This simple beach cake is the perfect addition to any summer party! Made with just a few ingredients that start with a store-bought cake, it’s simple to make and delicious to eat! Combine this fun cake with other refreshing treats for a pool party, backyard barbecue, or summer birthday party!
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Beach Cake for Summer
Who else is excited that summer is finally here? I thought it would be fun to celebrate the kids being out of school, and it finally being summer with a little summer themed party for the kids in our neighborhood!
We had kids over to play some of our favorite water games (they loved these water balloon games the most) and enjoyed some cool down treats like this beach cake and these blue popsicles!
I’ve been dying to make an ocean themed cake since my boys are obsessed with the beach and sharks after we had shark punch last year.
I made my cake from scratch but you could totally just buy a store-bought cake and just scrape off the frosting! You could even make it an ice cream cake if you really wanted to!
The part that really matters is the decorations on top! As long as those are cute and beachy, this beach themed cake will be perfect!
Why you’ll love this
- Easy – since this starts with a store-bought ice cream cake, it’s super easy to make. It’s literally just decorating the cake to look like a beach scene and all the decorating is simple – no need to be cake decorators for this one!
- Refreshing – just like the beach is nice and refreshing, this beach themed ice cream cake is as well!
- Adorable – while it’s easy to make, it’s cute enough for kids and adults to be impressed! Perfect for summer parties, beach themed days, and even under the sea birthdays or baby showers (one of my favorite baby shower themes for girls).
Beach Cake Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Here’s the thing – your beach themed cake doesn’t have to look exactly like mine but I’ve written this post to show you exactly how I made mine so if you want to just make it like my beach cake, go for it. That’s why I’m sharing this in the first place!
Just know that if you can’t find one of these ingredients or something on my cake, you can totally leave it out or replace it with something else. I’ve actually made this cake twice now – once for the photos in this post and once for this Instagram video – and I used slightly different things each time.
- Cake – I recommend using a vanilla or white cake so that the blue frosting covers it. You can either make your own homemade cake, buy a cake mix, buy a store-bough cake and take the frosting off, or even buy a store-bought ice cream cake (like my TikTok video) and just take the frosting off. All that matters is that you start with a cake.
- Blue frosting – I used this Funfetti Aqua Blue frosting that is already colored blue and comes with fish sprinkles. You can use a regular vanilla or cream cheese frosting and just dye it blue as well. It’s totally up to you but you will need blue frosting to make it look like an ocean!
- Graham crackers – graham crackers work (just put them into a food processor to crush into crumbs) or just go the easy route and buy a box of graham cracker crumbs!
- Candies – the best part of this cake is all of the candy decorations. I used Lifesaver Gummy Collisions (they have the striped look), Airhead Xtremes, Sour Patch Kids, gummy sharks (leftover from our shark attack drink), tropical Swedish Fish, Dum-Dum suckers, and tropical Tic Tacs.
I also used some little drink umbrellas to give it that real beachy look. They’re optional but do make a huge difference for setting the scene on this unique birthday cake idea!
Tip!
While you can order all of these things online (using the links provided above), I actually found all of my candies at Dollar Tree. I just went into their candy section to see what I could find that you might find on a beach! Like I mentioned above, this is the perfect opportunity to get creative!
How to make A Beach Theme Cake
This simple beach cake is my favorite because unlike some beach cakes out there that take some cake decorating skills, this one takes no skills at all!
It’s so easy that even my kids helped me with the decorating the second time around! They may have ended up with more candy in their mouths than on the cake but hey that’s all part of the fun!
- Frost the cake with the blue frosting all the way around including the sides. Or you could skip the sides if you want, but I just like the look of everything being frosted!
- Pulse the graham crackers in a food processor until you have graham cracker crumbs with just a few big pieces. (Or skip this step if you just bought graham cracker crumbs). Add graham cracker crumbs to half of the cake for sand.
I did as close to half of the cake as possible because I wanted to be able to decorate both sides with lots of little candies but you could also do something like 1/3 of the cake if you’d rather have more water!
- Add people and beach items (think anything from this beach vacation packing list) on top of the graham cracker crumbs.
This is where the fun comes in. Add towels, little paper umbrellas, beach balls, and anything else you might find at the beach!
