Pool Party Cupcakes

A looooonnnnnggggggg time ago Little Devil had a luau-themed birthday party.  At the end of September.  I won't go into how hard it is to find tiki torches in September, when the stores are busy putting out firewood.  For her cake, I made a standard 9x13 cake, frosted it with blue frosting, used graham cracker crumbs for sand and the Teddy Grahams had a pool party.  This was also the year she got a hermit crab for her birthday.  But we'll save Hermit I and Hermit II for another blog.  The crab was NOT A HIT with mom.  The cake was a hit with everyone.  My niece, and faithful Devilish Dish Assistant Emily was looking through our scrapbook albums a while back and saw the pictures of the cake from that party.  She said she would like that cake for her birthday.  I suggested doing that cake as cupcakes for her class, and the POOL PARTY CUPCAKES were born.  We made a trial run and served them over the summer at our own little pool party.  They turned out adorable.  We even made little popsicles using toothpicks and Mike & Ikes candies.  A few teddy bears even had Swedish Fish swimming around them.  I left those off for her class.  You know, I didn't want to be that mom that caused a kid to choke on a toothpick.  Try them for your next pool party.  Or in the case of my child, late September chilly backyard luau!

You'll be SWIMMING in FUN at your
next party!

Normally I bake from scratch.  But in the case of baking
for fifth graders, I'm willing to use a mix.  I simply baked up
24 cupcakes according to the cake mix directions.
Then I made a batch of "pool blue" buttercream frosting.
Feel free to tint the store bought frosting too!
Simplify your life whenever possible.

For the popsicles, I cut some toothpicks in half and
inserted them into Mike & Ike candies. 
If you're serving these to young children, or may
not be there to supervise, you might want to skip the
popsicle part of the decor. (#choking hazard)

The stars of the show:
Peachi-O's & Teddy Grahams
Note some teddy's have their arms up
and some have their arms down.
I think the ones with their arms up look scared,
like they're drowing!

Put a Teddy Graham through a Peachie O
like it's his little innertube...

Decorate your cupcakes as
desired.  Notice some of the Swedish Fish
swimming on the cupcakes in the background.

Pool Party Fun!

A "Sea of Teddy Bears" floating to a party near you!

Here's the batch my niece took to school for
her classroom birthday party.
Never mind her birthday is in September and
all of the pools are closed.  You're only in
fifth grade once!