Off to the beach :o)

Very exciting day--finally off to the beach!  A few months aho, I made this cupcakes for a teacher luncheon luau at my school, and I got all decorating ideas from this AMAZING book I made four different types. 

The cupcakes with words were frosted with a center circle of one color and an outer ring of another, with the outer ring dipped in matching colored sugar.  My technique here still kinda sucks, but if you're skilled this will look awesome.   I happened to have little flower sprinkles, so I added those.  I used two packs of edible letter sugar decorations and spelled words like hula and aloha.

 The coral reef cupcakes were frosted with blue frosting, then topped with a combination of chopped green twizzlers and fruity pebbles cereal.  I inserted a toothpick into the Swedish fish and stuck him on top of the reef.

 Beach cupcakes!  Granulated brown sugar makes awesome sand.  I then used a small orange round candy for the sun, and stuck a cocktail umbrella in the cake.  I played with this idea at work..pics further down.

My favorite cupcake, taste-wise.  The frosting was killer.  Then, I added toasted coconut to the tops and Runts bananas. So good!
Banana Coconut Frosting recipe:
5 1/2 T butter
1 c. flaked coconut
1/2 c. chopped pcans (fine)
1/2 c. mashed banana
1 T lemon juice
6-8 c. powdered sugar
1. Melt first 2 T of butter in skillet.  Mix in coconut and pecans, and cook while stirring, over medium heat for 6-8 mins.  Coconut should be golden  brown & smell amazing.
2. Combine banana and lemon juice in a bowl.
3. Cream together remaining butter and sugar, alternating with liquidy banana mixture when needed.  Finally, add coconut & pecan from skillet.


P.S. Kids LOVE these cupcakes.  I found fun ideas at bettycrocker.com, and used teddy grahams, gummy savers, and fruit roll-ups to put teddy bears on inner tubes or beach towels.  They love to get creative.