Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Make It: Under the Sea Party Desserts

Under the Sea Party Desserts Instructions

I have had a couple of requests for explanations on some of the details on our Under the Sea party.  I’m going to do a couple of series of Make It posts this week to help you plan your next party. 

First up,  everyone’s favorite part of a party: desserts.  Our Under the Sea desserts included cupcakes with chocolate shells, coral candy, chocolate covered pretzel “shells”, oyster cookies, and marshmallow fish pops.  All of these were very easy to put together.

Under the Sea Party Desserts Instructions

1) Marshmallow Fish Pops, idea from Pinterest

You’ll need:  marshmallows, white chocolate bark, blue food coloring, graham cracker crumbs,  Goldfish cookies, sugar pearls, and sucker sticks.

~Melt your white chocolate bark (I use the microwave), add in a drop or two of blue food coloring to get your desired color.  Push your pop sticks in the marshmallow, and dip in the white bark until coated.  While the chocolate is still wet, dip the bottom of the marshmallow pop into crushed graham cracker crumbs.  Add your fish cookie and sugar pearl “bubbles”.  Set on wax paper to dry.

2)  Seashell Cupcakes

For these, I used a box mix and canned frosting.  Baking doesn’t get fancy in my house.  For the shells I used blue candy melts and white chocolate bark in a shell candy mold.  Blue sprinkles on top.  I squirt my icing on with one of those handy icing tool kits like this one.

3) Chocolate Covered Seashells

I’m pretending they look like seashells, anyway.  Pretzels dipped in melted white almond bark, sprinkles and sugar pearls on top.  My daughter made these (mostly) by herself.

4)  Oyster Cookies with Pearls, idea from Pinterest

You’ll need: vanilla wafers, vanilla frosting, candy pearl (Sixlet)

The ones I saw on Pinterest were made out of bigger cookies, but I needed nut-free cookies which I couldn’t seem to find.  Vanilla wafers are peanut free.  I thought they would be too small, but I really love the cuteness of the small cookie.  I also found the blue vanilla frosting by Pillsbury at Target, and it was the perfect color I needed.  (Used for the cupcakes, too.)  If you can only find white vanilla, mix in a couple of drops of blue food coloring.  I used my icing tool to squirt a dollop of frosting on the wafer, added the top wafer, then added the Sixlet pearl.  So cute and crazy easy.

5)  Coral Candy

You’ll need:  Chow mein noodles, white almond bark, red and yellow food coloring, sprinkles, mini cupcake papers

~Melt the white chocolate bark in the microwave, once melted add in your food coloring.  I added red, then drops of yellow to get the color I wanted.  While the chocolate is melted, add in your chow mein noodles.  Add in enough noodles to get a nice coating on the noodles.  You don’t want them too “wet”.  Using a spoon, scoop the mixture into the mini cups (or on wax paper if you don’t want to use cups), trying to get the top noodles to stick up, like coral.  Sprinkle on your sprinkles while the chocolate is still wet.  Place in the fridge to speed up the cooling.

 

I used crushed graham cracker crumbs on all of the dessert plates to look like sand, and I sprinkled around some of the sugar pearls.

None of these desserts were time consuming at all.  The coral candy and seashell pretzels can be made a couple of days ahead of time and stored in an airtight container.  The marshmallow pops and oyster cookies should be made the day of, or as close to the day of the party as possible so the cookie doesn’t get soggy.

To see pictures from the entire Under the Sea party, look HERE.

I hope you enjoy making your own seaside desserts for your next party!

~julee~