Love this idea I love to send new things to my sons school!!! What do you believe would hea good peanut/tree nut free snack to replace the m&ms?
I don't know if you live in the USA or Canada, but here in Canada we have a treat similar to m&m's they are called smarties. They are peanut/tree nut free. They are my go to snack. But I bet even jelly beans or skittles would work.
This would be a Great Gluten free recipe by just switching out the cake mix for a gluten free version! I can't wait to try it!
When you said cake mix, do you mean the powder mix or the cake mix liquid with the other ingredients in it like eggs & oil?
Hi Carol, I mean the dry mix from a box, definitely not the prepared liquid mix. Just the powder part added to the white chocolate. It will combine nicely if your chocolate is heated well enough from melting.
Do you think I could substitute yellow cake mix with Funfetti mix? Or would the little bits of color in the cake mix not mix in with the chocolate?
So cute, Tiffany! We have a no homemade treats at all rule. Everything must be store-bought. Making treats for class parties and bday celebrations was one of the things I was most looking forward to doing as a mom, and I've never been able to to do it because of these stupid rules 🙁 So sad!