Shark Beach Pull Apart Cupcakes Recipes

STRAWBERRY PATCH PULL-APART CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Frost the cupcakes with the buttercream using a mini offset spatula.
• Scatter half the ground wafer cookies on a platter or serving tray large enough to hold the 24 cupcakes. Arrange the cupcakes in four rows of six. Scatter more "dirt" over the cupcakes and around the edges of the tray.
• Arrange the strawberries randomly on the cupcakes. Arrange the candy flowers randomly.
• Poke holes in a cardboard egg carton. Pinch off pea-size or smaller bits of green fondant and roll them on your work surface to look like blades of grass, leaving one end thick and the other thin and pointy. Press 2 to 5 blades together and stick them on the end of a toothpick. Let dry, upright, in the egg carton. Roll the remaining green fondant between your hands to create 10 thin 2- to 3-inchlong squiggly vines. Wrap them around pencils and set them aside to dry. Place them under the strawberries and randomly in the patch.
• Top one cupcake with one of your favorite fondant creatures, such as a butterfly, caterpillar or ladybug.

SHARK FIN CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Make the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with foil or paper liners. Whisk the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder in a small bowl. Combine the cocoa powder and boiling water in a medium bowl and whisk well. Let stand 5 minutes, then whisk in the sour cream and vanilla; set aside.
• Beat the eggs and granulated sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and slightly thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium low; beat in the vegetable oil until combined. Beat in the flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the cocoa mixture. Finish mixing with a rubber spatula. Divide among the prepared muffin cups. Bake until the tops spring back when pressed, 16 to 22 minutes. Transfer the pan to a rack and let cool 5 minutes, then remove the cupcakes to the rack to cool completely.
• Make the fins: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine the white and black candy melts in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring, until melted. Let the candy melts cool slightly, then transfer to a resealable plastic bag. Snip off a corner and pipe 12 fin shapes 1 1/2 to 2 inches high on the baking sheet. Refrigerate until hardened, about 10 minutes.
• Make the frosting: Beat the butter and confectioners' sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed until combined. Add the vanilla; beat on medium high until creamy, 3 minutes. Add the milk and beat until fluffy, about 1 more minute. Tint with blue gel food coloring until the frosting is swirled.
• Spread the frosting on the cupcakes and top each with a candy melt fin.

PULL-APART BEACH CUPCAKES

Steps:

• For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Set the ice cream cones in the cups of in two 12-cup muffin pans so they stand upright.
• In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cake mix, eggs, oil and 1 cup cold water. Beat on low speed just to combine, then increase the speed to high and beat until very smooth, about 2 minutes. Divide the mixture among the ice cream cones. Bake until the cupcakes rise above the edges of the cones and a tester inserted in the center of 1 comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer to cooling racks and cool completely.
• Set aside about 1/4 cup vanilla frosting in a small bowl. Put the remaining frosting in a clean mixer bowl and add about 1/2 teaspoon blue food coloring. Beat and continue to add food coloring, if necessary, to get a sea blue color.
• Dollop a tiny bit of frosting on the bottom of a cone (this will help anchor it to the serving tray) and then dollop a generous amount on top. Anchor the cone to the serving tray and repeat with the remaining cones, arranging them in a 4-by-6 cone grid, with the edges touching.
• Using an offset spatula, smooth the blue frosting across the tops of the cupcakes, adding more as necessary, so it appears as 1 layer and the individual cupcakes are no longer visible. Smooth the remaining blue frosting on the sides to cover the cupcakes but not the cones.
• Pat the graham cracker crumbs onto one half of the cake, creating a wavy pattern along one edge where the water meets the sandy beach. Put the reserved white frosting in a pastry bag fitted with a large leaf tip. Pipe the white frosting along the edge where the water and sand meet to make breaking waves.
• To decorate the beach half of the cake, arrange the blue rock candy just behind the breaking waves to create the crashing surf. Stick some beach umbrellas in the sand, making sure you stick them into the cakes and not the frosted spaces between them. Cut the taffy into beach towels and arrange some cookie bears on the towels on the beach. Arrange some piles of candy rocks on the beach.
• To make palm trees, sprinkle your work surface with a little sugar and roll or flatten the lime fruit slice candies. Cut into 5 palm leaves. (If you have time, let the leaves dry and harden for 1/2 hour or so, they will stick up straighter on the finished tree). Break the pretzel rod in half and stick the leaves on top to make a palm tree. Stick the tree into one of the cupcakes on the beach.
• Attach one end of the twist tie to a gummy candy fish and wrap the other end around the remaining half of the pretzel rod to make a fishing pole. Stick the pole in the sand and add a cookie bear as a fisherman.
• To decorate the ocean half of the cake, arrange gummy candy sea creatures in the water. Stick some cookie bears into gummy candy rings and set them in the ocean to float. Press or roll the caramel candy to flatten and then crimp the edges to make a boat. Attach a square sticky note to a toothpick to make a sail. Stick it in the boat, along with a cookie bear as a sailor.

SHARK CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.
• Beat 1 cup butter and 2 cups white sugar together in a bowl using an electric mixer until creamy and smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until just incorporated. Stir in raspberry extract. Gradually stir flour, alternating with milk, into creamed butter mixture until just combined; stir in 6 drops food coloring. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups, filling them 3/4 full.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.
• Place blueberries, 1/4 cup white sugar, and cornstarch in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
• Cut a small hole in the top center of each cupcake. Pipe the blueberry filling mixture into the holes.
• Place 1/2 cup butter in a bowl; beat confectioners' sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, into butter using an electric mixer until just combined. Beat in strawberry extract, vanilla extract, and cream. Gently stir about 4 drops blue food coloring into frosting only until a blue-white effect is created. Pipe the frosting on top of each cupcake.
• Cut the candies to look like a shark's fin. Place one fin on top of each cupcake.