Summer Cupcakes

For father's day yesterday I baked some cupcakes. I think they turned out pretty cute, and I definitely had way too much decorating them. That part was definitely more fun than the baking and cleanup part.

Cute, aren't they? I made two types of cupcakes. One design features gummy bears floating on green floaties amid a sea of blue and the other design is gummy bears sunbathing on the beach under an umbrella.

They were almost too cute to eat. Almost, but not quite. The boys were unimpressed with my decorating skills and just wanted to lick the icing off the cupcakes. Oh well. Atleast I know they enjoyed the taste.

Since I'm no baking whiz nor do I have extra time to spend baking from scratch, I used a simple box cake kit and vanilla icing. I made the cupcakes following the directions on the box, and then let them cool. Once they were completely cool, I halved the icing into two separate bowls. One bowl I tinted blue (for the water), and the other yellow (for my sandy beach). I iced the cupcakes and then decorated.

You'll need fruit by the foot or the fruit roll-ups for the beach blankets (cut them to size using kitchen shears), gummy bears, and gummy rings. To make the beach umbrellas, I used toothpicks, my 2" circular punch, and scrapbook paper that I had on hand. I punched the circles out, then cut out a pie-shaped piece from each circle (about 1/8 of the total circle), then roll the paper into a cone shape, and secure it with clear tape. I then stuck the toothpick into the middle of my umbrella. Voila. Perfectly sized beach umbrellas for gummy bears.

This photo looks like they're all on different sized waves..love it!