Firecracker “Surprise Inside” cupcakes that are perfect for July 4th! Cut into your cupcake to find a gorgeous star shape which bring your baking to a whole new level!
I come from a really patriotic family. With my husband 3rd generation military and much of our family and friends serving, July 4th really brings out the red, white, and blue for me. Now last year I made Firecracker sugar cookies and you all seemed to love them. In fact the internet loved them so much that they went viral. So this year in a tradition of patriotic and holiday baking, I wanted to give you a few thingsĀ new to try – and to share.
Firecracker “Surprise Inside” Cupcakes
Conceptually these are easy, but because I used cupcakes it tends to be a bit more compact and therefore your “surprise” will need to be a lot more detailed.
Here is how I did it.
- 3 boxes of cake
(or your favorite cake recipe if you choose to do this the long way). I used raspberry, pink lemonade and white cake. Other suggestions are all white cake dyed to the colors you need or red velvet in place of the pink lemonade. - pop rocks
- icing
- small star cookie cutter
- Wilton Performance Color Right
(or your favorite cake recipe if you choose to do this the long way). I used raspberry, pink 
First, you will need to make up your blue and red cake. As I stated above I used a blue raspberry flavored cake and added a darker blue food dye to make it stand out more and a pink lemonade that I darkened with red food dye. I use the Wilton Color right in my foods and my crafts because the colors work the best! Ā You can buy natural dyes if you prefer or other flavored cakes. Once the two batters were ready, I used spoons to drop in the different colors in a mixed up pattern…think tie dye. Ā Bake this cake according to instructions on box.
While your red and blue cake is baking, make up your white batter. Once your red/blue cake is done, cool completely.
Cut your cake in half so its about an inch on each layer and easy to cut a small star cookie cutter into.
Cut out small stars. Your star should be about 1 inch thick depending on the size of your cupcake pan.
Add star standing up inside your cupcake. You can stack more than one star back to back if need be.
Pour white batter around star taking care that your stars stay standing. Cook according to box. Take out and cool completely.
Once cooled, decorate! I love to use pop rocks around this time of the year because it makes a “firecracker” pop when you eat it! I find that the kids love it. And when you cut your cupcakes open..SURPRISE! Its a star!
Firecracker "Surprise Inside" Cupcakes
- 3 boxes of cake mix
- pop rocks
- icing
- small star cookie cutter
- Wilton Performance Color Right dye
- First, you will need to make up your blue and red cake. As I stated above I used a blue raspberry flavored cake and added a darker blue food dye to make it stand out more and a pink lemonade that I darkened with red food dye. I use the Wilton Color right in my foods and my crafts because the colors work the best! Ā You can buy natural dyes if you prefer or other flavored cakes. Once the two batters were ready, I used spoons to drop in the different colors in a mixed up pattern…think tie dye. Ā Bake this cake according to instructions on box.
- While your red and blue cake is baking, make up your white batter. Once your red/blue cake is done, cool completely.
- Cut your cake in half so its about an inch on each layer and easy to cut a small star cookie cutter into.
- Cut out small stars. Your star should be about 1 inch thick depending on the size of your cupcake pan.
- Add star standing up inside your cupcake. You can stack more than one star back to back if need be.
- Pour white batter around star taking care that your stars stay standing. Cook according to box. Take out and cool completely.
These are so super cute! I decided to make four dozen of these for tomorrow’s festivities. The cutting of the stars was pretty tedious. I used Betty Crocker mix and they just crumbled on me. So I packed the cutter with the dough. I made a big mistake when baking. I poured the batter in first and then added the star so it just pushed the star to the surface as it cooked. Bummer! Totally my error. Was so excited about these. If I do this again I will try putting the star in FIRST per the instructions and see how I do, but honestly I don’t think I’ll even try…just not worth all the work. When someone bites into the cupcake, if they don’t hit it at the right angle, it won’t even look like a star just a streak of color. I think I will just tie dye the batter and call it a day. Love the pop rocks idea!
Im so sorry that it was a problem for you! I have done dough first, but that was on a cake, nto a cupcake. I made my first cake ahead so the work was minimal, but I could see doing it all at one time would be! If you do the cake way and stack the stars back to back, you can cut the cake and the star appears. I think a lot of this has to do with your sizing of the cupcake/cake to the star size. A friend of mine did these too and here are her results http://moscatomom.com/fourth-of-july-surprise-cupcakes-duncanhines-summer-velvets/
These cupcakes make me happy š I pinned them from the VMG206 link party but had to come over to see exactly how you made them. How creative, I would have never come up with this but I am happy to now have a cool recipe to take to parties to wow my friends. Thanks for sharing.
Just saw your feature over at Tidy Mom! I can’t wait to try them! So festive! Pinning!
What beautiful, patriotic cupcakes that are PERFECT for an Independence Day celebration! I love the addition you made to them… what a fantastic surprise!
This recipe was one of my favorites shared during last week’s That’s Fresh Friday link-up! I’ll be sharing it at my blog tonight as a fave. Please stop by and join in on the fun this week, too! Keep up the great work, and I can’t wait to see what you do next!
