Red, White, and Blue Cupcakes

Baking, Cake, Dessert, Independence Day, Summer

Red, White, and Blue Cupcakes

July 3, 2019

The perfect Independence Day cupcake!

Looking for the perfect patriotic cupcake for your Independence Day celebration? You’ve come to the right place! Here almond (sub vanilla extract if you’d prefer!) cupcakes are filled with a dreamy cream cheese filling and topped with cream cheese frosting. Part of the batter is tinted red and blue and swirled together for a beautiful red, white, and blue dessert.

Doesn’t the swirl look so pretty? All you have to do is divide the batter, tint it, spoon it in cupcakes liners, and gently swirl the colors with a toothpick. Don’t overmix – you don’t want purple cupcakes! Don’t stress about perfect swirls. It’s more fun if each one is different. If you’re feeling lazy, you could of course skip the swirl but it’s so festive for the Fourth of July!

Filling the cupcakes doesn’t require any fancy tools. I just scooped out a center portion with a melon baller and used a small spatula to slap filling in the hollowed out part. It doesn’t have to be tidy since you’re covering the top with frosting. As for the removed cupcake, don’t toss it! Add any extra frosting and filling and make little trifles, or layer with whipped cream and berries for a second Fourth of July dessert.

Decorating each cupcake with either red, white, or blue frosting would be pretty too but personally, I can’t be bothered with that many pastry bags so I stuck with white frosting and red, white, and blue sprinkles on each cupcake. I don’t know about you but I’m ready to party like it’s 1776!

Red, White, and Blue Cupcakes

2 cups granulated sugar
3 1/4 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, soft
1 1/4 cups milk, at room temperature
1/2 Tbsp almond extract
4 large farm fresh eggs
Cream cheese filling, recipe follows
Cream cheese frosting, recipe follows

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two muffin tins with festive cupcake liners and lightly spray with nonstick spray.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add butter to the mixer and beat until it looks sandy.
Combine the milk and almond extract and add to the mixer. Mix on low speed until incorporated. Don’t forget to scrape the bowl as you go!
Crack eggs into a bowl. This way, you won’t accidentally get egg shells in your cake batter. With the mixer running on low, add eggs one at a time. Make sure each is incorporated before adding the next.
Spoon two cups of batter into two small bowls (one cup per bowl) and tint reserved batter desired shade of red and blue.
Spoon one tablespoon of white batter into the bottom of each cupcake liner. Spoon scant tablespoon each red and blue batter on opposite sides of each cupcake. Spoon one more half tablespoon of white batter on top and use a toothpick to swirl the colors together. Be careful – you don’t want to mix the colors, just swirl them!
Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Do NOT overbake. Set the time for earlier and check them every few minutes until the toothpick is clean.
Remove tins from oven and place on racks. Cool five minutes, remove from pan, and cool completely.
Make the cream filling when cupcakes have completely cooled. Use a melon baller to scoop center out of cupcakes. Use a spoon to fill with cream cheese filling (recipe follows). Don’t worry about being perfect because you’ll frost right over it.
Make cream cheese frosting. Spoon frosting into pastry bag fitted with a Wilton star tip. Frost with cream cheese frosting and decorate with red, white, and blue sprinkles.

Cream Filling

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 tsp almond extract
4 oz cream cheese, softened

Beat together sugar, whipping cream, and almond extract until soft peaks form.
Cut cream cheese into cubes and slowly beat in. Don’t panic if it looks like cottage cheese at first; keep beating until smooth.