Looking for a 4th of July Dessert idea? You will love these patriotic 4th of July Cupcakes from Amber! Do yourself a favor and make these for the 4th! They look and taste amazing! Enjoy! linda
4th of July Cupcakes
I don’t know about you all but I love to celebrate our beautiful country’s birthday just like we celebrate our family’s birthdays…with cupcakes!! This fun patriotic twist works well with just about any white cupcake mix! They are so fun and easy to make, even the kids will be begging to help make them. For this batch I decided to go with a wedding cake recipe because let’s face it, I don’t know anyone who can say no to wedding cake! Paired with a simple buttercream frosting these sweet treats are sure to fly at your 4th of July cookout. Don’t forget to dress them up with cake toppers by Kori from the Creative Team‘s free 4th of July Printable as a sure way to impress all of your friends!
Wedding Cake Cupcakes
Yield: 2 dozen | Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes
INGREDIENTS:
1 16.25 ounce box white cake mix
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (you may use almond if you would like)
1 cup sour cream
4 large egg whites
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Line your muffin tins with cupcake liners and set aside.
2. In a large bowl bowl whisk together cake mix, flour sugar and salt. Add remaining ingredients and mix well until all ingredients are well blended, approximately 2 minutes.
3. Scoop batter into your lined muffin tin about 3/4 of the way full.
4. Bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Cool in tins for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Recipe from Recipe Girl
Classic Buttercream Frosting
Yield: approximately 4 1/2 cups
3/4 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
2lbs powdered sugar (approximately 8 cups)
1/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (You can also substitute almond extract)
2-4 tablespoons milk
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Allow butter to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. In a very large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.
3. Gradually add 2 cups of the powered sugar beating well. Slowly add in the 1/3 cup milk and vanilla. Gradually beat in the remaining powdered sugar. Beat in additional milk until frosting reaches spreading consistency.
Recipe from BHG Cupcake Magazine
Patriotic Variation: 4th of July Cupcakes
You can make almost any flavored cupcake as a base for this fun twist but I chose a clean white base so that I had as close to a true “red, white and blue” color scheme as possible.
1. Follow recipe instructions until your batter is completely mixed and then seperate the batter equally into three bowls. For the wedding cake recipe above each bowl had approximately 1 3/4 cup of batter.
2. Put one bowl aside untouched to be your white layer. Add red and blue food coloring to the other two bowls until you achieve the desired shade you are would like. Tip: For recipes where I’m worried the extra liquid may dilute the recipe I love to use gel food colors. Especially when you are trying to use red food coloring and in order to get more of a red rather than pink I think they are very helpful. Give them a try!
3. Spoon each color into lined muffin tins in your desired order. For this recipe I spooned about a tablespoon of each color into the tin (*Remember the tins should only be filled 3/4 of the way full!) After each addition try your best to smooth out each layer so they completely cover the previous layer. This will help to give you distinct layers that will not run together while baking. Bake as according to recipe directions, pipe with a tasty frosting, add fun sprinkles and be sure to mix it up with cute free 4th of July cupcakes toppers!
What foods do you like to make for the 4th of July?
Happy baking!
Amber
More 4th of July desserts
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Don’t forget the Silhouette Promotion going on right now!
Amber
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Everything goes with cupcakes!
Especially hot dogs, burgers, and Mom’s potato salad. Yum!
Something so easy as this can go a long way! I also didn’t realize that butter cream frosting was that easy!
Thanks Victoria! I didn’t realize it was so easy either until I started making cupcakes and now buttercream is always my go to frosting. It is so versatile! My favorite is substituting almond extract for vanilla or any other tasty extract! I’ve even substituted Bailey’s Irish Cream Liquor for milk to make some deliciously sweet adult treats! The hardest part is just adding that little bit of extra milk to get the right consistency. It took me awhile to get it just right so keep trying and you are sure to have a tasty frosting for every occasion!
These look delicious, and super cute too! I featured this in my Fourth of July Roundup today, and I’m just stopping by to pin it!
Do you need to add the sour cream to the batter?
I am right in the middle of making this recipe and I just had to stop so that I could say…..THIS IS THE BEST BUTTERCREAM FROSTING EVER!!! Yummo! I did forget to use my clear vanilla extract…so it is more of a cream color instead of bright white, but no on will notice once they taste the frosting!!!
Hopefully my stripes are close to as good as yours.
Thank you so very much for posting.
Karen
Ok update to my post.
Not only is this the greatest frosting ever…..The cupcakes are to die for!!!!!!! (I couldn’t wait until tomorrow to taste one) and thanks to your tips…my stripes are close to perfect (I blame operator error for any wiggles :O)
THANK YOU AGAIN!!!!
Karen
Karen- Did you add the sour cream to the batter? Did it taste ok? I’m worried it will be really overpowering. Thank you!
I did! And I truly think that’s what makes the cupcakes so yummy! It is not an overpowering taste at all.
I want to make these for Fourth of July! If I want to make them today and store them over night would you reccomend refrigerating them? Or maybe making the cupcakes and frosting, but not frosting until tomorrow? And if so, should I store both the cupcakes and prepared frosting in the refrigerator? Please help! Thank you!
Nicole
You could refrigerate just the cupcakes over night and then frost them tomorrow. You’d have best results with that :) Good luck!
I used white cake mix and tried using red and blue gel, as well as food coloring, but my colors didn’t turn out as vibrate as the ones in your picture. (Red was more of a pink and blue was more of a blue/green) What’s the secret?
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