This easy beach themed dessert is a twist on the nostalgic and classic dirt cups dessert. Sand cups area fun way to celebrate a luau, beach-themed party or even to enoy during shark week!
All you need for the recipe is about 25-30 minutes and a few simple and fun ingredients. You can customize it with all kinds of candies and switch up the ‘sand’ or ‘ocean’ flavors too. I like to serve them in individual 9oz cups, but you could use different sizes or glass options as well. You could also make one batch all together in a pan for a fun twist on this dirt cake, whatever works best for you is great!
Recipe Overview: Sand Cups
Ready In: 25 minutes
Serves: 6-8 kids
Main Ingredients: vanilla instant pudding, blue food coloring, golden oreos, teddy graham bears, candies
Why Kids Love Pudding Cups: Just like with dirt cups, sand cups are a fun twist on serving pudding. It makes it fun when food ties to a theme or that they can get creative with. Plan this dessert for an indoor beach party accompanied with sunnies and inflatable beach balls.
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Key Ingredients
- Vanilla instant pudding
- teddy graham bears
- Golden Oreos (or vanilla wafers for a finer sand)
- Candies- gummy lifesavers, licorice pieces and gummy sharks
Tips and Alternatives
- Try peach rings, swedish fish or fruit roll-ups to add other colors/detials to the pudding cup.
- If you want the water to be more transparent or to have a different taste you can use blue jello.
- Make Halloween Dirt Cups– use a ghost peep and candy pumpkin on top of the crushed oreos
- For an Easter dirt cup, use a peep and chocolate egg candies to decorate or you could use a chocolate covered strawberry decorated to look like a carrot.
- Try a dino themed by adding candy or toy dinos.
- This would be great for a construction party, just add some toy dumpsters and excavators!
- Use gummy worms or sour gummy worms for a traditional dirt cup, add sour gummy worms.
How to Make Sand Cups
Make your instant pudding by combining milk and the packet and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
Combine with cool whip. After combining allow to chill in the refrigerator. This is an optional step but helps the consistency set up!
While your pudding is chilling, crush up your oreos or vanilla wafers. I do this by adding to a ziploc gallon baggie and crushing with a rolling pin.
Add your blue food coloring. Add a few drops at a time until you reach your desired shade of blue. I recommend gel food coloring.
Begin adding your pudding layers to the bottom of a cup. I alternate pudding and oreo crumbs.
Add a layer of crushed up oreos, then top with pudding again. For the top layer of crumbs to create a beach effect I only put crumbs on half of the cup.
To make your floating teddy graham bears, add a gummy life saver around it about halfway. Then add the bear to the top of the blue pudding as if it’s floating in the water.
Add any other details, like the gummy sharsk or bear lounging on the twizzler pool float or beach towel. You could use all kinds of candies for this part to create a fun beach scene!
More Recipes for Kids to Try!
Get the Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 box family size vanilla instant pudding
- 3 cups chilled milk (whole or 2%)
- 8 oz cool whip
- 24 golden oreos (or vanilla wafers)
- 16 teddy graham crackers
- candies to decorate
Equipment
Instructions
- Make your instant pudding by combining milk and the packet and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
- Combine with cool whip. After combining allow to chill in the refrigerator. This is an optional step but helps the consistency set up!
- While your pudding is chilling, crush up your oreos or vanilla wafers. I do this by adding to a ziploc gallon baggie and crushing with a rolling pin.
- Add your blue food coloring. Add a few drops at a time until you reach your desired shade of blue. I recommend gel food coloring.
- Begin adding your pudding layers to the bottom of a cup. I alternate pudding and oreo crumbs.
- Add a layer of crushed up oreos, then top with pudding again. For the top layer of crumbs to create a beach effect I only put crumbs on half of the cup.
- To make your floating teddy graham bears, add a gummy life saver around it about halfway. Then add the bear to the top of the blue pudding as if it's floating in the water.
- Add any other details, like the gummy sharks or bear lounging on the twizzler pool float or beach towel. You could use all kinds of candies for this part to create a fun beach scene!
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My son thought these looked so fun! And immediately picked out all the candy. 🙂