4th of July Cupcakes

5 from 5 votes

These 4th of July Cupcakes are a delicious way to show off your American spirit! Decorated in patriotic colors, they're sure to be a hit!

Prep Time30

Cook Time30

Total Time1

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: large

Calories: 512kcal

220 g Cream cheese full fat (33%+) eg. Philadelphia
110 g Mascarpone full fat (41%+). Can be substituted with the same amount very cold! 36% heavy cream
65 g Powdered sugar sifted
½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
food coloring optional
sprinkles optional

Heat oven to 175 C / 347°F (no fan)
With an Electric hand mixer whip room temperature butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy then whip the egg in. Do not overbeat.
Sift flour, salt, and baking powder together, this is the “dry ingredients”, while the room temp milk is your wet ingredient.
Start adding the dry and wet ingredients into the batter in the following 4 steps: wet, dry, wet, dry. With a Rubber spatula fold each time.
Mix vinegar and baking soda together in a small bowl, it will be super bubbly. Immediately fold the mixture into the cupcake batter. This is the secret ingredient to keep the cupcakes moist without the taste of vinegar of course!
Divide the mixture into 3 and color two of them into red and blue.
Spoon or pipe the mixture into Cupcake pan till approx. ¾. You can layer the colors on each other or mix and match. This batch makes 6 large cupcakes.
Bake for 25 min or until a skewer inserted comes out clean then let them cool on a cooling rack before decorating.

Whip mascarpone, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla with an electric hand mixer for 2-3 minutes.
When the frosting reaches a fluffy, pipeable consistency, stop right there and do not overmix. If you continue beating the frosting, it will separate and gets runny.
Divide the frosting into two and add food coloring to one of them.

Place the 2 different flavors of frostings next to each other onto a kitchen foil, then roll up the kitchen foil and place it into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle tip.
Pipe frosting on top, then decorate with sprinkles.
Serve the cupcakes fresh, or store them refrigerated for 2-3 days.

INGREDIENT NOTES

Use always unsalted butter in dessert recipes, but make sure you add the salt stated in the recipe as that will balance the sweetness
The egg, butter, and milk should be used at room temperature to make the cupcakes
Use full-fat milk and high-quality cream cheese and mascarpone when making the cream cheese frosting
Use high quality gel food coloring eg. Americolor as liquid food coloring can break the frosting and also won´t provide bright colors

TECHNIQUE NOTES

Digital scale is required for a consistent, happy baking experience:)
Always pre-heat your oven and consider using a digital oven thermometer for the best results
Each oven is different so you might need to adjust the baking time slightly
Do not overbake your cupcakes as that can result in dry texture
It is very important that while whipping up the cream cheese frosting, you do not over beat it as it can become runny