Family Holiday Ideas: Peanut Butter and Graham Crackers

Need a few new ideas to celebrate Christmas with your kids? Peanut Butter Fudge Cake and Graham Cracker Holiday Houses are delicious family holiday ideas to make special memories with your children.

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Making memories with your children is one of the most important things you can do during the Christmas season. Today, I’m sharing two fun family holiday ideas using common ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen cupboard — Skippy Peanut Butter and Honey Maid Graham Crackers. The first of the family holiday ideas is a delicious recipe for a frozen Peanut Butter Fudge Cake with a graham cracker crust. Then I’ll show you how to make Peanut Butter and Graham Cracker Houses using the leftovers.

Some of my best memories as a child involve baking cookies and holiday desserts with my parents at Christmas time. Now that I have children of my own, I’ve been trying to create my own family holiday ideas to make special memories with them. I don’t know about you, but when it comes to holiday baking with my kids, I especially love easy baking ideas. My sons are only 4 years old and 2 years old, so I get a little nervous about using the oven when they’re involved. Thankfully the two holiday recipes I’m sharing today do not involve actually cooking anything. The Peanut Butter Fudge Cake and Graham Cracker Houses just involve working together as a family to assemble them. We created the frozen Peanut Butter Fudge Cake first, so we could use the leftover graham crackers and peanut butter to make fun holiday gingerbread houses the next day.

Two Family Holiday Ideas with Peanut Butter and Graham Crackers

Both of these family holiday ideas start with a quick trip to Walmart to pick up the essentials: Honey Maid Graham Crackers, Skippy Peanut Butter, candy and goodies to decorate the holiday houses plus all the other ingredients for Peanut Butter Fudge Cake, if you don’t already have them on hand.

Idea 1: Peanut Butter Fudge Cake Recipe

The Peanut Butter Fudge Cake begins with making a Honey Maid Graham Cracker crust. Then you whip together pudding, Skippy Peanut Butter, whipped topping and cubed angel food cake. Cover it with a decadent layer of hot fudge. Then you top it off with a final layer of whipped topping and drizzle the whole thing with melted peanut butter.

The angel food cake doesn’t absorb the thick Skippy Peanut Butter filling, so you end up with a beautiful marbled texture. My family and friends raved about how delicious this Peanut Butter Fudge Cake is!

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5 from 1 vote

Peanut Butter Fudge Cake with a Graham Cracker Crust

Need a few new ideas to celebrate Christmas with your kids? Peanut Butter Fudge Cake and Graham Cracker Holiday Houses are delicious family holiday ideas to make special memories with your children.

Prep Time30 mins

Cook Time30 mins

2 hrs

Total Time3 hrs

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: peanut butter fudge

Servings: 12 servings

Calories: 375kcal

Author: Carrie Ypma

Equipment

• 9 x 13 Inch Baking Pan
• Food Processor
• Measuring Cups
• Whisk
• Sharp Knife
• Microwave Safe Bowl

Ingredients

• 9 Honey Maid Graham Crackers
• 1/2 stick of butter or margarine 4 tablespoons, melted
• 1 box of vanilla instant pudding 3.4 oz, 4 serving size
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups Skippy Peanut Butter
• 8 oz. whipped topping
• 1 angel food cake prepared
• 1 jar of hot fudge 11.75 oz

Instructions

• Crush Honey Maid Graham Crackers in a blender or food processor until they’re fine. Mix with melted butter or margarine. Spread across the bottom of a lightly greased 9 x 13 baking dish and press down to form a crust.
  
• Freeze the Honey Maid Graham Cracker crust for 20-30 minutes while you prepare the cake filling.
• Whisk together instant vanilla pudding, milk and 1 cup of the whipped topping (save the remaining whipped topping for later). Add 1 cup of Skippy Peanut Butter and mix until smooth.
  
• Cut the angel food cake into cubes and gently fold into the Skippy Peanut Butter mixture.
  
• Spread the cake and peanut butter filling across the Honey Maid Graham Cracker crust.
  
• Remove the lid from the hot fudge jar and microwave on high for 45 seconds. Pour the hot fudge across the top of the cake and spread to distribute evenly.
  
