Alisa's 4th of July Cupcakes

Sadly, I was not given any of this yummy looking treats! Alisa made these cupcakes for the 4th and I thought they looked cute and very patriotic. Plus cupcakes are always a hit! Here's how she crafted them:

I box Betty Crocker vanilla cake mix. Prepare as directed. Using 2 additional bowls, separate out about 1/2 cup of batter into each. Add 2-3 drops food coloring of blue & red (more or less depending on how dark you want the color). Spoon uncolored batter into muffin liners until 1/2 full. Using a fork, drop swirls or color into regular batter. (I also tried adding the color in layers because it mostly stays on the top). Bake as directed on package.

For frosting, separate out frosting the same way as the batter, so you end up with red, white and blue. For star cupcakes, cover the tops with white, then create a star pattern using an icing bag ( i dont know the real name) or I used a ziplock bag, cutting a small hole on the corner to feed the icing through. For stripe cupcakes, use 2 ziplock bags. One for each red and white and alternate stripes. It works best if you do all one color 1st then follow with the 2nd. Toss with sprinkles.