Red White And Blue Cupcakes {VIDEO}

If you are looking for patriotic cupcakes for your next party, these Red White and Blue Cupcakes are sure to spark their attention and earn salutes at any Memorial Day or 4th of July celebrations. 

If you’re looking for more easy patriotic dessert recipes, you can’t get much easier than our Fruit Trifle, or Patriotic Shortcake Ice Cream Sandwiches. 

Why We Love Red White and Blue Cupcakes

These patriotic cupcakes are our favorite for the 4th of July and Memorial Day! You will love these marbled cupcakes because:

• They’re so EASY to make
• They look IMPRESSIVE
• Semi-homemade (doctored box cake mix)
• Easy HOMEMADE frosting
• FULL of color!

Everyone loves cupcakes and when they are full of red, white, and blue they’re even more irresistible.

Let’s Make Red White and Blue Marble Cupcakes!

Marble cupcakes are so fun! Once you learn how easy it is to color cake batter and frosting then you can easily switch up the colors for any holiday or celebration. 

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When you are making this recipe, you’ll want to use the full recipe at the bottom of the page.

Start by mixing up a batch of white cake batter, I use my favorite Perfect Cupcakes Recipe (using a mix)

Then divide the white cake batter into 3 bowls.

Add red gel coloring to one, and blue color to another, leave the third one white.

I highly recommend using gel-paste food coloring. The color is concentrated, so it does not require a lot to achieve the hue you’re going for. The liquid food coloring from the grocery store will “water down” your batter.

Spoon a little of each color batter into your cupcake liners, filling about 1/2 full.

Bake the cupcakes for 20 minutes then let them cool.

Just look at how these red white and blue cupcakes bake up!

You can easily change the colors and make these for fun Tri-Color Christmas Cupcakes,  a graduation party in school colors, or any party colors.

Next, you’re going to make the frosting.

How To Make Tri-Color Frosting

(full printable recipe at the end of this post)

Ingredients Needed For Vanilla Cream Frosting

• butter, at room temperature
• cream cheese, at room temperature
• vanilla extract
• powdered sugar
• heavy whipping cream
• red and blue gel food color

How To Make Vanilla Frosting

1. Place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat slightly with an electric mixer. Add cream cheese and blend until combined (about 30 seconds).
2. Add vanilla and sugar and blend on low until combined. Increase to medium speed and beat until it begins to get fluffy.

How To Keep Frosting Bright White

How To Get Multi-Color Frosting

I like to use a new small paintbrush and line the inside of a pastry/decorating bag with 2 stripes of each, red and blue gel color.

*be sure to watch the video for these cupcakes to see how I make the multi-color frosting. It’s really easy, but the video visual might help you understand a little better.

Next,  fill the piping bag with the white frosting and pipe the cupcakes with a Wilton 1M tip.

Step back and admire your pretty red white and blue frosting!

Lastly, you can add patriotic sprinkles.

See how fun they look when you bite in!

FAQ and Tips

Storage:  You can store the frosted cupcakes in an airtight container on the counter until ready to eat, up to one week. FYI, storing cupcakes in the refrigerator will dry them out quicker.  The exception to this would be if it’s hot in your house, you are better off storing them in the refrigerator.

Freezing: Unfrosted cupcakes freeze better than frosted cupcakes, and frozen cake and cupcakes are easier to frost. Cover each completely cooled unfrosted cupcakes in two layers of plastic wrap, then place cupcakes in a large freezer bag or container. Properly stored, unfrosted cupcakes can be kept in the freezer for two to three months. Thaw before frosting.

Defrost and Decorate:  Remove the cupcakes from the freezer, unwrap (to prevent condensation) and allow them to defrost on the counter for an hour or two then frost as you normally would.

What’s The Secret To Moist Cupcakes: Creating air bubbles in your batter that expand in the oven is the secret to moist fluffy cupcakes. If you over-mix your batter, you collapse those bubbles and end up with dense heavy cupcakes. To avoid this, always mix at a low speed, stopping just as all ingredients blend

Can I frost cupcakes with a Ziploc Bag? You sure can!! Simply use a spatula to put the frosting in the plastic bag and push it to one corner. Twist the top of the bag shut and snip the tip of the corner with a pair of scissors and begin piping. start with a small cut so you can gradually adjust (snip off a little more) if you want your piping larger.   PRO TIP: test out your piping on a piece of wax paper.  Once you are set to pipe your cupcakes, you can scoop the frosting on the wax paper back into the frosting bowl.

While we celebrate with yummy food, I cannot help but think about the life of freedom we have today that is due to all of the people who gave (and are still giving) the ultimate sacrifice in order to protect our country. I appreciate their dedication and sacrifices from the bottom of my heart. It is because of them and their families that we can fly our flags high and be thankful that we live in the U.S.A.

Click here to find more Red White and Blue ideas for 4th of July.

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Originally posted in June 2010. UPDATED June 2021. We spiffed up this post with more info and better pictures! No changes to the original recipe.