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    Home » Recipes » Cake Decorating Tutorials

    Beach Cupcakes Tutorial

    June 4, 2011 By Melissa Diamond 27 Comments

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    Today I'm going to show you how to make adorable beach cupcakes, featuring brightly colored Lollipop Fish Cupcake Toppers and funny Buttercream Crabs!

    I love how quick and easy these colorful designs are. These cupcakes would be perfect for pool parties and beach themed parties, or just because!

     

    Adorable Beach Cupcakes featuring colorful fish and crabs! MyCakeSchool.com free cupcake tutorial!

     

    Let the fun begin!

    How to Make Crab Cupcakes

    First, let's make some buttercream crabs.  I used our Classic Vanilla Buttercream Frosting Recipe for this project.

    My blue buttercream frosting is piped on with a simple round tip 12.

    For the crab's body, I used a Wilton petal tip 104. You may be able to see in the photo that the small end of the teardrop shaped opening is facing me.

    The opening of the piping tip should be parallel to the surface of the cake.

    Adorable Beach Cupcakes featuring colorful fish and crabs! The perfect cupcakes for pool parties and beach parties! Free tutorial by My Cake School.

     

    Now...for the eyes!  I used Sixlets candy, which I bought at Party City...but any white candy will do. (White fondant would work too...or even dots of stiffened white icing!)

    I drew little black dots onto the white candies with a black food coloring pen to give a funny google eyed effect, and then piped a little ridge of red buttercream with a small Wilton tip 3 to help them stay in place.

    CUTE Beach Cupcake Tutorial by MyCakeSchool.com! Perfect for beach parties and pool parties!

    Now, for the top of the crab shell, pipe a ribbon of buttercream across the eyes using a Wilton tip 104 as demonstrated in the photo. (Again, the small side of the 104 tip will be facing you so that you have a nice thin ribbon of frosting.)

    Cute beach themed cupcakes! Colorful fish and crab free cupcake tutorial by MyCakeSchool.com!

    Next our crabby needs some little crab legs and claws. Pipe these on with a small round tip (Wilton tip 3 or similar). That's all there is to it!

    I much prefer this cute frosting crab to the little crabbies I see running around at the beach.

    He looks like a little muppet ;0)

     

    The cutest beach themed cupcake tutorial by My Cake School! Free tutorial!

    And here's the whole crabby cupcake crew.... aren't they funny? I like how each one looks a little different- who knew that google eyes could be so expressive?!

    Adorable Step-by-Step Beach Cupcake Tutorial by MyCakeSchool.com! Perfect for beach and pool parties!

     

    How to Make Fish Cupcakes

    Next, we're onto the school of fish----a very special variety of lollipop fish for our cupcakes!  I used flat round lollipops and Dots candy for this project.

    Any lollipop would actually work for these cute cupcake toppers--but I really had my mind set on the flat round ones.  

    We tracked down a bag at a party supply store (Party City) after looking with no luck at grocery stores (how dare they not carry these lollipops!)   So be warned...you may have to go with a different variety of lollipop fish.

    As you've seen in other posts, I like Dots candy because it rolls very easily into thin, colorful pieces. You can use your candy of choice..or even fruit roll ups...

    Adorable Fish and Crab Cupcakes! Free cupcake tutorial by MyCakeSchool.com!

    Next, cut out your thinly rolled fish tails and fins and press directly onto their lollipop bodies. They are just tacky enough that they stay in place with no piping gel or light corn syrup "glue" required. We drew on little eyes with our food coloring pen.

     

     

    The cutest fish and crab cupcake tutorial by My Cake School! Perfect for pool parties and beach parties!

     

    Next, pipe little buttercream fish lips on with a small round piping tip (we used a Wilton 4).

     

    Adorable crab and fish themed cupcakes! Perfect for beach parties and pool parties. Free cupcake tutorial by MyCakeSchool.com!

    And here they are!  I think these lollipop fish cupcake toppers came out so cute, and the more colorful the combinations, the better! I pushed these right into our cupcakes which have been frosted with buttercream shells and swirls.

    A note about refrigeration

    *If your cupcakes require refrigeration, you should wait to add the lollipop fish close to the time of the event. (Moisture levels vary so much from refrigerator to refrigerator that it's best to do a test run to be on the safe side if you want to refrigerate the fish toppers!)

     

    Adorable fish and crab cupcake tutorial by MyCakeSchool.com! Perfect for beach parties and pool parties!

    We hope that you enjoyed this fun tutorial for beach cupcakes! If you give it a try, we'd love to hear all about it!

     

    Adorable Beach Cupcakes! Free Tutorial by MyCakeSchool.com! Perfect cupcakes for pool parties and beach or luau parties!

    More Beach Cakes and Cupcakes!

    Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoyed these beach cupcakes. If you give them a try, we would love for you to leave a comment and photo below!

    We have a few more beach themed cakes to share with you: 

    Beach Cake (with Flip Flop Cake Topper!)

    Shark Cake Tutorial

    Beach Couple Cake (Figure Modeling)

    Flip Flop Cupcakes

    Flamingo Cake & Flamingo Ruffle Cake!

    Swimsuit Cake and Beachy Cupcakes

     

     

     

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    1. Cookout Cupcakes!~ Free Blog Tutorial
    2. Dino is ready to Party!-Pull-Apart Cupcake Tutorial
    3. Frog Cake Tutorial- My Cake School
    4. Valentines Day Cupcake Tutorial! My Cake School
    5. Dragon Cake Video
    « Cheeseburger Cake Video!
    Fondant Ruffle Rose Cake- Free Tutorial! »

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    1. Maureen Zaccaria June 3, 2014 at 11:45 am

      These are so so so so cute!!! Love them!! Can't wait to make these!! Thanks Melissa!!

      Reply
    2. Shea June 17, 2016 at 1:17 pm

      Hi, The crab is great. Do you mind sharing how you got the red/orange color? What type food coloring, please?

      Reply
    3. Melissa Diamond June 17, 2016 at 3:11 pm

      Hi Shea! We like Americolor Super Red ;0)

      Reply
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