Featuring at Bacon Time tomorrow!
These are so cute. The process seems a bit tough for me but I would certainly love to try one!
These are awesome. I love the surprise inside cupcakes. I love even more when they’re easier to achieve than you would think!
Stopping by to let you know that we featured your cupcakes on the Wonderful Wednesday party!! Stop by to check it out š
Wow, thankyou so much! I am just signing on for the day but coming by shortly!~
Saw these featured at Simply Designing and I had to come see how in the world you did it! Very clever and festive! XO
Christy,
thankyou so much for stopping by and visiting form Simply Designing!
These cupcakes are so festive and cute! I love it! Visiting from Time to Sparkle Link Party! š
Sharing these fun cupcake on FB later today and pinning!!
Hugs from Freedom Fridays Linky Party!!
We do 4th of July up big at my house! I love this idea and can’t wait to try it out!! Thank you so much for linking up at Tasty Tuesday! Your recipe has been pinned to the Tasty Tuesday Pinterest board! Please join us again this week!
I absolutely adore these cupcakes. So festive and fabulous! Just passing by from Hearth & Soul blog hop.
Toodles,
Tammy<3
What a great idea! Pinning this! š
Pinned and stumbled…adorable!
So cute! I love the fun surprise in the middle.
KC
Now that is So clever! I appreciate the step-by-step tutorial also. Stopping by from GetHimFedFriday party. Carrie, A Mother’s Shadow
What a great idea. Very creative!
I would love for you to share this at my T.G.I.F. Linky Party @ MamasBlogCentral.com š Have a great weekend!!
I *just* saw these on pinterest and wondered how you got the super cute star in the middle!! What a FUN surprise when you bite into this yummy snack!! š I think my boys would LOVE this sweet treat this holiday!
Those are too cute! Whenever I try to make things like this I end up with those “Pinterest disasters” but I may ask my mom to make these!
This is such a cute idea. I wish I had the time to make these, maybe I’ll have my oldest make something like it.
What a cute idea! I love the cupcake liners, too!
Thank you for sharing your post this week at Brag About It Link Party on VMG206. I’m featuring you at Next Weeks Brag About It Link Party, Monday at midnight!
~ Megin of VMG206
Genius! I adore these. If you are looking for a link party to show off these bad boys I would love to see these at The Caffeinated Crafters link party: http://www.illistyle.com/link-parties/caffeinated-crafters-link-party-2/
That is so cool!! My little ones would love that. I wish I had seen this sooner because I could have done it for their birthday!! What a fun idea and I am stoked that it actually works!!
Great idea, I wouldn’t have known where to begin but you make it look easy. I’m definitely going to have to try this recipe. Pinning! š
That is really clever! I like the idea of “hiding” something inside the cupcake. I didn’t expect the star to retain the shape for some reason, but it did!
These cupcakes look absolutely delicious. I love when my food looks pretty. I’m adding this to my fourth of July board on Pinterest.
Those are cute! And besides a little extra time, it doesn’t look difficult at all. Independence Day is a huge holiday for our family as well.
This is a great idea!! When I saw your first picture I was trying to figure out how you got the star in the middle. Thanks for sharing how you did it!!
These are stunning! Wow! Pinning now!
Cutest cupcakes EVER!!!!
I love these! Seriously like my favorite thing you have done…
This recipe is really fun. My granddaughter would love to do this with me. I think we will. Thank you for sharing.
Kathi
Did you find the stars dry after baking twice?
That is a great question and no, they were not at all! I know, I was surprised too. I did bake the stars and cooled them, cut and immediately put them back into the cake. I didnt wait a day or anything
Absolutely adorable! Definitely worth the work and extra effort!
Cute idea! …and I haven’t seen the patriotic peeps before. They are adorable.
Such a clever idea! I’m definitely going to have to try this recipe out!
Those came out so darling. Great idea, Trisha. I’m pinning!
That is such a cute idea, especially since 4th of July is coming up. š
Oh my goodness, I love these! So creative, I never would have thought about the star inside,
Wow does this look amazing! Great 4th of July dessert. I found you over at The New Mrs. Adventures Tasty Tuesday party. I host Tickle My Tastebuds Tuesday and would love it if you linked up this recipe. Iām sure our party goers would love it as much as I do. Here is the link http://bit.ly/1l4cu0j. Have a wonderful day!!
SUPER cute idea!! I am going to make some of the cupcakes! (Maybe with CAMO stars!)
these are AWESOME!! I’m hosting a beach party this weekend and although it’s not a patriotic party, I’m gunna have to do this (maybe with different colors)
Ok, that is seriously brilliant! My kids would be thrilled to find those in my kitchen!
This is totally awesome. I may attempt these!
These are so cool!! I definitely need to try this!
OMG! This is super cute. I have to do these for our family get together this year. The entire family would love them and drive themselves nuts trying to figure out how I got the star inside. Pinning this for later! Stopping by from the Makers Link Party.
Thankyou Felicia! It works even better in a larger piece like a cake š
This are super cute! They would be perfect of any patriotic celebration!
That’s more work then I will probably ever put into food but they look awesome