Happy 4th Everyone!

I love the 4th of July...SO much :)  I love the colors, I love the fireworks, I love coordinating red white and blue outfits and hair ribbons, but most of all I love America and Freedom.  It is a wonderful holiday and I am really excited about it this year.

Hubby and I are going over to our friends' place to grill out, chill at the pool, and relax until fireworks.  I got some turkey brats that are really healthy, whole wheat buns, zucchini, mushrooms, and corn on the cob to throw on the grill.  Jordan and I have been going to the gym twice a day this week: cardio (running) in the AM and weights/circuit training in the evening.  I feel pretty good about it.  However....I got festive this afternoon and decided to make cupcakes...

Its Independence Day, we can have cupcakes right? ;)

Anyway, they are pretty cool.  I changed a semi-homemade cake recipe to make it my own and topped it with delicious cream cheese butter cream.  I used a bunch of different tricks to decorate too.

July 4th Cupcakes*
1 (18.25oz) box of white cake with red & blue sprinkles*
1 cup       All Purpose Flour
1 cup       Granulated Sugar
3/4 tsp    Salt
1 1/3 cup Water 
1 tsp        Vanilla Extract
1 cup       Sour Cream
2 Tbsp Canola Oil (or Vegetable)
4 egg whites

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Line cupcake pans with between 30-36 cupcake papers.  I used blue to go with my red, white, and blue theme.

Whisk together the dry ingredients (first 4).  Then add in the rest and beat for 2 minutes on medium speed until well combined.  Fill the cupcake papers 3/4 of the way.  I got 30 cupcakes exactly.

Bake for 20 minutes.

*this recipe could be altered for any holiday using any combo of sprinkles and a box of plain white cake

Mix up the butter cream icing recipe found here :  my cream cheese butter cream icing

Once the cupcakes are completely cooled, it is time to decorate!
I used this technique with red and blue gel food coloring :  rainbow swirl icing

But it is pretty hard to re-fill the bag and still get the color in the icing, so I only did a few cupcakes with that technique.
For the rest, I used several different decorating tips and some sprinkles I got on sale for $0.99 at the grocery store today.

Here is how they turned out :) Oh and FYI, we ARE going running in the morning so I won't have any qualms about eating one of these babies tomorrow :)