4th of July Cupcakes {Red White and Blue Cupcakes}

Quick and easy 4th of July cupcakes recipe (patriotic red white and blue cupcakes), homemade with simple ingredients. Soft and moist vanilla cupcakes are topped off with colorful swirls of buttercream frosting. Also makes great American Memorial Day cupcakes!

Typically, cupcakes and even cakes for this patriotic holiday are decorated with whipped cream, strawberries and blueberries. I wanted to do something different and initially thought of using my Russian Piping Tips Tutorial but not everyone has those and I wanted to keep this tutorial as simple as possible.

If you do a Google or Pinterest search (like I did), you will see many 4th of July cupcake ideas. I am sharing two designs today: Buttercream swirls, which are made with the big star tip and buttercream flowers, which are made with a medium round tip.

You really to need to include this easy dessert for your upcoming 4th of July party.

More 4th of July Desserts

• 4th of July Chocolate Fudgesicles
• Red White and Blue Oreo Peanut Butter Bites
• 4th of July Cake

How to make 4th of July cupcakes? How to make red white and blue cupcakes?

1. Bake cupcakes.
2. Let them cool down.
3. Make red and blue frosting.
4. Fill a piping bag with both frostings.
5. Pipe a two shade swirl on top of cupcakes.
6. Toss sprinkles.
7. Add toppers, if you like.
8. Enjoy!

Can you add food coloring to cake batter?

Yes! Divide the batter into 3 portions. Leave one as is (yellowish white). Tint the other blue and the final one red. Pour spoonfuls of colorful batters in cupcake liners randomly and bake and you will end up with festive colorful cupcakes.

How to make red frosting?

You need to use a lot of red gel coloring. You also need to let this frosting sit in the fridge for 2-3 days, in order for the color to deepen. It is a notoriously hard shade to make at home quickly. That's why I recommend buying store-bought red frosting, if you are short on time.

Tips and Techniques

• Ice cupcakes that are at room temperature- You must make sure cupcakes have cooled down completely because if you ice warm cupcakes, the icing will melt and make a sticky mess.
• Use gel colorings to tint frosting- Because they are concentrated. Also, they are thicker, which means the consistency of your icing will not change, which tends to happen when using liquid food coloring. The 2 brands I recommend are Americolor and Wilton.
• Apply same technique for other holidays- Once you learn how to make buttercream frosting swirls on cupcakes, you can use any combination of icing colors such as red and green for Christmas or pastel colors for Eater or rainbow colors for St.Patrick's Day.
• Add cupcake toppers- The cupcakes are quite pretty on their own with their lovely swirl but you can add store-bought patriotic paper toppers, candy stars or even fondant stars.
• What to do if icing is too soft and thin? In order to get perfectly shaped swirls, the frosting should to be slightly firm. Chill it for 20-30 minutes so that it's easier to handle and pipe.
• Make mini cupcakes- Bake mini cupcakes and use a smaller star tip.
• Double recipe to serve a crowd- The recipe for frosting and cupcakes can easily be doubled without any problems.
• 4th of July cupcake recipes- I made vanilla cupcakes but you can also make red velvet cupcakes or Chocolate Cupcakes or even these Summer Strawberry Cupcakes.

Recipe

Until next time, tata my lovelies!