I was thinking about making a three-layer cake for the Fourth of July — one layer red, one layer white and one layer blue. But I figured cupcakes would be faster and more easily share-able. And I was inspired by the rainbow cupcakes Isabel made a while back. Plus, I didn’t think Team America-themed cookies would be appropriate for work.

 

I got this white cake recipe from the King Arthur Flour website, and when Toby bought me the box of cake flour blend it was on the back. It may my new go-to cake — I liked it a lot better than the yellow cake from the Gourmet cookbook.

It’s probably even better when you aren’t adding a ton of food coloring to it and stirring it a zillion times. But our awesome intern at work, Kirsten, said this cupcake was better than the Georgetown Cupcakes cupcake she had a few hours later. I’m not sure about THAT, but I’ll take the compliment.

You won’t have to dump in an entire bottle of food coloring if you use gel. I used Americolor super red and a mix of Duff sapphire and Americolor navy blue. I also noticed the color intensified when I baked them.

I didn’t do a very good job of getting even amounts of all three colors in each cupcake. I was using a really big spoon for the blue at first, but I found that a regular sized spoon was better — the batter is too thick to really cover the whole bottom of the cupcake cup with the blue and still have room for white and red. You don’t want to fill the papers all the way to the top.

You can use whatever kind of white frosting/buttercream you wish. I used the one from the red-and-white checked Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (because what is more American than that?), but I didn’t measure the powdered sugar, which was probably a mistake. So, measure. I also put some white frosting food coloring in it, but that’s not really necessary.

I didn’t have enough frosting to pipe it like this onto all the cupcakes, so you might want to double the recipe if you’re trying to be fancy. Happy Independence Day!

Red, white and blue cupcakes (adapted from King Arthur flour) Makes about 20 cupcakes
2 3/4 cups cake flour (I used King Arthur unbleached cake flour blend
1 2/3 cups sugar (they recommend superfine sugar, I used regular)
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 large eggs whites plus 1 whole large egg
1 cup full-fat vanilla yogurt or 1 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
Red and blue food coloring gel

Preheat the oven to 350. Fill cupcake pans with papers for 20-24 cupcakes.

Mix the dry ingredients on slow speed to blend. Add the soft butter and mix until evenly crumbly, “like fine damp sand.” (Apparently it may form a paste – but depends on the butter and type of sugar)

Add the egg whites one at a time, then the whole egg, beating well and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk the yogurt (or milk) with the extracts. Add that mixture, 1/3 at a time, to the egg and flour mixture. Beat 1 to 2 minutes after each addition, until fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl.

Divide the batter into three equal parts (each of mine were 1 pound, according to my cooking scale). Use food coloring to dye one part blue and one part red, leaving the third part white.

Place a heaping tablespoon of blue batter into the bottom of a cupcake cup. Add a heaping tablespoon of white batter on top of the blue, then a heaping tablespoon of red. This should fill the cupcake paper about 3/4 of the way. If not, adjust amounts of batter as needed for the rest of the cupcakes.

Bake cupcakes for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool before frosting.

Basic buttercream frosting (Adapted slightly from Better Homes and Gardens cookbook)
1/3 cup butter, at room temperature (use light-colored butter, if possible)
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar (measuring recommended)
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Additional milk, as needed
White food coloring (optional)

Beat butter until fluffy in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add 2 cups of the powdered sugar and beat well. Slowly beat in the 1/4 cup milk and vanilla.

Slowly beat in the remaining powdered sugar until smooth. Add additional milk, if needed for consistency. Add some white food coloring, if desired and beat until incorporated.

Pipe or spread the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes and top with red, white and blue sprinkles.