Last week, my son’s preschool had a beach themed party to celebrate the end of the school year.   I wanted to bring something cute and fun for the kids to enjoy.  So, I came up with these uber cute beach-inspired cupcakes! Aren’t they adorable?  And, they were so easy to make!

Now, you could make the cupcakes and frosting from scratch (try this Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake and White Frosting recipe), but let’s face it….I started this project at 9:30 pm.  Betty Crocker it was.  It’s OK.  These cupcakes are so cute, no one will judge you for using a boxed cake mix and frosting from a can.  Not even the “perfect PTA mom”.

After I baked and frosted the cupcakes, I used blue and gold sugar crystal sprinkles — blue for the ocean and gold for the beach.  If you can’t find gold crystals (and, frankly, I can’t believe I was able to find them), you can always use finely crushed vanilla cookies.  It looks just like sand too!

I used Fruit Roll Ups for the rafts/beach towels.  Teddy Grahams for the bears.  And, Swedish fish for the fish.  I used a little bit of frosting to “glue” the bears on to the Fruit Roll Ups.  Easy peasy.  I ended up purchasing the drink umbrellas from my local party store.  I had to buy a box of 50 (they were about $4) so I guess we’re going to be having fancy drinks all summer long!

From start to finish, it took me about 1 hour to bake and decorate the cupcakes.  Since it was approaching 10:30 pm, I didn’t exactly wait for the cupcakes to cool b.efore frosting them — but you might want to!  There are 2 pieces of advice for anyone that wants to make these —  #1: Fruit Roll Ups are not very cooperative in hot, humid temperatures.  They are VERY sticky. They stick to the counter.  To the wrapper.  To your fingers and to each other.  Beware. #2: Don’t wait until 9:30 pm to start this project.   By the time I got to the Fruit Roll Up part, I was tired and cranky.  Maybe I was blowing the sticky part out of proportion.

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In the end, these turned out just like I wanted them to — so that made up for the frustrating Fruit Roll Ups!

Word on the street is these cupcakes were a big hit!  Well, according to my son they were.  And, he loves his mama so he wouldn’t want to hurt my feelings!

Overall, these are definitely a keeper!

Christina

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