As American as...Cupcakes?

One of my favorite baking recipes is the Rainbow Cake by Omnomicon. It's easy, low-calorie, and visually stunning.

Last year, I tweaked the recipe a bit to create a festive Fourth of July dessert. I separated the batter into three different bowls, rather than six. Instead of using food coloring to create six different colors, I used food coloring on two of the bowls and left the other one colorless. The resulting products were red, white, and blue Liberty Cakes!


Liberty Cakes (adapted from Omnomicon)

Ingredients

• 1 box white cake mix
• 12 oz Sprite Zero
• LOTS of gel food coloring
• 8 oz Fat Free whipped topping

Directions

Preheat oven according to cake mix package directions.  Line cupcake pan.

Mix together white cake mix and Sprite Zero.

Pour one third of the batter into a small bowl. Pour another one third into another small bowl. Add blue food coloring to one bowl and red food coloring to the other. I like to add three drops, stir, and repeat until I find the desired color.

Place one heaping tablespoon of blue batter into each cupcake liner. Then place one heaping tablespoon of uncolored batter directly on top of the blue, as though forming concentric circles. Then top each cupcake liner with one heaping tablespoon of red batter.  Repeat until you're out of liners (I made 2 dozen with this much batter).  Don't worry if your cupcakes look a little lower than usual...this stuff rises a lot!

Bake according to box directions. Let cool completely. Once cool, top with whipped topping and a blueberry. Serve with sparklers and patriotism.

What special treats are you planning to make this 4th of July?