Beach Cupcakes

http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/ultimate-beach-cupcakes-688237/

Even if you don't live near the waterfront, we're "shore" your family will enjoy this sweet taste of the sea. Sand, surf, an umbrella, a funky beach chair, and a beach ball top off this cupcake. But we didn't stop there -- bite into it and you'll see gummy fish swimming around in blue cake water!

Ingredients

1 box white cake mix
Blue food coloring
Cupcake pan with liners
Small Swedish fish (2 per cupcake)
Vanilla frosting
Graham crackers or shortbread cookies

Small ziplock bag
Blue sugar crystals
Fruit Stripe gum (1 stick per cupcake)
Gumballs (1 per cupcake)
Small drink umbrellas (1 per cupcake, available at party stores)

Instructions

Prepare the cake mix according to the cupcake directions. Add blue food coloring, drop by drop, until the batter is the desired shade of ocean water. Put liners in the cupcake pan and fill each cup two-thirds full with batter. Submerge 2 Swedish fish in each cup. Bake as directed and let the cupcakes cool.

Scoop half of the frosting into a bowl and add blue food coloring until the color matches the batter. Frost half of each cupcake blue (making waves if you like) and the remaining half white.

Crush graham crackers in the sealed ziplock bag and spread them over the white side of the cupcake to resemble sand. Spread blue sugar crystals onto the blue side of the cupcake.

Bend a third of a stick of Fruit Stripe gum to look like a beach chair and position it.

Add a gumball (as a beach ball) and an umbrella to finish your beach scene. (Depending on your container, you may want to leave the umbrellas off until you get to the beach.)