Fins to the Left! Fins to the Right!

Tuesday night was book club, and while I won't do a full Book Club review on this book because I didn't really care for it, I just have to share what I brought for book club as my treat (everyone brings an appetizer or desert to share to the hosts home). The book we read was called Grayson by Lynne Cox. Long story short, it's a a true, coming of age short story (about 170 pages or so) of a woman who is a competitive swimmer and found a lost 18-foot baby whale off the coast of California when she was seventeen years old, training in the dark early morning waters off Seal Beach. The whole story takes place in the water with grouper, sting ray, plankton, sharks, and all sorts of other disgusting stuff in the ocean swimming into her for I don't know how many hours while she tries to help this baby whale find it's mother. I know it's gotten rave reviews and truly, I think would be better suited for a young adult reader, but personally I was just ready for this woman to get the heck out of the water already (I mean really, this book could have been a short story and published in a magazine. It really did not need an entire book).

Anyway, while I don't recommend the book, I DO recommend my treat I took. Y'all know me, when I see the opportunity for a theme I take it and run with it (or rather, swim with it in this case!)!

Beach Themed Cupcakes

You Will Need
-cake batter recipe (or box) of your choosing
-frosting recipe (or container) of your choosing
-blue food coloring
-either blue fruit roll-ups OR grayish-blue card stock

Mmmmmmmmmmm...
Here are my cupcakes fresh out of the oven

I colored my frosting blue, then slathered it on creating peaks with a butter knife to resemble waves. While I had originally cut my shark fins out of blue fruit roll-ups, they started *mysteriously* disappearing so I was forced to use a gray folder as my shark fins.

Pretty cute and tasty treat to discuss a book about the creatures of the ocean, no?

But wait! That's not all !!*in my best infomercial voice*

Now, one step further... I had some leftover cake batter and poured it into a small corning ware dish. I baked it to golden perfection and leveled the top of the cake with a knife. Once I'd emptied the cake out and let it cool, I decorated it to resemble....

THE BEACH!!
The base is covered in the same blue buttercream frosting I used for my cupcakes. The top is covered is plain white buttercream frosting and covered in graham cracker crumbs (from the box that you'd buy to make a crust with). Insert a fun drink umbrella and a broken seashell the mini's brought home from the beach and VOILA!

And I left it behind as a surprise with this little note for all my guys....

Another great idea from Martha.