Patriotic Cupcakes

We had a party to go to the evening of the July 4th and of course, I’ve put off preparing a dish or any treat. I wasn’t really expected to bring anything to the party but you know you should always bring something. At least, that’s what good southern girls do.

Here it is Friday afternoon and I still don’t have anything ready for the party. I asked the boys what I should make and we were looking on line at different deserts and they picked out something. Thank goodness it was easy and only took a few ingredients.

Grady told me a couple of years ago when we were picking up some things for my nephew’s graduation party from Texas A&M (gig’em Aggies). “Grandma, you can’t have a party without cupcakes”.  So it was no surprise that they picked out “Patriotic Mini Cakes“.

It just takes a box of white cake mix, two containers of white frosting and cupcake papers. Since these are going to be patriotic cakes, you need red and white food coloring. I always use Betty Crocker Gel Food Coloring. To add a little extra to your cakes, you might want some sprinkles.

Make your cake mix according to the box instructions then divide the batter evenly into two bowls. Make one bowl of red and one of blue. Fill the cupcake papers with your red and blue batter. DO NOT MIX. Make a set of red cupcakes and a set of blue cupcakes. Hopefully, you will have the same number of each color – but don’t worry if you don’t – we can work with what you end up with.

When you are filling the cupcake papers, don’t over fill. Fill papers at a little over half. Once finished, these cupcakes are BIG.

DO NOT overcook the cupcakes. You want them to stay true to their color and not show any brown (some of my blue ones show a little brown).

When your cupcakes are done, let them cool for a few minutes then remove the papers – carefully . After all the papers have been removed, you will need to cut the cupcakes in half. I used my Pampered Chef bread knife. As long as I cut slowly the knife went through the cupcakes like a hot knife through butter.

When cutting the cupcakes – make sure that the bottom is larger than the top. This will help the mini cakes sit better.

Get your icing out. Make sure that your canned icing is at room temperature and whipped thoroughly before applying to the cupcakes. I used my Pampered Chef Decorator to apply the icing.

One layer of icing on the top of the bottom part of the cake and icing on the top of the top part of the cake.

Make sure there is icing along the edges so that you will be able to actually see the white between the red and blue sections of the cake.  I found it easier to ice the top of the cake BEFORE putting it on the bottom

This is what happens when the top is bigger than the bottom.

It might be a leanin’ but it still tastes good!

Assemble your patriotic mini cakes. Add your sprinkles. Ready to go.

If you find that you had more of one color than the other, you can still make a cute patriotic mini cake by adding the missing color to the icing.

I have mentioned a couple of Pampered Chef items.  I am not a Pampered Chef representative.  I was several years ago and still enjoy using their products.  However, my sister-in-law is and if you find you are in the need of some Pampered Chef items, you can shop directly on her site at www.pamperedchef.biz/cindyhilborn