4th of July

Good evening all! I hope that everyone is having a fantabulous summer. . . I am still looking forward to hearing all the things you have been working on.

First of all, thanks to my amazing husband for uploading the pictures while I spent some time in my Bible Study. . . something else that I really slacked on during the season of incredible nauseousness.

So, here I am. . . blogging. Yeah, I can't begin to describe how thrilled I am to back in blogland. So thrilled! Stoked. . . overjoyed. . . okay, well you get the point. So my first blog of my return (besides yesterday's announcement of baby #2) is going to pick up where I left off.

4th of July! Happy Independence Day everyone!!!! (a little late, but all the merry!)

Every year, my husband's family gathers for a nice 4th of July celebration/barbecue. The past 2 years, we have not been able to make it due to traveling, so we really wanted to make it. Plus, I was only slightly nauseous at this point, since we found out only a few days before.

I saw cupcakes similar to these on Skip To my Lou several months ago and knew that I wanted to make something similar. . . I just didn't think it would be that hard (honestly . . . these are the easiest cupcakes to make. . . seriously!). The hard part was finding patriotic sprinkles in our lovely metropolis a week before the holiday! Also, our oven was still sitting on my living room floor when I started these.

Okay, so first things first. . .

Ingredients - White Cake Mix (I make the egg white version on the back of the box)

Coloring - I used Wilton frosting colors of red and blue

Buttercream frosting. . . I found a yummy one, but don't have any clue where I got it from.

Now for the directions:

1. Make cake mix

2. Divide into 3 bowls.

3. Color one red, one blue, and leave one white

4. Spoon your batter in the order you want them layered

5. Bake according to directions

6. Let cool

7. Frost with your favorite frosting.

I had a hard time finding patriotic sprinkles so, I made pinwheels out of some scraps of 4th of July cardstock and some red sanding sugar.
I also made red stars out of a candy mold and red melting candy from JoAnns (gotta love coupons. . . made it super cheap!)
This is what they all looked like. I think that they went over well. The kids all loved them! Jon's work ate the rest the next day.

I must note that I made the batter at home, and ran over to my friend Steph's house to bake them in her oven (she was at the beach and so graciously allowed me to break in with her house key). She was a lifesaver! (THANKS SO MUCH, STEPH!!!!). My oven was being installed that day by my amazing dad and husband! We gave up on the insurance people.

Happy Baking!