Fallout 4 Mississippi Quantum Pies

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know Fallout 4 is coming out next week. Of course that means I’m making a special treat! Are you prepared to set out for the wastelands and lay waste to zombies and irradiated flora and fauna? If your answer is not yes, you’re lying.  But wait! Don’t go without a Mississippi Quantum Pie! Loosely based on a Mississippi mud pie, this recipe is decked out in three layers of delicious chocolate, topped off with a healthy dose of Nuka Cola Quantum-blue frosting and bottle cap candy.

Oh, did I mention the chocolate cake layer is Coca Cola cake? Boom.

Even better, I’ll be whipping up a second batch to share at the midnight launch at the Bridgewater Falls GameStop in Hamilton, Ohio. If you haven’t preordered your copy yet, well, you know which store to choose! Come out and see me; I promise I’m even more socially awkward in person. There should be a post up early next week for the event, along with some special behind-the-scenes pictures. Ready? Let’s go.

Gamers, grab your mats:

CRUST:

• 40 Oreo cookies (one package)
• 5 tablespoons butter

CAKE:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup Coca Cola
• 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
• 8 tablespoons (1/2 cup, 1 stick) butter
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, I used Hershey’s Special Dark.
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Recipe from Coca Cola.

OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF:

• Hershey’s Instant Chocolate Pudding, plus milk as labelled (mine required 2 cups)
• 1 can of frosting, either electric blue or white with blue food coloring. Because apparently I like to make life hard for myself I mixed up my own color.
• Bottle Cap candy
• ~2 ounces baking chocolate, shaved

Because I accidentally erased the ingredients photo from my phone, here, have a picture of Snow White suited up for the apocalypse. You’re welcome.

Image from Imgur. Click the picture for more!

Right then. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Take your tiny, busted up, almost useless sifter and sift your flour and sugar together in a large bowl.

Carrying on as if nothing bad happened!

Add marshmallows to bowl and set aside.

-ploop-

Combine butter, oil, Coca Cola, and cocoa powder in a saucepan. Heat until boiling.

Oil and Coca Cola looks really shady when mixed.

Remove from heat quickly, the boil is just going to rise.

Carefully pour over dry ingredients and blend well.

That… that is a rather full bowl.

Fully incorporated.

Dissolve baking soda into buttermilk. Apparently this causes the liquid to fizz up; use a measuring cup that will hold at least one cup. Because science.

Stand back, I’m about to science!

Add buttermilk to cake batter along with your eggs and vanilla. Blend well.

Incidentally, would not recommend tasting this raw. Really oily.

Pour cake batter into a well greased 9″x13″ pan and bake for 35-45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Surely this can’t make cake… right?

Allow cake to cool for about an hour. While you wait, whip up your instant chocolate pudding. Seriously: Bowl>milk>pudding mix>whisk>refrigerate>done. You don’t get a picture for that. It’s like three minutes of work.

Crush Oreos in a blender or food processor (sorry, it’s really necessary) until you have fine cookie crumbs. Add melted butter, stir to combine.

Honestly, if you don’t have the tools to crush your Oreos this finely… best just leave them out. You’ll be missing out, but you’ll live.

Put 24 cupcake liners in your cupcake pans. I strongly recommend using the foil and parchment liners for durability. Divide your Oreos evenly between your liners and press to form a crust with  something like a shot glass. I swear, I use these things more for baking than actual drinking.  I’m boring.

Finished crusts.

Realistically, you’ll only need about half of your cake for this recipe. If you’re not making two batches, cut cake in half and reserve half for something later. Tear remaining cake up into crumbs with a large fork.

I suppose you know I’m making two batches.

Spoon cake crumbs into your liners and press down with the shot glass again. You should be filling the cavities full enough so that they are 2/3rds full of cake.

See? Told you. Shot glass.

Freeze for 10-15 minutes. Spoon pudding into cavities to fill liners. If you’re using the same pudding as me, this will use up all of the pudding. Sometimes life works out like that.

Also, apparently I didn’t take a picture of this step because I was distracted.

SPOILER ALERT: Today’s entire process was documented by a freelance photographer friend. It’s a long story. Anything you don’t see today will be going up early next week.

Shave your baking chocolate and sprinkle on one side of your piecake. Yes, I called it a piecake. Problem?

If you’re using white frosting, tint frosting neon blue with food coloring. You can literally buy liquid neon blue coloring in the baking aisle; it’s really convenient. But hey, canned blue frosting costs the same as canned white frosting at my grocery store. You do you. Either way, whip your canned frosting up with electric beaters.

Stuff blue food coloring into a piping bag fitted with a coupler and #10 tip (or bigger).

OPTIONAL: Drop glass bowl of blue frosting on the floor and curse profusely as you lose half of your frosting. At least the bowl didn’t break.

Pipe a dollop of blue frosting on the side of the piecake without shaved chocolate:

That was a lot of text without a picture, right?

If you’re having issues with your frosting dollops, pipe a circle of frosting, squeeze out a fat ball of frosting (swirl optional but cool-looking) and quickly pull up to break the frosting and make a crisp, pointy tip. This took several tries to get used to and, despite being left-handed, I was much better at this with my right hand. Go figure.

Decorate with bottle cap candy and you’re done!

And you missed the part where I moved the steampunk chest and one of the pies flipped and fell on top of another.

Let’s take a closer look.

Yes, they’re a bit messy. As is, I would recommend serving after a 30 minute exile to the freezer. However, there’s an alternate, less messy version that I’m planning for the midnight launch:

1. Instead, fill liners with cake to brim.
2. Core compressed cake with a piping tip to Oreo crust. Do not puncture liner.
3. Fill cored hole with chocolate pudding.
4. Pipe a larger dollop of frosting over the pudding filled cake.
5. Sprinkle shaved chocolate around the base of the frosting.
6. Decorate frosting with bottle cap candy.

Want a single pie instead of a bunch of individual piecakes? Planned for that one, too.  Instead, press Oreos into a 9″ pie plate. Be sure to press Oreos all up the sides of the pan. Fill with cake crumbs and compress to 2/3rds full. Top with pudding. Decorate outer edge of pie with blue frosting dollops, sprinkle shaved chocolate in the middle of the pie, and decorate with bottle cap candy.

PRO-TIP: In a post-apocalyptic world, prepare for every scenario.

In other news, the November featured recipe poll is closed! The winner: Bombchu Lemon Bars! Expect to see this recipe posted up in a couple of weeks. Which variation of Mississippi Quantum Pie do you prefer? Would you make it? Let me know if the comments below!

Coming Up Next: Dragonbreath Chili from World of Warcraft, because there’s a chili cook off at work. Don’t judge me.

Cheers,

Leisel

Remember, cooking IRL doesn’t have to be a Feat of Strength!

Entry for #WeeklyChallenge for #FoodBloggers