As I was sitting at a bar on Waikiki Beach, drinking a Blue Hawaii, I was thinking about… cupcakes. As in, how can I turn this drink into a cupcake?

Yeah, I know. I’m a freak. But this drink seemed perfect for turning into a baked good. And it’s such a great color: the color of the ocean.

I started thinking about this again as I was watching Shark Week. I wanted to make something shark-related, and what better than a cupcake the color of the ocean?

Yeah, I used a cake mix. It makes things a lot easier. Of course, then I made things much harder for myself later, but we’ll get to that.

As a side note, don’t you love Shark Week? I love the ocean and just about everything that lives in it (except eels. I am TERRIFIED of eels), but sharks are especially cool. I don’t really want to run into any great whites while I’m snorkeling or attempting to surf, but seeing sharks in an aquarium or from a safe distance (e.g. while I’m on land) is still neat.

Our last day in Hawaii, we were laying on the beach on the Marine base when we heard the lifeguard blow his whistle… and saw him put his hand on top of his head like a fin. Apparently there is a hammerhead breeding ground in Kaneohe Bay, and some of the surfers had seen at least one giant shark out there that afternoon. Yikes!

 

Back to the cupcakes. I put blue curacao (the liqueur that makes a blue Hawaii blue) in the mix, but it just made the batter a minty color. I added some Duff brand “sapphire” gel food coloring to make it a nice blue.

So, at this point you’re probably wondering WTF these cookies have to do with sharks, other than the color of the sharks’ habitat. Well, I put shark fins on top. And that’s where things got a bit complicated.

I drew a shark fin on parchment paper and then used a knife to cut the shapes out of cookie dough. That was pretty simple. And you only need two dozen of them. I used the rest of the dough to make cookies to send to people.

My problems began when I decided to decorate the fins with royal icing instead of just using a powdered sugar and milk glaze and/or sprinkles. Since I had the other cookies I was going to decorate, I had to separate the frosting and make some of it gray (I used a drop of black and a drop of navy for about half a cup of royal icing). Of course I didn’t really set aside enough for the fins.

 

Then, because the icing dries so fast, I went ahead and decorated all the rest of the cookies before moving on. And that took FOREVER. So, don’t do that unless you have a lot of hours to kill, or are a royal icing expert. Just use some silver sprinkles and/or ice them with a mix of powdered sugar and milk. Or throw some gummy sharks on top and call it a day.

The cupcakes are pretty sweet, so you don’t need a really sweet frosting. I used light Cool Whip with some cream of coconut and food coloring mixed in. (I’m not sure whether a blue Hawaii is supposed to have cream of coconut in it or not, but it tastes good, and that’s what counts).

So, to recap: Sharks are awesome, as long as they aren’t chewing on your limbs. These cupcakes are super easy and taste like a blue Hawaii. The fin cookies are also pretty easy, but I wouldn’t advise baking and decorating six dozen additional cookies in the middle of the cupcake-baking process. And… gummy sharks are underrated.

Hooray for Shark Week!

Blue Hawaii cupcakes (makes about two dozen cupcakes)
1/2 cup blue curacao liqueur
1/2 cup cream of coconut (such as Coco Lopez)
3 egg whites (or whatever amount your cake mix calls for)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 box white cake mix
8-ounce can crushed pineapple, with juice
blue food coloring

Preheat oven to 350. Line two cupcake pans with cupcake papers.

Combine blue curacao, cream of coconut, egg whites and oil. Blend together with an electric mixer. Add cake mix and beat until well combined. Stir in pineapple with juice and blue food coloring.

Pour batter into lined cupcake cups, filling cups 2/3 of the way. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean and/or the cake bounces back when you touch it lightly with one finger. Allow cupcakes to cool.

Frosting
3-4 cups Cool Whip
2 tablespoons cream of coconut
blue food coloring

Stir together Cool Whip and cream of coconut, then add blue food coloring until frosting is desired color. Pipe or spoon onto cooled cupcakes. Decorate with gummy sharks, shark fin cookies or sprinkles.

Shark fin cookies
(Note: This recipe makes about 7 dozen small cookies. You will only need two dozen shark fins to decorate cupcakes, so you may wish to store the rest of the cookie dough in the refrigerator or freezer for later)
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg (at room temperature is best)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or 1 1/2 tsp. of vanilla and 1/2 of almond, if you wish)
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy*. Beat in egg and vanilla. In another bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt.

Add flour mixture to the butter mixture 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Do not chill dough. On a floured surface, roll each ball out to about 1/8-inch thick.

Trace or draw a shark fin on a small piece of parchment paper. Using a sharp knife and the parchment paper as a stencil, cut two dozen (or a few more, just in case) fins out of the cookie dough.

Cover a baking sheets with silicone mat or parchment paper. Bake cookies until they’re lightly browned, about 6 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on pan for a few minutes, then move to a cooling rack (or flat plate).

*If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use a regular hand-held electric mixer. Just make sure the butter-sugar mixture is very fluffy before you add the rest of the ingredients.

Easiest/quickest decorating method:
Mix together about 1/4 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and a few drops of food coloring (if desired). Add milk a teaspoon at a time until icing is spreading consistency. Add more powdered sugar if icing becomes too thin.

Spread a thin layer of icing on a few cookies at a time, then decorate with sprinkles. Allow icing to dry before using to top cupcakes.