This sand bucket dessert is the cutest treat for all your summer parties. The whole family will have a great time creating this fun summer beach scene made with pudding and cake!
No one will be able to resist these adorable sand bucket desserts. They’re the perfect addition to your next pool party, picnic, or any summer gathering. Cheesecake flavored pudding is dyed a vibrant blue color and layered with white cake to form layers of water and sand in a mini plastic bucket. It’s topped off with a mini umbrella and a few Teddy Grahams lounging on a beach blanket.
This fun and festive dessert will be the talk of your next party. And it’s not only fun to look at and delicious to eat, but also so easy and fun to make that the kids will want to help out. Part recipe and part craft project, this sand bucket dessert is the ideal treat to accompany all your summer fun!
Table of Contents
Why We Love This Recipe
- This eye-catching beach-themed dessert is perfect for summer parties.
- This sand bucket dessert looks like it came from a fancy bakery, but there’s no special equipment needed.
- Kids will have a blast helping you assemble these treats, and they’ll love eating them too!
- You can buy all the ingredients for these desserts at your regular grocery store.
Ingredients
- White cake
- Cake box ingredients (water, oil, and eggs)
- Lemon (optional)
- Blue sprinkles
- Cheesecake instant pudding
- Cold milk
- Blue food coloring
- Crushed vanilla wafers
- Teddy grahams
- Rainbow stripe candy
- Paper umbrellas
- Clear buckets (8 oz) – we used these
How to Make Sand Bucket Desserts
Step One: Make the Cake
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×13 baking dish.
- In a large bowl, prepare the cake batter according to box directions. Add the juice of one lemon and the sprinkles to the cake mix.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking dish and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Slice into bite size squares and set aside to cool.
Step Two: Prepare the Pudding
- Meanwhile, combine the cheesecake with the milk and whisk until combined and the pudding has thickened.
- Add in the blue food coloring a drop at a time, and mix until you reach your desired shade of blue.
Step Three: Assemble the Buckets
- Place a cake square into each bucket and top with the blue pudding.
- Top the blue pudding layer evenly with the vanilla wafer crumbs.
- Decorate the top of each bucket with an umbrella, 2 Teddy Grahams, and a beach blanket cut out of the rainbow stripe candy.
- Refrigerate for an hour before serving.
Tips and Suggestions
- You can leave out the lemon juice in the cake and just make the plain white cake and it will be just as delicious.
- If you don’t have mini plastic buckets, you can use clear plastic cups instead. The smaller size tends to work well if you’re serving these for kids.
Variations
- Fruit roll ups – Use fruit roll ups in place of rainbow stripe candy for the beach blankets.
- Vanilla pudding – You can use vanilla pudding in place of the cheesecake, if you prefer.
- Gummies – In place of the Teddy Grahams, you can add some gummy starfish or turtles and a mini plastic shovel.
How Do I Store Sand Bucket Desserts?
Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
How Can I Make My Sand Look More Realistic?
For that realistic sandy texture, top your desserts with a handful of Oreo crumbs. You’ll want to use mostly Golden Oreos with just a few of the chocolate ones mixed in to give you that speckled sand look.
More Cute Desserts
Sand Bucket Dessert
Equipment
- 10 10 ounce clear plastic buckets
- 10 paper umbrellas
Ingredients
- 15.25 ounces white cake mix water, oil and eggs the box calls for
- 1 lemon optional
- 1 ½ Tablespoons blue sprinkles
- 6.8 ounces cheesecake instant pudding mix 2 boxes
- 4 cups cold milk
- blue food coloring
- 1 ½ cups crushed vanilla wafers
- teddy bear graham crackers
- rainbow stripe candy
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl combine the cake mix and the water, oil and eggs the box calls for.
- Add the juice of one lemon to the cake mix.
- Add the sprinkles to the cake mix.
- Pour the cake batter into a prepared 9 x 13 baking dish and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool.
- Slice chilled cake into bite-size squares.
- Prepare the pudding.
- Combine the cheesecake pudding mix with the milk and whisk.
- Add in the blue food coloring until you get your desired shade of blue.
- Divide the cake squares and place in the bottom of each of the 10 buckets.
- Next top each one with a spoon full of blue pudding.
- Sprinkle the crushed vanilla wafers on top of the pudding so it looks like sand.
- Refrigerate for an hour.
- Decorate the top of each one with an umbrella, 2 teddy bear graham crackers and a little beach blanket cut out of the rainbow stripe candy.
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
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Comments & Reviews
Sarah says
I really, REALLY wanted this cake to taste good. I ordered the buckets on amazon, went to 5 different grocery stores to find the cheesecake pudding, and all I can say is that I’m SO glad that I made this cake prior to my son’s birthday party as a “trial run”…
This is hands down, the worst cake I have ever tasted.
It’s adorable. But that’s about it. I’m going to attempt to use the theme of this cake idea, and just change every other component of the recipe and try it again. Because it is super cute.
P.S. Note to the author of this recipe, I’m truly sorry for the negative comment. I love the idea and I’m not trying to be cruel to you or your creation. I wouldn’t normally leave a bad review like this, especially regarding someone’s personal creation. However, I felt compelled to warn others who may want to attempt the cake. I just don’t want anyone else to go through all the hassle of finding everything needed to make it, just to be disappointed once they’ve tasted it.
I will say this however, this was the first recipe of yours that I’ve tried and I look forward to finding a different recipe on your site and hopefully will be able to leave a positive review after attempting something else on here. (:
Alicia says
I’m so sorry you were unhappy with the cake. Perhaps it was the band/kind of cake you made. This isn’t really a recipe for the cake, it says to use a box cake mix and bake according to the directions. Thanks for making it! My other advice would be to leave out the lemon and just follow the cake mix instructions and make a different flavor.