Beachy Fun Crab Cakes

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Hopefully you are not in the path of Hurricane Dorian, but if you are, prayers that you stay safe!

My family and I have had a beach trip planned for months and we may get rained out but we are still making the trek!

So I wanted to make a fun and beachy themed treat to celebrate our end of summer vacay. I came up with some sweet & crabby crab cakes. 😛

I have lots of photos to go along with my post, but my new-ish laptop doesn't want to cooperate. I will post an update with said photos once Bessie is feeling like herself again!

**updated with photos**

I used, Hostess Ding Dong cakes, vanilla and aqua frostings, graham crackers, strawberry licorice wheels, cherry Pull-n-peels, large candy eyes, and fondant for the seashells.

Pull strips of the twizzlers and then cut into equal size pieces for the crab legs!🦀

I used star tips and decorator bags to pipe onto the cakes. I piped white frosting on half of the cake and then topped with crushed graham cracker "sand". 
I then piped on blue icing "waves".

Next, I placed six pull-n-peel crab legs, placed a licorice wheel body on top of that, and then the candy eyes to top it all off.

I can 👀 you!

Can you 👀 me?!

I wanted some nice seashells for my crabs so I pulled and folded the white and light brown fondant together to create a pretty, marbled look.

Then I dusted the mold lightly with cornstarch and pressed fondant into mold and gently unmolded.

If you're like me and like a nice sheen on your seashells-say that three times fast-just apply a little white pearl dust to them with a food only paintbrush. Woah! Looks like I need to invest in some new ones!

Know somebody that's feelin' a little crabby?

These sweet crab cakes can turn that frown upside down!

Now here's to praying that Hurricane Dorian dissipates!!

'till we sweet again, Karen 😊

Caramel Filled Chocolate Clam Shells With Candy Pearls

School may have already begun, but it is still Summer and I'm not ready to let it go!!

We have just recently returned from a trip to St. Augustine. It is such a pretty and unique beach town and of course we visited the Fountain of Youth. I got one hilarious video of my hubby drinking from that famous fountain! Does it really make you look younger? Well, let's just say, the jury is still out on that one!😛

We made another couple of beach trips earlier this year..one with the kiddos and grandkiddos to Destin, and our anniversary trip to Cape Cod and Nantucket. That's where the idea for these chocolate clam shell candies came from.

I found the cutest little trinket bracelet in Destin with a clam shell and pearl! I thought, how sweet would it be in sugar form?!

Then, upon check-in to Union Street Inn, they had an adorable box of anniversary candies waiting for us!
There were these teeny little adorable chocolate whales. Well, I had to check out the candy shop that they came from, so we took a walk over and found all kinds of delightful and yummy candies. I fell in love with their chocolate and caramel oyster shells with candy pearls! 

So here we go..making them with the clam shell molds!

A candy pearl surprise! 

Here are the items needed to make the clam shells. I haven't bought ready-made caramels in a while since I like homemade better. But I wanted these to be super easy. If you'd like to try my homemade caramels recipe, you can click on the link.

I used these chocolate molds with six 3 inch shells that I found on Amazon.

After melting the chocolate candy wafers on the stove-top over low heat, I used a food only paintbrush to fill in the chocolate molds. 

Add a little more melted chocolate into each mold and refrigerate till candy is set.

Gently turn candies out onto parchment paper.

I dusted my candy shells with gold pearl dust. I think I went a little overboard.
Less is more!

Caramel! Oh this is gettin' good!

I used about one caramel for each shell. I placed six caramels in a small microwave-safe dish, added a dash of heavy cream, and melted in 30 second increments on defrost power. It took about 45 seconds total.

Spoon a little dollop of melted caramel into chocolate shell.

Mmm...this combo!

Spoon a little more melted chocolate over the caramel, add a sprinkling of sea salt and plop on the candy pearl!

Oh yeah, baby!😋

My sweet inspiration..which just so happens to be the name of the candy shop on Nantucket!

I shouldn't have used the first shell i made..it looks kinda rough. But you get the idea!

We so enjoyed our time here in Nantucket. Biking to the beach, sailboating into the sunset, and of course eating! Here we are celebrating our anniversary at Galley Beach. They had a lovely table set up for us inside, but then I saw these set up on the beach!
It was so cold, but they gave me a blanket and I sure used it!

Let's just keep on celebrating this sweet summer, Karen 😊

Santa Starfish on the Beach~Christmas in July!

Two of my most favoritest things!

Christmas and the Beach.

I have several friends that are enjoying those wonderful sea breezes and oceans waves as we speak..err..read. As for myself, I am preparing this post with the holiday movie, "A Dream of Christmas" 

playing in the background with dreams of our own beach trip next month!

Thinking to myself..toes in sand..toes in sand..

