Star Spangled Cupcakes

So for Memorial Day, I wanted a patriotic treat to take to our Life Groups cookout.  I'd used colored cake batter before, but decided to try it out with American flag colors.  For the icing, I planned on going with basic sprinkle decor, but had a brain wave on the way to the register (love those!).  I decided to use a template and create a "star" on the cupcake.  The outcome is below. 

To make these, I went the quick route and bought a basic white cake mix.  Once I added all the ingredients, I seperated the batter into 3 bowls, and added red and blue food coloring to two of them.  I then put the batter into 3 plastic bags (side note here: I use plastic bags as piping bags because they are cheaper, but hope to get a piping kit soon.  Plastic bags work wonderfully.  Just fill, seal, and cut the tip off), and taped the three bags together toward the top and at the tips so that the tips were all the same level.  I then applied even pressure over all three bags and piped into the cupcakes at the same time. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes per batch (I cooked 6 at a time). Here's a picture of the inside of the cupcake.



Please forgive the upside down picture.  The system won't upload correctly today!

 Once baked, I let the cupcakes cool, added Vanilla frosting, and laid my template on top.  The template I made by drawing a star on a paper plate and cutting out with a knife.  I dusted the sprinkles into the template and gently pressed to make sure they stayed in place. 

Try using these for the 4th of July, or change the colors and template on top to match any holiday.  Enjoy!

Ingrid