What’s a cute way to celebrate a Summer birthday? Beach Bunny Cupcakes, of course!!! 🙂

My daughter’s current favorite color is blue and her current favorite fruit is blueberries so… for her birthday I made blueberry cupcakes with blue frosting for the pool/ocean water, crushed gluten free Annie’s Homegrown cookies for the ‘sand’ and Annie’s bunny cookies swimming in the water and lying on the beach towel (fruit leather, with NO added sugar… just blended fruit) for decoration. And since in reality bunnies can overheat easily (just like me!), these cute cocktail umbrellas are the perfect size to shade them!

For the blue frosting, I found an all natural, non-toxic food coloring (from India Tree) that uses vegetables for pigment!

These cupcakes are great for a pool party, beach party or really any summer festivity! And now you really CAN have your “cake by the ocean!” 😉 (Side note:I love that song! When I first heard it, I said to my husband, “Who eats cake by the ocean?!?” We were both confused so he Googled it. Apparently while working on the record, the Swedish producers kept confusing ‘sex on the beach’ with ‘cake by the ocean!’ So now you know. If you haven’t heard the song and have no idea what I’m talking about, listen to it here… I can’t NOT dance when I hear it! )

These cakes are all vegan and gluten free, and they were a big hit (just like the song!)!

I hope you like them!
I love hearing from you so let me know what you think below in the comments!
Thanks!

Happy Summer!

Beach Bunny Blueberry Cupcakes  (Vegan & Gluten Free)

Cake Ingredients:

• 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill gluten free all-purpose flour
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Lemon zest (of 1 lemon)
• ¾ cup coconut palm sugar
• 1 cup almond milk
• ⅓ cup coconut oil
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1½ cups fresh blueberries (frozen are ok too)

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1 8oz package vegan cream cheese, room temperature (I used Go Veggie)
• 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted Earth Balance Buttery Spread, room temperature
• 2-3 cups organic powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• A few drops natural food coloring (I used India Tree)

Decorations:

• Fruit leather
• Bunny crackers
• Cocktail umbrellas
• Crushed graham cracker/cookies

Cupcake Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.
3. In another bowl, combine the palm sugar, almond milk, coconut oil, apple cider vinegar and lemon zest.
4. Add the flour mixture and stir to combine (but don’t over-mix)
5. Fold in the blueberries.
6. Put cupcake liners in a tray and fill ⅔rd of the way with batter.
7. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 22 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes. After that remove the cupcakes and cool on a wire rack.

Frosting Directions:

1. Beat the Earth Balance, cream cheese and vanilla until light and fluffy, a few minutes.
2. Add the powdered sugar, ½ cup at a time, and beat until fully incorporated.
3. Add a few drops of natural food coloring
4. The frosting will thicken on cooling.

Assembly:

1. Frost the cupcakes.
2. Dip half the cupcake in crushed cookie mixture to make sand.
3. Trim a piece of fruit leather just larger than a bunny cookie to make a beach towel.
4. Create your scenes.
5. Enjoy!