Patriotic Cupcakes
Celebrate the Fourth of July with delicious patriotic cupcakes! These dairy-free, egg-free cupcakes look spectacular and will make this Fourth of July one to remember. Get creative and add your personal touch to these sweet treats! Make them today and enjoy the holiday festivities.
I used to be all about the fireworks on the Fourth of July. But these days, the thrill I seek today is a burst of flavor, delighting the senses in a more savory (or sweet) manner.
We continue to gather with family each year to celebrate this time-honored tradition, but my goal for the day is usually to fix the best bowl of vegan potato salad or to create some new, spectacular dessert to dazzle with delight.
These patriotic cupcakes are a favorite because they’re easy to make and have lots of colorful pizzazz!
This year I decided to make Fourth of July Cupcakes for our family gathering. Of course, you don’t have to wait until Independence Day — these treats would also be great Memorial Day Cupcakes too!
Key Ingredients
You can find the full printable recipe, including ingredient quantities, below. But first, here are some explanations of ingredients and steps to help you make this recipe perfect every time.
- Egg replacer — Some of your party guests may have dietary requirements. Why not make your cupcakes suitable for everyone? To do that, we’ll use a powdered egg replacer (Ener-G Egg Replacer works great). You’ll need warm water to activate the egg replacer.
- Water — Just like with any cake mix, we’ll be adding water to the batter.
- Vegetable oil — Use the same vegetable oil as you would use for a cake mix, such as canola oil.
- Applesauce — I prefer to use unsweetened applesauce.
- Granulated sugar — We’ll add a bit of sugar to keep the texture just right.
- White cake mix — Select a cake mix that is dairy-free & egg-free. There are many to choose from, such as Duncan Hines and Pillsbury.
- Flour — Here, you can add all-purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour.
- Baking powder — We’ll add a bit more baking powder to make these cupcakes nice and fluffy.
- Frosting — you’ll need around 2 cups of frosting, depending on how much frosting you want on each cupcake.
- Sprinkles — You’ll need red, white, and blue Jimmies sprinkles to make these cupcakes with all the right colors.
How to Make Patriotic Cupcakes
I’ve found this process to work best for making these cupcakes. The complete steps are in the recipe card below, but here is a synopsis of the steps:
- In a small bowl, stir the egg replacer with 6 tablespoons of warm water.
- In a mixing bowl, add the water, vegetable oil, applesauce, sugar, and egg replacer.
- Add the cake mix, flour, and baking powder. Mix on medium speed for one minute.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then beat on high for another minute.
- Fold some of the sprinkles into the batter and stir gently so the color doesn’t spread.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cupcake liners, filling to about 2/3 full.
- Bake until a tester comes out clean.
- Top cooled cupcakes with frosting and red, white, and blue sprinkles.
Patriotic Cupcake Ideas
You can serve these patriotic cupcakes when you’re celebrating Independence Day. But are you looking for Memorial Day Cupcake ideas, too? The same cupcakes work for whatever summer gathering you’re having.
Here are some other ways to dress up these festive cupcakes:
- Red, White, and Blue Cupcakes — Divide the batter into three bowls and add red food coloring to one and blue food coloring to another. Then add some of the three colored batters to each cupcake liner. So festive!
- Flag Cupcakes — You can buy flags on toothpicks at most hobby stores. Add these to the top of each cupcake for a simple but beautiful decoration.
- Colored Icing — Divide the frosting into three bowls and stir in red food coloring into one and blue food coloring into another. Decorate each cupcake with different colors of frosting and top with sprinkles.
- Fruity — You can go natural with your cupcakes by adding fresh raspberries and blueberries into the batter. Then add fresh fruit on top of each frosted cupcake, too.
Recipe Notes
Here are some recipe notes to help make these treats perfect every time:
- Be sure to use a timer to get the cupcakes cooked through. If you pull them out before they’re done, the tops may deflate and look a little flat. I set the timer for 20 minutes but usually don’t pull them out until around 24. Every oven is different, so I do recommend using a tester.
- If the tops of your cupcakes look flat, you can just add more frosting. (Small-town girl tip).
- You can use store-bought vanilla frosting — many of them are dairy-free. Or make homemade dairy-free vanilla frosting. You can change up the flavor by using a dairy-free cream cheese frosting.
- Dress up these cupcakes with an explosion of flavor by dropping a spoonful of raspberry jam into individual cupcake batter (the batter is in a cupcake liner waiting to be baked). The jam will sink as the cupcakes cook, creating a delicious surprise inside each baked cupcake.
What To Serve with Cupcakes
These easy 4th of July cupcakes are definitely geared for all those Independence Day weekend parties. That means you’ll want to serve it with even more amazing vegan grilling recipes!
I hope you’ll agree when you try these patriotic cupcakes with just the right balance of tender cake in the middle and colorful sprinkle goodness throughout.
Summer Dessert Favorites
If you love these vegan patriotic cupcakes, you may also love this vegan chocolate sheet cake or these easy vegan lemon bars. It’s such a favorite summer dessert here. Here are some more summer favorite desserts to try:
Fourth of July Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 5 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer
- 6 tablespoons warm water
- 1 ½ cups water
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- ⅓ cup applesauce
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 box white cake mix (dairy-free & egg-free)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup red and blue Jimmie sprinkles, divided
- 2 cups vanilla frosting
- Optional toppings: red, white and blue sprinkles/
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F/175°C and place cupcake liners in muffin pans. For this recipe I made 18 regular cupcakes.
- In a mixing bowl, add the water, vegetable oil, applesauce, sugar, and egg replacer.
- Reserve some sprinkles for the tops of the cupcakes. Fold the remaining sprinkles into the batter and stir gently, so they don't spread too much. A little bit of color spread is nice.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cupcake liners, filling to about ⅔ full.
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until a tester inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean (no batter on it). When they're done, remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
- Once cupcakes are cooled, top each with frosting. Transfer frosting to a pastry bag with a Wilton 1M frosting tip to add a decorative flute to the top of each cupcake. Top with reserved sprinkles.
Recommended Equipment
(The products above contain sponsored links to products we use and recommend)
Notes
The nutrition information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator and should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Enjoy!
These look great. I’ve featured this recipe on my blog, hoping that you don’t mind, but if you do, please contact me and I’ll remove it. All the best.
Hmmm this recipe looks so delicious and nice and i think that fits perfect with my taste and in my opinion is a very easy recipe, so i think i will try it. Thanks for sharing.
The cupcakes look absolutely amazing, I love the way you present them. The berries on top really do look great. Fantastic recipe!!
This is by far the best vegan vanilla cake we’ve tried. It’s got the perfect density to moisture level which is not always easy to do with vegan cakes. Hope you give it a try!
Wish I was enjoying 4th of July at your place Marly – these look absolutely amazing!!!! Isn’t it a wonderful feeling when you’ve been working on something and then it all comes together and tastes out of this world.
WOW! Your cupcakes look spectacular, Marly! I love the idea of using So Delicious Hazelnut Coconut Milk Creamer for the frosting, and I can’t wait to make these! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe!
perfect Marly – love the color on this, the addition of the raspberry jam and using the coconut milk – yum!!
Yum, yum and yummy! Plan on doing a lot of cooking when you get here! (as if you already don’t:-)) LOL Funny story!