Use your favorite cake mix and make the cupcakes according to the box recipe. Cool cupcakes. You can make the cupcakes the day before and decorate them the next morning.

 

The frosting color of the butter cream is slightly off white because of the butter but the taste of whipped buttery frosting makes it entirely worth it.  Also, the frosting can be easily tinted with food paste gel or food coloring.

 

It’s important to note that when preparing a batch of frosting that you adjust the consistency of the butter cream for what you plan on using it for.  The easiest way to do this is by adjusting the amount of milk you use.  The less milk you pour in, the stiffer your frosting will be.  If you should pour in too much milk, you can always add more sifted powdered sugar to stiffen it back up.  I prefer a medium, soft but slightly stiff consistency when spreading on a cake.  But for piping and decorative work, I prefer a stiffer consistency so the piping is more distinct.

 

 

 

 3 3/4 cup (1 lb box) C & H Pure Cane Powdered Sugar, sifted

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup butter (2/3 stick), room temperature

 

 

Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Scrape the bowl often. Divide frosting into 3 bowls. One bowl each for white, red and blue colored frosting.

 

I used Wilton’s food color and the no-taste red to get a pretty red color without the flavor change. Frost all cupcakes with the white frosting at one time. Next pipe 3 short stripes of blue in the upper left top side of cupcakes to create base for the stars. Then pipe red stripes on the rest of the cupcake like the flag. Finish with a small star tip for little stars on the blue base.

 

Enjoy! Happy 4th of July!