Some 4th of July treats

Here's a quick assortment of our tasty 4th of July treats this year.  We spread our celebrating out over several days - 4th of July is huge in Texas!  So much fun.  With the heat steadily rising, I was looking for ways to bake less and chill more.  Here's what we ended up with:

These are layered jell-o pops that are frozen.  The white in the middle is super delicious cream cheese mixed with Cool Whip.  I'm not sure if you can see them, but we added some chopped up marshmallows in the blue... in an attempt to make stars to go with our stripes.

 This was a hit!  My first attempt at ice cream cake, and it worked.  That always feels good.  Basically, take one vanilla/white cake batter and split it in two.  Color half red and half blue.  Bake one and then bake the other.  Then wrap and freeze both.  Line the pan you used for the cakes with plastic wrap and spread some melty vanilla ice cream in it.  Freeze well.  Mix up your favorite type of icing - this was just plain buttercream and it worked great!  Then layer everything together, frost the cake, enlist your daughter to help get the berries on top and then either freeze again, or serve!  I'd recommend giving yourself time to freeze the cake a bit longer after icing and decorating... especially if you live in heat and humidity.  Serve frozen - it is SO good!!!! (I mixed some strawberry puree in with the red and some blueberry in with the blue...not sure if it added too much, but it was fun)

 And last, but certainly not least... Red Velvet Pancakes.  I've wanted to try these for a while, and finally had a reason!  I looked at a bunch of recipes and then just ended up doing my own version - I took our regular multi-grain pancake mix, added a scoop of cocoa powder, a little more sugar, some red food coloring and that was that!  I served them layered with plain pancakes and topped with blueberry yogurt and blueberries.  The kids thought they were awesome!  Pretty fun, and not too terrible for you.