Summer Time Cupcakes

We've had a couple of summer parties around here lately and I had some yummy treats to share with the kiddos.

First, Sunshine Cupcakes

I'll start by saying that I was, admittedly, a little disappointed with these. I had wanted to find candycorn to be the sunbeams around the edges, but it turns out that my local bulk store only caries them in the fall, and I wasn't able to find any anywhere else. I ended up using Mike n' Ike candies and just alternated between the yellow and orange ones. Still cute, but not what I was hoping for.

These are pretty self explanatory to make, but here is a quick rundown. Make your favourite vanilla cake recipe and bake in yellow muffin cups. Bake as usual. Frost with yellow icing, and press candies in at edge when icing is soft. Make the faces with mini-chocolate chips, and pipe on red icing for smiles. Done.

And it should be said, that while I was a little let down in the final product, the kids all loved them!

Second: Shark Attack Cupcakes

Easiest cupcakes ever!

My son wanted chocolate cupcakes, so that is what we baked. Then I piped on ocean blue icing with a tip that made swirls to be our waves. The shark fins are just grey card stock that I cut into the proper shape. Awesome, eh? I decorated two dozen of these in about 10 minutes. Perfect!

If you wanted to go a little more high-tech, you could make fins from fondant icing that you'd tinted grey, but I was all about the easy way this time!