With all due respect, swimsuit season is for suckers. Sure, eating only celery and Greek yogurt for six weeks might make you a bit more attractive for the six hours you’ll actually spend in a bathing suit this summer – but is all that sacrifice really going to make you happy? The short answer is no, it probably won’t.

You know what will make you happy, though? Some awesome summer cupcakes. Yes – delicious, carb-loaded sugary summer cupcakes. We’re no experts but we‘re pretty sure that the only feeling that you can possibly experience after eating a well-made cupcake is an overwhelming sense of joy and exuberance. If you need proof, just check out these awesome seasonal cupcakes whipped up by our favorite baking bloggers. They might fill your thighs with cellulite but they’ll also fill your heart with love and happiness. And really, isn’t that what enjoying the summer is all about?

1. Watermelon Cupcakes

There’s nothing better on a hot summer’s day than a cool, juicy slice of watermelon. Actually, there is one thing – an awesome watermelon cupcake. Now you might be thinking watermelon and cake sounds like a really weird combination and we’re inclined to agree. Luckily, this awesome recipe from Bakerette only looks like the real thing. The melon is really dyed white cake, the seeds are actually chocolate chips and the icing is just green-tinted buttercream. It isn’t fruity but it sure makes one delicious treat to bring along to your BBQs and pool parties this summer.

Check out the recipe at Bakerette.com.

2. Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes

Lemons and blueberries are probably the most popular fruits of the summer. So it was only a matter of time before somebody had the bright idea to combine the two into one sweet amalgam of confectionary glory. Dotted with plump blueberries and topped with decadent lemon cream cheese frosting, these Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes from Sweet Pea’s Kitchen are a testament to all that is right with the world. Stop what you’re doing, go buy some berries and bake them immediately. That is all.

Get the recipe at Sweet Pea’s Kitchen.

3. Honey Beehive Cupcakes

Brown butter. Bananas. Honey. Buttermilk. These are the things that dreams are made of. Coincidentally, these are also the main ingredients of the awesome Honey Beehive Cupcakes from Bella of Adventuress. And if that doesn’t sound appetizing enough, they’re also topped with a Swiss meringue buttercream and adorable homemade marzipan honeybees. We don’t want to say that they’ll be the best cupcakes you’ll ever have all summer but we will say that after we took a bite of ours we totally reconsidered our position on colony collapse disorder.

Get the recipe at Adventuress.

4. Beach Ball Cupcakes

Some people enjoy kicking around beach balls during the summer. We prefer to shove them down our gullet. At least that’s what we do with these fun Beach Ball Cupcakes by Beki Cook’s Cakes. We love this recipe because you can use whatever cupcakes you want as the base so long as you top them with those awesome marshmallow fondant beach balls. And before you ask, yes the fondant beach balls are easy to make – even for beginners.

Check out the tutorial at Beki Cook’s Cakes.

5. Limoncello Cupcakes

Listen, here’s everything you need to know about limoncello – it’s an Italian liqueur, it’s made from lemons and it tastes amazing as the featured ingredient in these Limoncello Cupcakes by Easy Cooking from Nina’s Kitchen. Light and fluffy with a lemon meringue frosting, they’re very sweet, slightly tart and totally delicious. Plus, when you decorate them with marzipan flowers and lemon zest they look kind of like little edible gardens – and we think that’s lovely.

Get the recipe at Easy Cooking from Nina’s Kitchen.

6. Chocolate Espresso Seashell Cupcakes

Anybody can make chocolate cupcakes. You’ve got to be something special, though, to make chocolate espresso cupcakes with a whipped buttercream frosting topped with chocolate seashells that totally look like you found them on the beach even though you really made them in your kitchen. Okay, that was a mouthful but you get our point. These Chocolate Espresso Seashell Cupcakes from Erica’s Sweet Tooth don’t mess around. They deliver serious flavor and seriously convincing edible seashells directly to your happy zones, and they do it with gusto. So if you want to be special like Erica and her amazing cupcakes then you need to head over to her blog and bookmark her recipe immediately.

Check it out at Erica’s Sweet Tooth.

7. Sunflower Cupcakes

So you have no baking skills whatsoever and because you lack impulse control you volunteered to make a batch of summer cupcakes for your niece’s birthday party. Now what are you going to do? If you’re smart, you’ll whip up a batch of these spectacular Sunflower Cupcakes by Robin from Bird on a Cake. They look super fancy because they are super fancy – but they’re also super easy to make. All you need is a few Ziploc bags, a package of Oreo cookies and a decorative frosting tip and you’ll be unveiling a glorious tray of floral cupcakes before you know it.

Check out the recipe at Bird on a Cake.

8. Mojito Cupcakes

If you can’t go a single day without drinking a mojito then you’ve got a problem. If you can’t go a single day without eating one of these Mojito Cupcakes from Brown Eyed Baker then you’ve still got a problem, but it’s much more understandable. A delicious concoction of lime and mint cake topped with a clever mojito buttercream, these splendid summer cupcakes will make you feel great without inhibiting your ability to drive.

Check out the recipe at Brown Eyed Baker.

9. Shark Week Cupcakes

Summer is more than just an excuse to spend all day at the beach. It’s also the season in which we celebrate nature’s most brutal and bloodthirsty predator by dedicating an entire week of Discovery Channel programming to it. That’s right – we’re talking about Shark Week. Shark Week is pretty much the best thing ever because sharks are pretty much the best things ever. And Emily from Cupcakes and Cashmere clearly agrees with us because she created these awesome Shark Bite Cupcakes to celebrate the occasion.

The sea-spray buttercream frosting and menacing dorsal fin toppers are great, but what really sold us on Emily’s cupcakes is the fact that each one conceals a “bloody” strawberry jam filling. Seriously, how cool is that? The answer is that it’s amazing. Now go buy yourself a cupcake injector and make some for yourself or else we’ll send the sharks to come get you.

Get the recipe at Cupcakes and Cashmere.

10. Root Beer Float Cupcakes

Root beer is perhaps the most polarizing of all soft drinks. You either love it or you hate it – there’s no middle ground.

Well, if you hate root beer then we’ve got nothing more to say to you. If you love root beer, though, then we strongly recommend that you try these awesome Root Beer Float Cupcakes by The Cooking Mom. A clever spin on a classic summer treat, these cupcakes are light and fluffy and full of that delicious root-y flavor that all of us cool kids have come to know and love. The fact that they’re topped with little drinking straws and candy root beer barrels only makes them that much cooler.

Get the recipe at The Cooking Mom.

Enjoy the Summer. Eat Cupcakes.

We’re not going to tell you how to enjoy your summer. We’ll just say this – if we were in your shoes we’d spend less time worrying about how we looked in a two-piece bathing suit and more time worrying about how to make every single one of these summer cupcake recipes before school is back in session. Some things in life are worth sacrificing for the perfect beach body but cupcakes aren’t one of them. And that’s all we have to say about that.

Do you have an awesome recipe for summer cupcakes that you’d like to share? Post it in the comments below and we might feature it on the new Candy Store blog! Otherwise, stop by next week for even more candy recipes, buffets and tutorials.

Until Next Time,

The ACS Team