Red, White & Blue Cupcakes

Need an easy and delicious dessert recipe for July 4th? These Red, White and Blue Cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and fresh berries are fruity, light and perfectly patriotic!

Red, White and Blue Cupcakes recipe

After making my Berry Sugar Cookie Bars again recently, I have been dreaming about what other super patriotic red white and blue desserts I could make for July 4th.

Then these berry-studded red, white and blue cupcakes popped into my head. Aren't they just so cute in their star shape?!

This cupcake base is my go to for white cupcakes. I've used the same base for these lemon cupcakes and strawberry cupcakes. It's pretty much fool proof for me at this point, so it was super easy to adapt it for this mixed berry version.

My favorite part of these cupcakes is the contrast of the crisp berries and the fluffy cupcake. It is totally unexpected and refreshing! Topping desserts with fresh fruit is my faaaavorite.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

You're going to love how easy this recipe is!

• When you add fresh berries to white cupcakes, you get the cutest red, white and blue cupcakes! So simple and very low effort.
• You can make them in these cute star pans or a regular cupcake tin. It's the red and blue berries that make them so patriotic!
• The fluffy buttercream frosting is also super easy to make — and so finger-licking good, too.

These USA-themed cupcakes are perfect for July 4, Memorial Day, Labor Day or even Veteran's Day. They'd also be perfect for celebrating the Olympics.

What you'll need

You'll need a mixing bowl and an electric or stand mixer to mix up these cute cupcakes! And you'll also need a cupcake/muffin tin. A cooling rack is also ideal.

I picked up these adorable little star cupcake molds that were just perfect for these patriotic cupcakes.

But a regular cupcake mold will work just fine, too! You could use these metallic red, white and blue paper liners.

Ingredients

Here's what you'll need to put together these red, white and blue cupcakes:

• all-purpose flour
• sugar
• baking powder
• baking soda
• salt
• unsalted butter 
• egg
• sour cream
• cup milk
• vanilla extract
• blueberries
• raspberries
• flour

A vote against strawberries: Even though the pictures show some, I didn't use strawberries in the cupcakes. Well, I wanted to, but I knew they'd be too moist for the batter. Adding fresh fruit to baked goods can be really tricky, especially with an already moist cupcake. So that's why I stuck to blueberries and raspberries. And trust me, the results were not lacking!

Decorating the cupcakes

And to make the buttercream, you'll need:

• unsalted butter 
• powdered sugar
• salt
• vanilla extract
• heavy cream
• fresh berries, for garnish

You could also decorate your cupcakes with some pretty red, white and blue sprinkles or stick one of these amazing firework cupcake toppers in each one.

How to Make Red, White and Blue Cupcakes

Ready to make these cupcakes for your July 4 celebration?

Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Prepare a muffin pan with cupcake liners or grease it with cooking spray.

In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together. Add egg, sour cream and vanilla.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Alternate between adding dry ingredients to wet ingredients in stand mixer and whisking in milk slowly. Whisk until batter is smooth, but do not over mix.

In another small bowl, toss 1 tablespoon of flour with blueberries and raspberries. Use a spoon to scoop out fruit into mixing bowl, leaving the remaining flour in bowl.

Gently fold the fruit into the batter. Pour the batter into your prepared cupcake lines or a cupcake lined muffin tin, filling cupcake liners about halfway full.

Bake for 18-20 minutes until the cupcake centers bounce back to the touch or a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool on baking rack.

Buttercream Frosting

While the cupcakes cool, you can make the buttercream icing. It's super simple!

Using a hand mixer, whip softened butter in a medium size mixing bowl. Add in 1 cup of powdered sugar and continue beating mixture.

Add remaining powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Add in vanilla, salt and whipping cream. Beat until consistently mixed.

Once the cupcakes are totally cooled, use a piping bag and tip or spatula to ice cupcakes. top with a few blueberries and raspberries.

(I always struggle with icing cupcakes. It could possibly be due to the fact that it's always hot in Arizona and buttercream icings just don't like to stand up very well. But, I was pretty pleased with how this icing turned out! I was even able to freeze half of the icing for my next batch of cupcakes, whatever that may end up being. Maybe strawberry?)

How to Store Cupcakes

Storing cupcakes is a lot like storing muffins. They are best fresh, but they can be just as good a day or two later — or even a month later — if stored properly.

Ideally, store them un-frosted in an airtight container, lined with paper towels to help collect condensation from residual heat in the cupcakes. Make sure they are completely cooled for best results. You can store the icing separately in another food-safe, airtight container.

The best way to store cupcakes depends on how soon you want to eat them: 

• Within 3 days of baking them: Store them on the countertop at room temperature. 
• In the next few days: Store them in the fridge, but with the risk of a change in texture. Alternatively, store what you’ll eat in the next few days using the countertop method, then freeze the rest. 
• Within the next 3 months: Store them in the freezer — defrost when you get a cupcake craving! 

What to serve with them

These red, white and blue cupcakes are perfect for any patriotic celebration. And those usually mean grilling out! Serve them after a meal of hot dogs and hamburgers. You should also serve some summery sides, like fruit salad and potato salad.

They'd be great with some red, white and blue foods too, like this white wine spritzer, a loaf of some lemon blueberry bread and a tray of M&M cookie bars in the colors of the flag!

More cupcake recipes

• Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes
• Confetti Cupcakes
• Orange Cupcakes