Adorable (and easy!) Gone Fishing Cupcakes

These Gone Fishing Cupcakes are perfect for any outdoor fan’s birthday! Serve them at a fishing or camping birthday party, or make them just for fun. They are super cute, easy to make, and make use of very basic supplies.

A few weeks ago, I shared some LEGO cupcakes that my friend Niki made for us. Well, Niki is back with these adorable fishing cupcakes!

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Here is how I made these cute gone fishing cupcakes!

Ingredients Needed:

• Box cake mix
• Cupcake wrappers
• Vanilla icing in a tub (or make your own)
• Turquoise gel food coloring
• Mini Swedish fish candies
• Pretzel sticks
• Piping bag, or resealable bag
• Clear edible glitter – optional

First, bake the cupcakes of your choice. I used box mix and I feel no shame in that! You can use regular white cupcake wrappers or colored foil wrappers. I used some of each. I expected the foil wrapper cupcakes to look much cuter than the plain ones, but really, once they were decorated, all the attention went to the top of the cupcakes, so you really can use either and they’ll look great. 

Next, color your icing blue to look like water. I used turquoise coloring gel (the gel colors result in a much better color than regular food coloring). You will only need a few small drops, so start with a small amount and add more as needed.

Reserve some white icing to use for the fishing line.

Once your cupcakes have completely cooled (and that’s important!) it’s time to frost your cupcakes. But there’s a bonus secret step I used before I frosted these: my cupcakes came out of the oven looking like mountains. Not the gentle rolling hills cupcakes that I wanted, but peaked mountains! So before frosting, I used a serrated knife to cut off the very top of the cupcakes that were the most peaked. This allows you to have a more even surface to ‘build’ on for your frosting, and it gives you little bits of cake to sample ahead of time. Win-win! Don’t worry, once there’s frosting on those cupcakes, no one will ever know your secret. 

Now they’re ready to frost! I used a piping bag and tip, but if you don’t have one, you can use a gallon-size resealable bag with a small corner snipped off. The frosting won’t look as ‘polished’ with this technique, but remember, this frosting is supposed to look like water! And choppy waves will look just as good as still waters! Another alternative to a piping bag and tip is to spread the frosting on with a butter knife. But be warned if you have ‘topped’ mountain cupcakes earlier- that crumby surface will prevent you from smoothly spreading your frosting. Instead, you’ll spread frosting, and it will pick up the crumbs and make an ugly mess.

Tip: If you have crumby tops and no choice but to spread frosting, pop those cupcakes in the freezer for at least a few hours! The frozen top surface should allow you to spread frosting without picking up the crumbs. As long as they sit out for an hour or two before eating, they will thaw and no one will know the difference! 

Now it’s time to decorate the cupcakes! I added clear edible glitter over the blue frosting to make the ‘water’ shimmer. This isn’t necessary, but it is fun and simple. Edible glitter is also available at most craft stores that sell baking products. It isn’t expensive, and you only need a little for most projects. I’ve used mine for all kinds of baking projects, just to add a special ‘pop’! (Put over white frosting, it makes great ‘snow.’)

Next, using a fine line piping tip, add the fishing line with white frosting. Again, if you don’t have a piping bag and tip, you could use a sandwich size resealable bag with a very small corner piece cut off. Practice on a few of your ‘less successful’ frosted cupcakes first, to get the feel for it. Also remember, that perfection isn’t the goal, it’s fun. Most kids eating these will not see the imperfections that you see!

Finally, top each cupcake with a pretzel rod and a fish. I used the mini size Swedish Fish and they were just the right size. 

And there you have it! Simple fishing cupcakes that will bring a smile to your child’s face!

Be sure to stop by and check out our LEGO cupcakes also!