If you're looking for American flag cake ideas for the 4th of July, these patriotic cupcakes are just what you need.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword 4th of July, American flag cake ideas, cupcakes
Prep Time 30 minutesminutes
Cook Time 25 minutesminutes
Total Time 55 minutesminutes
Servings 24cupcakes
Calories 213kcal
Author Meaghan Lamm
Equipment
Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer
Mixing Bowls
Measuring Cups
Cupcake Pans
Disposable Piping Bags
Wilton Star Decorating Tips
Kitchen Tweezers
Ingredients
1box chocolate cake mixprepared
1cupunsalted butterroom temperature
3 1/2-4cupspowdered sugar
1tspvanilla
Red, blue, and black gel food coloring
Star sprinkles
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line your muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside.
Prepare your cupcake mix based on the instructions on the box and then bake them at 325 for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow the cupcakes to cool completely and then while they're cooling make the frosting.
For the Frosting
Cream the butter in a stand mixer until pale and fluffy. Then add powdered sugar a half a cup at a time, mixing after each addition until frosting reaches a stiff, pipeable consistency. Add in vanilla and mix well.
Add 1/3 of the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a small star tip and evenly separate the remaining frosting into two bowls coloring one bowl red and one bowl blue. You can get a deeper color if you add a SMALL touch of black to both. Add each color to a piping bag with a star tip.
To Decorate
Using a toothpick, make a rough sketch of the boundaries you'll need for each section on the top of the cupcake. 1/4 of the top will be blue and each line is roughly 1/2" tall. You should be able to get 6 stripes on each cupcake.
To pipe, hold the bag perpendicular to the cupcake and apply even pressure so that your stars are a consistent size.
Pipe inside of the guides lines you created with your toothpick for the blue quarter and then each stripe. We recommend doing the white stripes first and then the red so that the red frosting doesn't get on the white tip and discolor the frosting.
Before the frosting crusts place your white star sprinkles on the blue area. (Using kitchen tweezers may help.)