After the Flood Book Club
Our book club is pretty casual when it comes to discussing the book — never got around to reading it? Come anyway! And truth be told, we’re casual with the snacks, too. Despite that chill vibe, I still like to have fun with themed book club snacks when I’m hosting. I’m also a working mom of three with a busy schedule, so I look for shortcuts that allow me to create themed food without a lot of time or complicated steps!
When our book club picked After the Flood by Kassandra Montag, I knew my snacks were going to be nothing but ocean, ocean, ocean … because naturally there is a lot of water in that book!
After the Flood is set a century or so in the future, after climate change has led to widespread floods that now cover most of the earth. Myra, along with her seven-year-old daughter Pearl, now lives on a boat, following the birds to find the fish that she sells to make a living. After a chance encounter with a stranger, Myra learns that her older daughter Row, taken from her several years earlier, may still be alive and living near the Arctic Circle. Unable to do anything but her very best to save her, Myra and Pearl embark on a harrowing adventure to search for Row.
I almost swore off cli-fi (climate scifi) when it seemed that this book's slow start was going to follow the meandering style common in this subgenre. Thankfully, the plot kicked into higher gear and I got sucked in. There's almost a fun pirate-like vibe to this one at times! For me, it was a 4.5-star read. If you’d like to host your own book club based on this book, check out this helpful list of discussion questions.
Our book club meets after dinner, so our ocean-themed dessert bar consisted of gummy shark cupcakes, sand dollar cookies, chocolate shells, and goldfish. Both the chocolate shells and goldfish were easy dump-and-go side dishes for me that stayed on theme, with zero effort. Any variety of goldfish will work, though I loved the bright orange of the traditional cheddar flavor, and they are easy to find at virtually any grocery store. If you are having a hard time finding them, you can get chocolate shells online here.
By far, the most fun I had was putting together the gummy shark cupcakes. This is one area where I kept things really simple, with a boxed cake mix and store-bought frosting. I also got a blue gel icing to help create the look of waves. You could probably track down gummy sharks locally, but — again, I kept things simple by getting gummy sharks online.
To build your own “shortcut” gummy shark cupcakes you will need:
Boxed cake mix (any flavor you prefer)
White cake frosting
Blue food coloring
Blue gel icing (optional)
Crushed graham crackers or coconut sugar
Gummy sharks
Putting them together was surprisingly easy!
Bake your cupcakes and allow them to cool completely.
Add blue food coloring to the cake frosting, making it as dark as you’d like. I kept mine a pale blue so that the sharks would stand out better.
Spread frosting over the top of all cupcakes.
Crush your graham crackers into fine crumbs, or just use coconut sugar for a ready-to-go option (this is what I did). Take the crumbs/sugar and spoon them onto half of each cupcake, spreading in a wave “s” pattern if possible. I didn’t aim for perfection here!
Put a couple of dabs of blue gel icing on the other half of the cupcake, and then use a toothpick to swirl it into the frosting to create waves.
Set one gummy shark on top of each cupcake, nestling it in the frosting to make sure it sticks.
While the cupcakes are easy to make, it can take a little time to put them all together. This is a great afternoon project to do with kids!
The sand dollar cookies were much easier to put together than you might think. I used this chill-and-cut cookie recipe and found it pretty simple to do! I only had flat almond slices, so mine turned out looking a little different than the almond slivers they used — either type works, so go with what you have!
My boys were thrilled to have extra shark cupcakes and cookies on hand after the book club, so don’t forget to make extras for your family, too. Enjoy!
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