Looking for a treat to make with your kids to celebrate the 4th of July? Our most recent baking project were these beautiful, simple, and even more importantly DELICIOUS Red, White, and Blue Cupcakes!

(E was 4 years and 7 months old.)

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E’s request of the day was to make “cupcakes with food coloring”, and so the brainstorm was on.

Funnily enough, as a kids’ activities blogger, I’ve gone through plenty of food coloring {now mostly replaced with liquid watercolors for E’s activities}, but I’d never actually put it in food. I’m not fanatic about avoiding food colors, but I try to whenever possible.

In this case, I’m sure I could have talked E out of it, but I HAD just bought gel food coloring for making more vibrant play dough colors, and I figured we may as well try them for their intended purpose.

With the 4th of July coming up, and the colors we had available, we decided to go with red, white, and blue cupcakes.

We chose a simple batter recipe we’d used before, and it’s just soooo delicious!

Like the Banana Chocolate Chip Cake we made recently, this recipe doesn’t require a mixer for the batter – you do need one for the frosting.

E enjoyed mixing by hand

but her arm did get tired towards the end, and she asked me to finish.

She’s been practicing cracking eggs and did an awesome job!

Adding the red and blue food coloring was great fun, and they came out very vibrant.

The batter worked great as muffins, too,

but well, we HAD said we were making cupcakes, so we went ahead and frosted them, even though I’m not exactly an expert in cake decoration… In fact, this was literally the second time I’d made and used frosting. There’s definitely a learning curve to it 😉

Red, White, and Blue Cupcakes

June 23, 2015

by Tina {Simple Fun for Kids}

Category 4th of July Kids in the Kitchen Seasonal Activities

Red, white, and blue cupcakes made from scratch - simple, beautiful and delicious!

Persons

Notes

Cupcakes adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction. Frosting from Recipe Girl.

Ingredients

Cupcake Batter

1 2/3 cups (= 210 g) all-purpose flour.
1/2 tsp baking powder.
1/4 tsp baking soda.
Pinch of salt.
1 stick (= 1/2 cup or 113 g) butter.
1 cup (= 200 g) granulated sugar.
1 large egg.
1/4 cup (= 60 g) plain yogurt.
3/4 cup (= 180 ml) milk.
2 tsp vanilla extract.
Red and blue gel food coloring to taste.

Buttercream Frosting

3 cups (= 675 g) powdered sugar.
1 cup (= 2 sticks or 226 g) softened butter.
1 tsp vanilla extract.
2 Tbsp heavy whipping cream.
Salt to taste.
Red and blue sugar to taste.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F (= 175°C).
Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, melt the butter in the microwave for about 30 seconds to one minute.
Add powdered sugar to the melted butter and whisk together.
Stir egg, yogurt, milk, and vanilla extract into the sugar mixture until combined.
Mix in dry ingredients until combined.
Split the batter into three batches. Add red food coloring to one batch and blue food coloring to another.
Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Layer the different colors as desired.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
Allow to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:

Cream together sugar and butter with a hand mixer on low speed. When well blended, increase mixer speed and beat for 3 minutes.
Add vanilla extract and cream and beat for 1 more minute.
Place into a piping bag or a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off and decorate cupcakes as desired.
Sprinkle with colored sugar.