Make These Amazing Ocean Animal Desserts to Celebrate World Oceans Day
The ocean takes up 70% of earth's surface. In it, millions of species spend their lives swimming, crawling, and exploring its depths. World Ocean Day is meant to call attention to these creatures and the oceans that are so vital to the health of our world. Teach your friends and family something about respecting the ocean and nature by making these World Oceans Day recipes.
Catch of the Day Snack Plate
Have little ones at home? Take them on a trip under the sea by revolutionizing snack time. Kiwis, grapes, strawberries, mango, and dragonfruit can all be transformed into sea creatures. That way, snack time can also be an educational lesson in environmental studies. Have your children identify the animals and tell you a fact about them. If they're too young, you can reverse this and teach them a thing or two about each species. It's delicious, nutritious, and educational all at once.
Surf's Up Cookies
Hanging out at the beach is something a lot of people love to do. Without healthy oceans, this wouldn't be something we could or would want to do. On World Oceans Day, pay tribute to the natural environment that allows you to have so much fun in the sun with these surfer cookies. Here's a hint: crushed graham crackers make delicious and convincing sand, so if you're making a plate of these, consider adding a layer of crushed crackers to the bottom.
Dolphin Bananas
Dolphins are one of the most famous ocean animals. They're playful, smart, and have even been a friend to human kind by fending off sharks and helping people swim to shore. These dolphin bananas are so creative, cute, and healthy that they'd make a fantastic culinary to-do for you. All you need to do is halve bananas, cut their stems in half, and place a grape in each opening. That way, it looks like the dolphins are holding a ball just like they would at the aquarium. Here's a how-to if you'd like some extra help.
Green Sea Turtle
Green apples make great sea turtle shells when cut in half and turned upside down. Paired with mini chocolate chips and grapes, they're even better. If you want to teach your children about animals the world's oceans, give this snack a try. You can make a model, cut everything up, and have them copy you. Then, they can enjoy eating these healthy snacks with a side of peanut butter or caramel.
Octopus Cupcakes
Octopus are incredibly intelligent animals. They've been known to make tools to catch prey and escape from aquariums-mystifying the keepers. You can make your very own octopus cupcakes with this recipe! Bake the cupcakes, make blue frosting, and then use a marshmallow dipped in pink glaze for the head and pink frosting for the tentacles. They're a little technical to assemble, but they're super cool and perfect for celebrating World Oceans Day.
Pearl Cookies
Pearls are made when oysters ingest bits of sand. Over time, they build up a protective coating to prevent abrasion. To them, it's a nuisance. To us, it's a beautiful and precious item that can be made into jewelry. Now, it can also me mimicked in the kitchen. Using vanilla cookies, pink frosting, and a pearl candy sixlet, you can essentially "glue" these together. This would also be a great idea to recycle for a baby shower since you can make the frosting pink or blue to reveal the gender of a baby. You could also use pink or blue candy sixlets for the pearl.
S'mores Starfish
Starfish are cool little creatures that can regenerate lost limbs. Too bad these edible star fish s'mores can't regenerate after each bite! You'll just have to make a big batch to satisfy peoples' appetites because these cookies are super delicious-and perfect for World Oceans Day. To make them, you'll need to cut marshmallows into stars, dunk them in melted chocolate, and coat them in crushed graham crackers before they dry. You could make your own marshmallows if you want or use a cookie cutter on some of these marshmallows candies.
Veggie Whale
This Orca cucumber is so inventive! If you're having people over and are setting out a veggie tray, make this whale for the centerpiece. You'll have to cut carefully, but this is a pretty easy thing to make. Slice off a section for the eye markings and underbelly. Then, be careful as you make a slit for the fins. You can have people eat it or keep it as edible decoration until after the party.
Crab Cake Pop
This crab cake pop will make you feel anything but crabby. With its bright red color and googley eyes, it's super cheerful and fun. Crabs are the scavengers of the ocean and clean up dead bits of fish. Whoever is around will scavenge the platter for leftover bits of these crab cake pops when they're done because they're that good!
Turtle Bread
This turtle bread is something everyone can share. It's so fun, cute, and delicious. It's not too hard to make and can go with a salad, cold cuts, pasta, and a ton of other fishes... oh we mean dishes. In the spirit of World Oceans Day, give whoever is dining with you a lesson in ecology. Talk about some facts about turtles and how we can help preserve their habitats. If you need a fun fact, here's one: Sea turtles have been on earth for 100 million years. Let's work to keep them here for millions more!
Seal Rice Balls
This next dish certainly does get nature's "seal of approval." Bad joke, but seriously. It's cute, delicious, and something you can make with your kids. This source show you how to do make these seal rice balls, but here's a quick way to make sticky rice and a delicious bento box menus. You'll want to get your hands a little dirty and have some fun while you're at it!
Shark Mouth Cookies
Sharks scare a lot of people, but they're an essential part of the ocean's ecosystem. Most sharks don't even both people anyways. Regardless, here are some sensational shark bite cookies you can make for World Oceans Day. You don't have to get this fancy, but this is a seriously amazing goal to shoot for.