• Freeze the Peanut Butter Fudge Cake for 1-2 hours so the fudge hardens.
• Spread the remaining whipped topping over the fudge layer.
• Microwave 1/2 cup of Skippy Peanut Butter for 30 seconds. Drizzle the melted Skippy Peanut Butter over the top of the cake.
  
• Freeze the Peanut Butter Fudge Cake overnight. Before serving, let the cake sit on the counter for 10-15 minutes so it’s easier to cut.
  
• Share with your family and enjoy!
  

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 375kcal | Carbohydrates: 37g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 4mg | Sodium: 394mg | Potassium: 339mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 21g | Vitamin A: 80IU | Calcium: 105mg | Iron: 1mg

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Idea 2: How to Make Peanut Butter and Graham Cracker Houses

Next, the boys and I used the leftover Honey Maid Graham Crackers and Skippy Peanut Butter to create holiday houses. I’ve often seen costly gingerbread house kits at the store, but making peanut butter and graham cracker houses is so easy and inexpensive. It’s really a much better way to go especially when the kids are as young as mine and don’t have as much patience for assembling a fancy gingerbread house.

What You Need:

• Honey Maid Graham Crackers
• Skippy Peanut Butter
• Candy, cookies, marshmallows, Teddy Grahams, pretzels or whatever other creative ideas you can come up with to decorate the holiday houses
• Cake decorating bags
• Cake decorating tips
• Plastic knives

Preparation Tips:

• Put a cake decorating tip in the bottom of a cake decorating bag and fill it with Skippy Peanut Butter. Use this as your “glue” to hold the house together and also to add decorative touches. You can use a plastic knife instead, but it’s less messy if you use a cake decorating bag.
• Break the Honey Maid Graham Crackers into squares and small pieces ahead of time. Have the candy, cookies and other decorative goodies set out and ready to go too. This way everything is ready to assemble before the kids sit down to create their peanut butter and graham cracker houses.
• If you’re involving a child 2 and under, don’t expect too much. They love eating the holiday house ingredients more than assembling!

Instructions:

1. Create the foundation for the house

Squeeze the Skippy Peanut Butter filled decorating bag along the side edges of four Honey Maid Graham Crackers. Put the corners together to create a square, or in my four year old son’s case, a rectangle box. It may help to also put peanut butter along the bottom edges of the graham crackers to help the foundation stick to the surface of the plate.

2. Raise the roof 

Again put peanut butter along the edges of two graham crackers and carefully put them together to form the roof. My little graham cracker architect also decided to put a flat roof on the front and back of his rectangular graham cracker house. There are really no rules as long as it stays up!

3. Decorate with Skippy Peanut Butter 

Use the decorating bag to add creative touches to the graham cracker house like shingles, windows, doors, etc.

4. Add candy, cookies, marshmallows and more! 

Now’s the fun part – have your child decorate however he or she wants! My son decided to add four Teddy Grahams, one to represent each of us. We cut slits into small marshmallows to help the Teddy Grahams stand. We used peanut butter to stick a marshmallow to the side as a door knob. My son also insisted there needed to be a gum drop path leading up to the door and peppermint shingles.

My boys loved making these family holiday ideas together and could not wait to show Kent their masterpieces when he got home from work that night. We let the graham cracker house sit on the counter for days until finally my four year old decided he needed to eat it as a snack one afternoon. Since peanut butter and graham crackers are household staples we already have the ingredients on hand to replace the holiday house if we want to make another one before Christmas! For more creative inspiration with graham crackers, you can follow Honey Maid on Instagram.

What special family holiday ideas are doing this year to make memories with your children? Please comment below and share. We always love to hear the different ways people celebrate.

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what’s next?

You and your kiddos may also enjoy these Family Holiday Ideas on Ideas for the Home by Kenarry® –

• Christmas Books: 5 Tips for Creating a Family Tradition
• Christmas Tree: 8 Ideas for Child-Friendly Decorating
• Displaying Christmas Cards With Ribbon on Kitchen Cabinets

You can also follow our Christmas Ideas Board on Pinterest for more family holiday ideas!