4th of July...Lucy In the Sky

I love the 4th of July. Love it, love it, love it. Its one of those holidays that I like to really get into around the house. For example, Kohls had some super cute fireworks hand towels for the kitchen that I decided I needed. Also, I painted my nails in a red, blue and sparkle french mani. (Pic to come). Another favorite thing of mine is to purchase seasonal clothing items for my daughter Sophia. Here she is...being her precious self!

Since I adore buying clothes for her and the 4th is my favorite holiday, you can imagine my elation when I found THE. PERFECT. DRESS. for her (at Kohls, where else???)

Ta da! Seriously, how cute is this??? And even my little jug (Jack Russell Pug) in the background gets into it with a red white and blue handkerchief around her neck. Ok, so I'm a little insane. But, like 311 says, no one looks as foolish as the excitable ones but then again there's no one that has as much fun. 

So, with all that, I still have time to make my favorite treat: cupcakes! Last week I learned how to make rainbow cupcakes from A Sweet Cake and in honor of New York legalizing gay marriage, I made some. They turned out SO CUTE. And so delicious! So I made red white and blue cupcakes tonight. They are so easy to make and a lot of fun to eat! 

First, you start off with white cake mix. If you get yellow, the food coloring won't take well and will give your cake a yellowish tint. Also, use the egg white recipe on the box, the yolks will give the batter a yellowish tint also. I actually think this tastes better. Anyway. 

After I mixed the cake batter like normal, I divided the batter into three bowls. I scooped about 1 and 1/4 cup of white batter into two separate bowls and left the rest of the batter in the original bowl for the white. Duh. Then then fun part begins. I dyed the two separate bowls blue and red. I used a LOT of food coloring, 13 - 15 drops, because I wanted the colors to be bright. I just used the regular McCormick food coloring that I had in the cupboard. I looked at some other types in the store but I like these the best. They give a really nice color to the batter. 

After the batter was dyed, I started with the red and scooped a little dollop into the bottom of each muffin cup. Then I spread it out so it covered the whole bottom. 

Following that with the white....and then the blue.

 Bake for 20 minutes. If you're like me, have a yummy treat to pass the time. Meet my friends, Ben and Jerry.

They come out looking absolutely adorable, and I'm letting them cool overnight. Tomorrow I will frost them with white frosting and decorate with red and blue sugar crystals. I'll post pics of those when I'm done.


Enjoy!!!!!!