These simple to make Sand Pudding Dessert Cups Recipe are perfect for a Beach Party, Shark Week, and more!
Every Summer, since my kids were little, we have made treats for Shark Week. It is something they look forward to even now that they are bigger. The treats don't have to be hard to make, just a little something fun, like these Sand Pudding Dessert Cups. A fun twist on the popular dirt cup pudding, but this time beach themed!
Supplies
This is such an easy and fun dessert to make. You will need
Supplies
Ingredients
- Vanilla Pudding Mix
- Milk
- Whipped Topping
- Blue Food Coloring
- Vanilla Sandwich Cookies (or graham crackers)
- Gummy Fish or Shark Candies
If you have a hard time finding the gummy sharks try looking on Amazon or Nuts.com.
How to make sand pudding dessert cups
Pour 2 cups of milk in a bowl.
Add in your blue food coloring to the desired color. This will vary based on type of food coloring and brand. Once the food coloring is in add in your pudding mix.
Fold your whipped topping into the pudding and chill for about 10 minutes.
Once your pudding is chilled pour it into small plastic cups or little dessert dishes.
Now it is time to have fun. Assemble the beach scene by adding crushed cookies for the sand, and your choice of gummy candies to create these great little sand cups.
Gluten Free
These pudding cups are very easy to convert to gluten free. You are going to want to use your favorite gluten free vanilla cookie. You can also make these Gluten Free Graham Crackers and use them in place of the sandwich cookies. They work perfectly!
Vegan
Most people think that because these are pudding you can't make them vegan. That couldn't farther from the truth. With a couple hacks you can transform these into vegan treats!
- Jello Instant Pudding Mix is Vegan. Just the mix.
- You will need twice as much pudding mix when using a dairy free milk substitute because of its consistency.
- Simply use 2 cups of dairy free milk and 2 (3.4 oz) boxes of pudding mix to get the same amount for this dessert.
- You can find vegan whipped topping at many grocery stores. My favorite is Cocowhip.
- Finally the cookies. You can use any vanilla cookie, but Golden Oreo Cookies are Vegan!
Recipe
Sand Pudding Dessert Cups
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3.4 oz Instant Vanilla Pudding
- 2 cups milk
- 8 oz whipped topping thawed
- Blue food coloring
Toppings
- 6-8 Vanilla Sandwich Cookies crushed (Can also use graham crackers)
- Gummy sea creatures
- Gummy stars or shells
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, add cold milk.
- Stir in a few drops of blue food coloring to make the pudding your desired color. Sprinkle pudding over top and whisk until well combined.
- Place in refrigerator about 10 minutes or until set
- Fold in whipped topping until well combined
- Add pudding mix to glasses or cups
- Place in refrigerator 20 minutes to chill
- Crush cookies in food processor or resealable plastic bag until fine
- Spoon cookies on side to resemble a beach
- Add gummy creatures, stars or shells to decorate
Dairy Free
- Use a dairy free whipped topping (like cocowhip). Use your favorite dairy free milk (almond coconut etc.) Also double the ammount of pudding mix to two boxes, but keep the ammount of milk at 2 cups.Double check your cookies to make sure they are also dairy free. Golden Oreo Cookies are vegan.
Gluten Free
- Use a gluten free sandwich cookie or substitute gluten free graham crackers.
Notes
Pudding - depending on the thickness you like, you may need to add 2 boxes of pudding mix Food coloring - gel food coloring works best. Depending on how dark you want the pudding, you may need to make it darker than expected because when you add the whipped topping it will lighten the pudding color.
Questions? Comments?