Saints Peter and Paul Cupcakes

Tomorrow is the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and since we invited friends over for some Saintly Summer Fun I spent some time this afternoon trying to come up with a snack for all the kids.

My husband suggested making boats/ships for a craft, and so I decided to carry that theme over to the snack as well.   Recalling how those outside of Noah's Ark were destroyed, the ship became an early symbol of the Church with its associations with "The Barque of Peter, the Fisherman."  And although most of St. Paul's missions were accomplished by walking, he also traveled by boat.

Cupcakes and Wrappers:

Any cupcake recipe can be used for these, though my children opted for a "Triple Chocolate" cake mix, reminding us of the Blessed Trinity.

For the cupcake wrappers I used my Cricut with the Cupcake Wrappers Cartridge (I bought mine for much less at Walmart).    I love that it cut out a circle of fish all around the cupcake, in addition to the waves.

"The fish,  ever-watchful with its unblinking eyes, was one of the most important symbols of Christ to the early Christians. In Greek, the phrase, "Jesus Christ, Son of God Savior," is "Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter." The first letters of each of these Greek words, when put together, spell "ichthys," the Greek word for "fish" (ICQUS ).   Because of the story of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, the fish symbolized, too, the Eucharist."  ~ Source   

If you don't happen to have a Cricut you can just as easily use blue cupcake liners and add some Candy Fish or Shark Bites around the platter holding the cupcakes.

I also opted to forego using any food coloring in our frosting, and I just plan to tell the kids that the boats are sailing on white water waves, though blue frosting would look pretty too.

Candy Boats and Sails:

To make the boats I just used some Orange Fruit Slices from our grocery store, though when I was looking through the candy aisle so many different candies would have worked great.   My boys liked the idea of molding caramels into the shape of a boat, or using mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  Yum!  I opted for the orange slices since they were the least expensive!

For the sails I decided to use the shields of Sts. Peter and Paul.  I resized them to 2.25" in height, which seemed to work well with a regular sized cupcake.  I printed it out on regular copy paper and made a tiny slit with my x-acto knife, making it much easier to insert a toothpick to be used as the mast.

The Symbolism of the Shields/Sails:

St. Peter's Shield:    Download Document at Scribd

The Keys are the symbol of St. Peter, the authority of the papacy, and the Church's power to "bind and loose" (Matthew 16:19 and Isaiah 22).  One key represents Excommunication, a locked door to the unrepentant sinner.   The other key stands for Absolution, the open door to the Kingdom of Heaven for the repentant sinner.

St. Paul's Shield:    Download Document at Scribd

Saint Paul has the sword assigned to him because he was a persecutor of the Church. The book is a symbol of his conversion into the greatest preacher of the Church. The great change in Saint Paul shows itself in this that he afterward speaks of the Word of God and the Sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17).

God our Father, Today you give us the joy of celebrating the feast of the apostles Peter and Paul. Through them your Church first received the faith. Keep us true to their teaching.

Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, pray for us!