Summer!

Summer cupcakes!

So I wanted to make some quick and super easy cupcakes that were summer-y for a party.

I only realized after I was throwing the toppings on right before leaving that I probably should've went for teddy grahams or something, since the sour patch kids look more like blobs than kids playing in the water. I just figured the teddy grahams tend to get mushy when in icing so sour patch kids would be better. But nope. That's okay. They were still tasty though! The inner tubes were lifesavers and the rafts/noodles were twizzlers. And the blobs were sour patch kids.


I made some cookies too. I've seen these around the internet so I figured I'd give them a go. Unfortunately I don't have any cute summer cookie cutters so the sandals were made from a snowman cutter and then squished a bit into more of a sandal shape.

Beach balls were circles, shorts were a gingerbread man whose body and feet were chopped off, bikini tops and bottoms were made from a flower cutter using two petal edges. I also unfortunately didn't take a photo when I moved them off the paper onto a plate and cleaned up the drips.

Palm Tree Cupcakes!

I wanted to try out some summer-y themed dessert. I tried making some palm tree cupcakes! It didn't exactly come out as planned, but even with the hiccups, I think they still ended up looking cute. Maybe not as cute as I envisioned, but fun enough for me!

So for these you need:

Pretzel sticks

Pirouette cookies

Toothpicks

Malt balls

Airheads

So first step is making your palm tree leaves. Cut an airhead in half lengthwise (try not to stretch it out while you do this) and then cut each end into a point. (you can easily get more artistic here if you really want them to look nicer, such as cutting slits all the way up the side.)

Layer them to make an 'X' like in the picture below this wall of text (you could add another piece of an airhead to this for more of a star shape for a more leafy tree) and stick a toothpick in the center to connect both airhead pieces.

Now I liked the idea of leaving it like that and putting it on the tree trunk (pirouette cookie), however gravity disagreed with me. The air heads drooped terribly so I found placing a piece of a pretzel stick into the airhead kept it from flopping down too much and it looked good. 

Just press the pretzels in so it's snug enough. It sticks pretty well. Sometimes the pretzel stick might break and crumble if you push too hard. That's fine, just sweep it away and try again with a different pretzel stick. 

Also if you don't want the pretzels to show so much just gently squeeze the edges of the airhead up against the pretzel sticks.

If you want sand one easy, tasty way is to use graham cracker crumbs.

Stick your pirouette cookie into your cupcake or cake or whatever, then pop the leaves on by sliding the toothpick into the hole in the pirouette cookie. 

Drop some malt balls down for coconuts.

And enjoy your tropical treat!

If you can only find a mixed pack of airheads, funky colored palm trees look cool too.

And now I know to make sure to take more pictures next time. I also didn't get one after I cut lines up each leaf. :( First time doing a blog, whoops.