- Add sea animals to the ocean. You can also add little Sour Patch Kids floating in tubes, on rafts, and more! This is just another fun way to add beach themed treats to the cake!
- Add the fish sprinkles (if you’re using the Aqua Blue frosting) all around the ocean to finish off your cake!
Tip!
In the back, I created a fun in the sun shop with umbrellas, floatable rings, balls, etc. that you can rent. The balls are Dum-Dums in a variety of colors with the stick cut short, just pushed down into the sand.
And there you have it – a super simple beach cake that’s not only adorable but delicious as well. And there was no baking involved at all! This is one of my favorite cakes I’ve ever made, and I’ve made a lot of cakes!
We did a couple of the items off our summer bucket list, played some outdoor games, and just had a great time bringing in the summer season! And this beach themed cake was the perfect addition to it!
Tips & tricks
Don’t crowd the cake with candy so much that it just looks overloaded and not like a beach scene but make sure to have enough that everyone will get a little bit on their slice of cake (or when they pick it off if they’re like my kids).
Add frosting to the sides of the cake in one smooth motion from one side to the other instead of frosting back and forth. Back and forth tends to bring up the white frosting underneath, which can look cool, but it’s really not the look you’re going for.
Plan out your beach cake decorating before you start actually adding things to the cake (and keep the cake in the freezer while you plan). This will make it easier to make it look like you’re hoping without disturbing the ocean frosting and graham cracker sand.
Try to mix up the candy throughout the cake so that when you’re cutting slices everyone gets a little bit of everything or at least a little bit of something! That way you won’t have people fighting over different sections of the cake!
Recipe FAQs
How do you make a cake look like a beach?
Top the cake with blue frosting for the water, graham cracker grahams for the sand, and lots of little candy decorations that look like towels, people sunbathing, people floating on tubes, and more. It’s so easy to turn a cake into a beach themed cake and a super fun idea for a summer party!
What do you use for sand on a beach cake?
Use graham cracker crumbs (or graham crackers processed into crumbs) for a sandy beach on a beach cake. If you want to add shells or large clumps of sand, you can also use small candies, chocolate seashells (or edible seashells of any other sort), or larger chunks of graham crackers. I’ve also seen people use brown sugar as well if none of those are options.
Can you freeze the beach cake?
I don’t recommend freezing this beach cake after it’s been decorated with the graham cracker sand and all of the candies. Unfortunately quite a few of the candies don’t freeze well. If you want to freeze the cake, I recommend freezing just the cake itself – remove the candies first!
More similar dishes
- Old fashioned jello poke cake – if you need the perfect sweet treat for summer, this is it! A delicious and easy cake that’s filled with raspberry flavor!
- Oreo ice cream cake – if you like ice cream cakes, this delicious dessert only takes 3-ingredients to make!
- Kool aid pie recipe – a super simple pie recipe you can make in minutes and bonus, no special equipment needed!
- Strawberry cheesecake bars – these layered bars have tons of strawberry flavor combined with cheesecake and a crunchy streusel topping!
- Brownie fruit pizza – a delicious fruit pizza that starts with a brownie box mix and gets finished with tons of fresh berries!
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Beach Cake
Ingredients
- 1 rectangle cake
- 2 tubs Aqua Blue vanilla frosting
- 8 graham crackers
- Sour patch kids
- gummy rings
- Airhead Extreme Strips
- Dum-Dum suckers
- Swedish Fish
- gummy sharks
- tropical Tic Tacs
Instructions
- Frost the cake with the Aqua Blue frosting, making sure to frost all of the sides and the top of the cake.1 rectangle cake, 2 tubs Aqua Blue vanilla frosting
- Pulse graham crackers in a food processor until they become graham cracker crumbs. Pour graham cracker crumbs on top of the cake on the half that does not have blue frosting.8 graham crackers
- Decorate the beach and water with towel using the Airhead strips, Sour Patch Kids or gummy bears, candy rings, and more. Finish it off with little drink umbrellas, Swedish fish, and gummy sharks.Sour patch kids, gummy rings, Airhead Extreme Strips, Dum-Dum suckers, Swedish Fish, gummy sharks, tropical Tic Tacs
- Slice cake into pieces and serve directly out of the freezer.
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