Sandy Beach Pudding Cups

~Amanda~

A few weeks ago our parents had a ‘beach’ party at their house – they live on a lake, not a beach, we’re in Colorado after all, but it’s so much more fun to call it a beach party! Anyways, I was in charge of dessert and of course I had to make something that was super delicious, but I also wanted to do something fun and beach-y to fit with the theme so I made these awesome Sand Pudding Cups! We are all adults now and obviously this recipe is probably more suited for a children’s pool party, but who cares – they’re so good! Everyone knows and loves those super delicious dirt cups we had growing up filled with pudding and Oreo’s and gummy worms and these are just a play on that with vanilla pudding and wafers instead of the chocolate pudding and cookies. They were just as fun to make as they were to eat and even though it was probably one of the simplest, most basic desserts I’ve ever made for a party, they were just as well received as any fancy cheesecake or pie!

Making them was super easy, and quite fun – when is that last time you actually made pudding from the box?! I haven’t done so in ages! It’s super simple – just combine the pudding mixture with milk and whisk for a few minutes and stick it in the fridge to set up. Next is the really fun part, crushing up the wafer cookies. You put the cookies in a freezer bag and seal it up then take a rolling pin and just start pounding away until they are broken down to fine crumbs. I remember our mom making dirt cups when we were younger and we would get to help with this part and thought it was so exciting. And now as an adult, what a great way to get all your frustrations out, right? Just pound it out and leave it all in the cookies haha. Although I will say that Molly (our dog) was a little terrified and could not understand why in the world I was making so much noise.

Now that you’ve done allll that tough prep work, you can assemble the cups! First layer in the pudding, then the Cool Whip (make sure you thaw this ahead of time since you buy it in the freezer section – I forgot to do so and had to delay my cup making for an hour while it thawed), and finally the cookie crumbles – i.e. the sand. Top the sand with some blue sprinkles to mimic the ocean and then add on some gummy fish, teddy grahams, and even some of those little cocktail umbrellas – if you can find them, someone needs to tell me where I find them at the store because I was unsuccessful in that. But hey, even without the umbrellas I think they turned out pretty cute. And they definitely had that ‘wow’ factor when I brought them out at the party, nobody was expecting them, but everyone ate them down to the very last drop of pudding! So try them out and serve them at your next ‘beach party’ or just the next time you need a quick and delicious weeknight dessert!