Beachy cupcakes and shower cookies

I made these cupcakes for a birthday celebration at work last week. Since the guest of honor loves going to the beach, we decorated the office with all things sand and sun. I have seen people use brown sugar on frosting to create a look of sand, but even I thought that might be too sweet and sought out another way to go in that direction.

I made the red velvet cupcakes and topped them with cream cheese frosting, then used a piping bag to add graham cracker crumbs to the edges of them.

I also made three dozen baby shower cookies for a friend:

I knew that humidity could be an issue with the icing, but I have to admit that I underestimated just how much of a problem it could create.  It took forever to dry and certainly didn't end up as smooth as the cookies I made during the winter for my sister.  I'm sure that if I had been doing them on a regular basis, it would have been easier to tweak the recipe to respond to the weather...maybe I will only make them from October to April from now on!!