4th of July Cupcakes

Red White and Blue Cupcakes,  Makes 10-12 cupcakes

• 1 box of white cake mix (plus required ingredients listed on the box)
• 16 ounces preferred frosting – as long as it is white/off-white!
• Red, white, and blue food coloring
• Small star cookie cutter
• 4 pastry bags
• 1M tip

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line 12 muffin tins with cupcake liners.

Make the bake batter according to the directions on the package.  Divide batter between bowls.

Then divide one of the bowls of batter into two bowls and, using blue and red food color, tint a bowl red and the other blue.

Spray an 11″ x 9″ cake pan with non-stick cooking spray (you can also use an 8″ x 8″ pan or a round cake pan.  However, the finished cake may be a tad thick for your cookie cutters; just press down hard) Drop dollops of the red and blue batter into the prepared pan.  Then use a toothpick to gently stir so that the colors inter-mix a bit (swirls).  You aren’t attempting to mix them together – that would end up being purple batter.

Bake the colored batter until a toothpick comes out clean when tested for doneness (start checking after 15 minutes).  Remove from oven and let cool on a rack for 10 minutes.  Turn out cake on a cutting surface (a counter, cutting board, etc.).  Cut out 10-12 stars out of the batter depending on the size of your batter.

Next, put a small amount of the white batter in a cupcake liner – just enough to cover the bottom of the liner.  Then gently place one of your cake stars in the batter so that it stands up.  It is very important that you make sure all of the stars are facing the same direction! This will be very helpful later. Gently spoon the white cake batter around the stars until they are just covered  (this is where I like a little help – holding the star up while I spoon the batter in).

Bake according to the directions on your cake mix package.  Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes and then transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack. Again, make sure that all of the stars are still facing the same way! Since you won’t be able to see the stars anymore, you have to remove them from the pan in the same pattern. The easiest way to do this is pick up and place one cupcake at a time onto the wire rack. Once they are completely cool, you may want to draw a dot with a food writer on the cupcake liner so that you know where to cut the cupcake so that the star is visible. If you cut at the wrong angle, it’ll just be a weird red/blue blob. A delicious blob, but a blob nonetheless!

Now on to the frosting: To make the tie dye frosting, divide up your frosting equally into three bowls. Dye each bowl red, white, and blue.  Place each color in its own pastry bag. Snip off the tip of each bag (you want a small to medium sized opening).  Once you have all of the colors in their respective bags, you want to place all three of the bags into ONE pastry bag that has been fitted with a 1M tip (if you don’t have a tip – don’t worry.  You’ll simply snip off the end of the pastry bag when ready to frost). The most important thing about this step is to make sure that all three of the pastry bags’ open tips are at approximately the same level.

Now that you have all three bags into one bag, squeeze out a little bit of frosting onto a paper towel or cutting board. It may take a couple of squeezes until you start seeing all three colors. Once you see red, white, AND blue, you’re all set!

Frost each cupcake. Admire them for a second before cutting one open to see that pretty star:)