Beach Brownies

In celebration of the end of the semester I decided to bake a dessert to bring along to a BBQ. I originally planned to make cupcakes; big, frosting-covered, artery-clogging cupcakes. That is, until I took a closer look at the recipe and saw just how artery-clogging these cupcakes were. That amount of butter in one batch of cupcakes should be outlawed!

With the help of my mother and Martha Stewart, I decided on brownies. Beach-themed brownies, to spice things up a little bit.

How can you give your brownies this makeover? First, bake your brownies. Once they're out of the oven and cool you can begin your decoration.

Half of the brownies should be covered blue frosting. You can buy tubes of blue frosting but, if you're cheap like me, it's easy enough to mix vanilla frosting with blue food coloring. For the sand, coat the brownies with a thin layer of vanilla frosting. Ground one package of graham crackers and pour them on top of the frosting. Next, fill the beach to your hearts content! I added drink parasols for beach umbrellas and put teddy grahams on the beach and in the water. I also added cutouts of sharks headed straight for the unsuspecting teddy grahams.

Go all out and have fun. Find ways to make your tried-and-true brownies fun and exciting!