Easy Summer Beach Themed Cupcakes
You'll love these Easy Summer Beach Themed Cupcakes for your summer parties. Easy to make lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting topped with fun edible decorations. Great for kids to make!
Ingredients
For the cake
- 1 box lemon cake mix
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
For the frosting and decorations
- 1 can lemon frosting
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- assorted teddy graham crackers
- assorted candies
- mini paper umbrellas
- blue sanding sugar
- finely crushed graham crackers
Instructions
For the cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with paper cupcake liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs, and lemon extract.
- Divide the batter among the cupcake cups, about 2/3 full. Bake for 14-19 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before decorating.
For the frosting and decorations
- Add the lemon extract to the canned lemon frosting and stir well.
- Frost the cupcakes. Add the crushed graham crackers to some for sand. Add blue sanding sugar to some for the water effect. Then let your imagination go and decorate your individual beach scene cupcakes. See notes for some of the candies I used.
Notes
I used teddy graham crackers for the little people on top of the cupcakes. Lifesaver gummies for the swim floats, Airhead Xtremes Rainbow candy for the beach towels and surfboard. Crushed graham crackers make perfect sand! Blue sanding sugar is great to use for the ocean and those little drink umbrellas are perfect to decorate the cupcakes with, too.
Once I had my toppings gathered, I frosted the baked lemon cupcakes with just a little of the lemon frosting. You just need a thin layer since it really is just acting as a "glue" to keep the toppings on. Then sprinkle on the crushed graham crackers (sand), and let your imagination go!
To get some of the toppings to stick, just use a little frosting as glue to hold them.