Easy Mermaid Tail Cupcakes and Popcorn

This post is sponsored by Sprinkle Pop. As always, all content and opinions are my own. This post may contain affiliate links. Please view my privacy policy for more information.

These easy to make Mermaid Tail Cupcakes and Magical Mermaid Popcorn are perfect for your next themed party!

Unicorns, fairies, princesses and mermaids… my inner “girly girl” is coming out at last!

While I love throwing my little man dinosaur and monster themed birthday parties, I have to say that it is so fun to have two little girls now to throw “girly themed” parties for! My twins just turned two about a month ago, and I threw them a mermaid themed birthday party. It was so fun picking the colors, finding matching mermaid party decorations, and designing the cupcakes and food for the party. It was a hit and the girls LOVED the glittery mermaid tail cupcakes!

Mermaid Themed Birthday Party

This mermaid craze (for me at least) all started back in September when I was shopping at Target and stumbled upon their adorable Mermaid Party Collection. It was so cute that I bought it right on the spot, thus a mermaid themed birthday party! The girls have always loved the movie The Little Mermaid, so it was a perfect fit.

I honestly went pretty low key for the decorations and activities for the party, since the girls are pretty young and really only care about the food and wrapping paper. Are your kids like this? We really could (and sometimes do) wrap empty boxes just so they can unwrap them. They think it’s the best thing in the world!

So knowing that the food was going to be the star of the show, I wanted to make something really fun and memorable. And boy were these chocolate mermaid tail cupcakes just that! The girls still ask for “mermaid tails” every day since the party haha.

Now I knew that I wanted some “bling” on the cupcakes along with the tails, and so of course I choose some of Sprinkle Pop’s gorgeous bespoke sprinkles! I decided to do a mix of a few of their solid sprinkle colors and went with their Coral, Aqua and Gold. I was delighted with how perfectly they paired with the mermaid décor! Just look how pretty they are:

What You Will Need to Make Mermaid Tail Cupcakes

Don’t be intimidated – putting together these cupcakes is actually pretty easy!

Here are the items you will need for these adorable Chocolate Mermaid Tail Cupcakes:

• Cupcakes (I just used a box cake mix – Funfetti of course – to cut down on time)
• Cupcake liners/holders (I used these gold polka dot cupcake holders ones)
• Frosting (I do always make my own homemade buttercream, can’t stand the store bought)
• Sprinkle Pop Solid Sprinkle Mixes (coral, aqua, and gold)
• Mermaid tail and seashell molds
• White chocolate melting wafers
• Gel Food coloring (I used this coral and teal)
• Edible gold glitter

How to Make Chocolate Mermaid Tails

**IMPORTANT**

The only tricky part is making sure to start the mermaid tails a few days in advance. It really depends on the tail mold that you decide to go with, but the one I used only fit one tail at a time, and each tail takes 2-3 hours to set up. So if you’re making a lot you will definitely want to start a few days in advance. They do sell molds (I believe) with more than one tail, but I could see that being a little tricky to remove after they set up, without breaking one of them, since you have to bend the silicone to remove it from the mold.

1. Divide your white chocolate into two microwave safe bowls. I use these Ghirardelli White Chocolate Melting Wafers 10oz bags (one bag per bowl – but this honestly depends on how many cupcakes you are trying to make).
2. Melt the white chocolate in the microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring well in between. Try to use the friction of stirring to melt the chocolate more than the microwave.
3. Add desired food coloring a little at a time, and stir until completely incorporated and you’ve reached the shade you want.
4. Using a small spoon, spoon the chocolate into the molds, one color for the tail and another for the body. Really you can do whatever you like here, and they will look gorgeous!
5. Tap the molds gently a few times on the counter to remove air bubbles and distribute the chocolate to fill in any gaps around the edges.
6. To make the seashells it’s exactly the same idea. Just fill your molds with the same chocolate, tap them to fill gaps and scrap off excess chocolate using a spatula.
7. Set up at room temperature for 2-3 hours (NOT in the fridge, or they will sweat and melt when you take them out.)
8. To remove, carefully bend/peel the silicone back from the edges (make sure only to bend in the same direction as the tail lengthwise, if you bend the opposite way you will snap the tail in half. I did this once and just added a little melted chocolate between the broken tail and the body, let it set up and it worked great!
9. Using a new paint brush, dust the tails and seashells with edible glitter (you can use white shimmer, silver or gold, honestly anything will be pretty!)

To assemble the cupcakes, frost with desired frosting (I use either a 2D or 1M tip) in a circular motion starting on the outside and working your way to the center, overlapping bit to give it height.

Push your mermaid tail down in the center of the cupcake (for the larger tails, you may need to use a toothpick in the back to hold it up). Arrange the seashells to your liking, and then comes the fun part. The sprinkles! I added about a third of each of Sprinkle Pops solid sprinkle mixes to a bowl to create my own personal “Mermaid” themed sprinkle mix. Place the larger sprinkles where you would like them, and then just sprinkle the rest (smaller sprinkles) over the cupcakes.

That’s it folks! Aren’t these Chocolate Mermaid Tail Cupcakes so pretty? Not to mention delicious!

Now I did have some left over white chocolate from the mermaid tails that I was trying to figure out what to do with, and my son asked if we could make chocolate covered popcorn, so why not, right? Let. Me. Tell. You. This Magical Mermaid Popcorn was amazing! Everyone at the party asked for the recipe! So I’m sharing it is just for you friends.

Magical Mermaid Popcorn

Print Recipe

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

No reviews

This Magical Mermaid Popcorn is a fun and delicious combination of sweet and salty, perfect for your next mermaid themed party!

• Author: The Saucy Fig
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• about 6 cups popcorn (I like to use Orville Redenbacher’s Natural Simply Salted Popcorn)
• 1 bag Ghirardelli White Chocolate Melting Wafers 10 oz.
• Gel food coloring (I used this Wilton Coral and Chef Master Teal)
• Sprinkle Pop’s Bespoke Solid Sprinkles Mixes
  • Coral Sprinkle Mix
  • Aqua Sprinkle Mix
  • Gold Sprinkle Mix

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

1. Pop your popcorn. Scoop it out of the bag with your hands and put it in a large mixing bowl. Make sure you don’t get any of the un-popped kernels. You don’t want to bite down on one of those thinking it’s a sprinkle!
2. Take one of your colors of white chocolate (coral) and drizzle over the popcorn. Using a large spoon mix it all around until the popcorn is lightly coated.
3. Transfer the popcorn to a cookie sheet or cutting board lined with parchment paper and spread it one in one even layer.
4. Take the other bowl of white chocolate (different color! I used teal) and using a spoon, drizzle the chocolate over the popcorn.
5. Take your sprinkle mix (I just mixed those three solid colors – coral, aqua, and gold – in a bowl together) and sprinkle it over the popcorn. For the larger sprinkles you may want to place a few in larger sections of the chocolate so that they stay in place as the chocolate cools and hardens.
6. Let the popcorn sit for a good 15 minutes or so, until the chocolate is completely solid.
7. Break the popcorn apart into small and medium clusters. Serve in individual cups for a fun party treat!

Print Recipe