Recipe: Fruit Parfait "Cupcakes" for a Birthday Celebration

The kids' schools have put in place an "Only Healthy Treats" policy this year, which makes birthday celebrations a bit more challenging than throwing together some cupcakes.

In lieu of cupcakes, I decided to make fruit "cupcakes" - little fruit and yogurt parfaits.

I used watermelon, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, kiwi, and for fun, dragonfruit (that we have tried before and found sadly underwhelming on it's own, but nice in fruit salad!).

For the yogurt, I used plain Cabot Greek yogurt, and mixed in a package of cheesecake flavored pudding mix.  It's really yummy and I think I might use it for a fruit dip at future parties.

Watermelon circle with a ring of yogurt piped around it to start

To make the parfait "cupcakes" pretty, I layered the fruit in an attractive way.  I started with circles of watermelon on the bottom, cut to fit in the cups, and piped a little of the yogurt around the top.

I followed this with a nice slice of strawberry, and a few pieces of kiwi, then a scoop of blueberries.

I piped another layer of yogurt over the blueberries, then added grapes and a couple pieces of dragonfruit.  To top the parfaits off, I placed a strawberry sliced through most of the way several times and spread to form a fan.  For fun, I put a tiny watermelon star on each parfait.

I think they are sweet and healthy and a nice alternative to cupcakes, and I hope that the kids like them!