Happy Fourth of July!!!! I love the Fourth of July!!! After Christmas, it is my favorite holiday. I couldn’t resist celebrating in my kitchen too!!! I made these early enough that you readers can see them a couple of days early and make them on the fourth. I love how bright and beautiful they are, don’t you? 
Ingredients:
- 1 white cake mix
- 2 eggs
- 1 C. sour cream
- 1/2 C. milk
- 1/3 C. vegetable oil
- Blue and red gel food coloring (not the little liquid drops)
Directions:
- Combine all the ingredients besides the food coloring in a mixer. Beat on med-high speed for 3 minutes.
- Divide batter in half into two bowls. Stir in food coloring to make one bowl blue and one red. I used about 1/2 tsp. gel food coloring. Make sure you get the gel food coloring. They make very vibrant colors and use a lot less. You can add more or less depending on how bright and deep you want the batter to be.
3. Put a spoonful of each color into lined muffin cups (make sure you use white liners so you can see the bright colors through). The batter is quite thick, so it will stay separate. Here is where you can get creative. Try layering the different colors, swirling the two with a knife or tooth pick, randomly alternating dobs of the two colors, polka dots, etc.
4. Bake according to the cake mix directions.
5. Let them cool and frost with white frosting and red, white, and blue sprinkles.
My frosting doesn’t look terrific because my kitchen was so hot that it kind of turned into a sloppy mess. After making it frosting them, I was disappointed, so I asked my sister in-law (an amazing cake decorator) what I should do. She gave me her frosting recipe and I think it sounds great! I will post it below:
Ingredients:
- 1 pint whipping cream
- 1/2 C. sifted powdered sugar
- a big splash of vanilla
Directions:
- Using a bowl that has been chilled in the freezer, beat the whipping cream until it gets fluffy. Make sure your whipping cream is really cold.
- Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and continue to beat until it is really light and fluffy.
- Frost cupcakes using a piping bag and a 1M Star tip (you can find this one at Michaels. It is a really big tip.) It needs a really large coupler, too. Swirl on the cupcakes.
Look at all the pretty cupcakes:
I love how the colors show through the paper liner.
This one is my favorite!
Recipe adapted from Our Best Bites’ Colorburst Rainbow Cupcakes.