Anyways, several years ago, my sister-in-law brought me back a Santa starfish Christmas ornament from her trip to the Caribbean. I thought it was thoroughly adorable and have thought many times to make it into a craft.

I have also recently seen the cutest Santa starfish images on google and since it is "Christmas in July", now is the time!  

 Here are the items I used to make my starfish treats.

Graham crackers, Bugels, black and white fondant and white petal dust. Also, red, blue and peanut butter flavored candy melts.

 The list of tools I used are: fondant roller, sharp knife, food use only paintbrush, Wilton sea life fondant mold, starfish candy mold (not pictured here) and a tiny little sunglasses cutter.

I have not been able to find a link to the set of cutters my sunglasses came with, but there is a photo of the package they came in from an earlier post if you click on this link. 

A couple of years ago, I made my first Santa hats using Bugels and Sixlets for my Grinch Candy Spoons.

Today, I'm using white fondant rolled into tiny balls for the hat topper as I didn't realize I was out of Sixlets. I mean, how does that happen? 😜

Dip Bugels into melted red candy melts and attach fondant toppers. Let candy set. Then attach cut strips of white fondant for the hat cuff.

Are you feeling jolly yet?

Ho! Ho! Ho! Hats off to Christmas!

I must say, I'm really happy with how these starfish turned out. The peanut butter candy melts are the perfect color for these sweet sea creatures. I think the salted caramel melts would work great as well.

Melt candy in 30 second intervals at 50% power, stirring each time till melted smooth.

Fill each well and gently tap mold on counter.

Place into freezer for 10 to 15 minutes.

Turn mold upside down and gently pop out finished candies.

I'm outfitting my Santas with sunglasses. If you don't have the cutter, I think your craft will be cute even without them.

But if you do, just roll out the black fondant and press cutter through.

Now here is my all-time favorite mold. The Wilton fondant sea life mold.

To make the seashells, roll white fondant into a ball, press into mold, then gently pull back on mold and lift the shell out.

I applied dry white petal dust with a dry brush to give my shells a pretty sheen.

For the beach background, I covered the graham crackers in blue candy melts and dipped the bottoms into crushed grahams.

I can almost smell the salty air!

If you are reading this and you live by the sea, you are Blessed! Living the dream! 🌊🌊

Let's get these guys dressed!

Using melted candy, place hats onto starfish and attach fondant pieces and let candy set to dry.

If you want another Christmas in July treat, click here for my Snowcapped Lollipops.

We wish you a Merry Christmas in July!🎜🎜🎝

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Have a sweet day, Karen

Edible Beach Candle Craft

I'm Back!

It's been a very long 6 weeks!

I'm still recuperating from my foot surgery but a nice little anniversary trip to the Outer Banks surely helped me on my way.

I've had this sweet little beach craft on my sketch pad for a few weeks now and I'm so happy to finally be sharing it with you. 

Hope you're all enjoying your summer and your own relaxing trips to the seashore.

 Can you guess what this fondant covered "candle" is made of?

If you guessed Rice Krispies Treats..then yes!

Make up a batch of these cereal treats. Use a round cookie cutter to cut three circles. Fill and frost the layers as you would a cake. I used ready made canned frosting. 

 To cover candle, roll out fondant. I used a tape measure (not pictured) around my cutter to determine the width of fondant needed to wrap my candle. I used a ruler to measure how tall my candle was to determine the length.

Wrap candle with fondant strip. I realized I needed a slightly larger diameter cutter to cut my candle topper piece as the fondant added to the girth of the candle.

A small lollipop stick inserted into the center of the candle made the opening for the "wick".

Any guesses as to what I used for the wick?

 Did you guess Twizzlers Pull'n'Peels?

Haha..funny story. Could not find these anywhere..and I tried 7 different stores. My sweet hubby ordered them online for me. So..yesterday I saw them at Wal-mart and CVS! 

 You know the drill..just pull'n'peel. 
Snip off a piece of the white candy to insert into the opening atop the candle for the wick.

I am crushing up some graham crackers for my sand.

This was reeely fun and so easy. I wanted to make a few marbled seashells along with some white ones.

I used 1 part light brown fondant to about 3 parts white.

Just fold and twist till you achieve the color you're happy with.

 The Wilton sea life fondant mold is so easy to work with and 'shore' makes lovely and realistic looking seashells! Just press fondant into mold and then pop them out.

The perfect embellishment for my beach themed candle.

 I was a June bride many years ago.

I'm thinking this would make a beautiful table display for a beach themed wedding!

 I think I'm gonna enjoy mine on my table for a couple more weeks..who knows, maybe it will inspire another trip to the beach before summer's end!

Our beautiful spot to enjoy amazing sunsets on Pamlico Sound, Hatteras Island, Outer Banks.

Thank you so much for dropping by

Sugartown Sweets!

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