Red, White, & Blue Cupcakes

I made these yummy little cupcakes for the 4th of July holiday.  Strawberry cupcakes, and blue or white buttercream and some patriotic sprinkles.

Seems pretty simple, right?

Not quite.  But then again, is anything ever simple for me?

I had a grand plan in mind, but unfortunately I had to sacrifice some of that dream in lieu of some missing ingredients.  Thankfully, cake decorators must be able to think on their feet, so I made some last minute changes to the final cupcake design.

What I wanted to do was make strawberry cupcakes (that part went as planned, except the cupcakes didn't turn out very red, so food coloring may be in order next time) with a deep blue buttercream (well, actually, I wanted to make Italian Meringue Buttercream , but I'll save that for a different day) and white star or nonpareil sprinkles.

Unfortunately, Target, Costco, and Publix do not have white sprinkles of any sort.  Publix does, however, have some pearly, princessy sprinkles that my dad bought, but I ended up with the red/white/blue mix of jimmies.

And I ended up making the icing half-and-half with the colors.  Sure, I could've made some red, but with that last few cakes I've made... well, to be honest, I cringed at the thought of mixing up more red.  I would like to head over to the Cake Art Party Store and try Americolor's Super Red gel , though, because I hear red icing is easier to make with that.

And I really like the cupcake liners that I found, unexpectedly, in the dollar section of Super Target.  72 cupcake liners for $2.  Not a bad deal.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe July 4th here in the U.S. and abroad!

(**Thanks to my sister Katie for taking the pictures**)