Red, White and Blue Spotted Cupcakes

Blog tour info is at the bottom of the post!

You know how you get an idea in your head and you aren't sure if it will work, but you just have to give it a try? I don't know, maybe I'm the only weirdo mom out there who becomes obsessed with a cupcake idea. If you are like that, can you give me a woot-woot in the comments so I know I'm not up-in-the-night on this one? :-)

Moving on, this is what I came up with:

And this is how I made them:

Ingredients

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional*)

5 eggs

1 cup sour cream

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla, almond flavoring*, and eggs. Beat well, scraping down the sides as necessary. (It is always necessary. :-)

Add the baking powder, soda, salt and 1 1/2 cups flour. Stir well. Add 1/2 cup sour cream, stir well. Add the remaining flour and sour cream and beat with hand mixer until the batter is smooth.

* Almond flavoring is like fairy dust. Seriously, you sprinkle a little of that in your dessert and people will think you are an amazing baker. Not many will be able to detect your secret. Those who do, will give you that tiny nod when no one is looking. Don't worry, your fairy dust secret is safe with me.

You now have a delicious bowl full of batter that you can bake as a cake, or you can turn it into spotted cupcakes.

Measure out two cups of batter. Place one cup of batter in one bowl and the other coup in another bowl.

Using food coloring. Dye one bowl of batter red and one bowl blue.

Place the bowl with the remaining batter in the fridge. 

Spray a large muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Divide the batter between the muffin cups. Bake at 350 degrees for 18-24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow the giant muffins to cool for 5 minutes. Remove them from the pan and allow them to cool for 5-10 more minutes.

While the jumbo muffins are cooling, line your regular-sized muffin pan with cupcake liners. Spoon about a tablespoon of the white batter into each cup.

Cut the large muffins into small pieces. 

Place a few of the pieces on top of the batter in the cups. Press them down in with your finger tips.

Add another spoonful of batter.

And then, another layer of colored cake. Again, press them down into the batter as far as you can. 

If needed, add another little bit of batter to the cups so that they are filled 2/3 of the way full.

Bake at 350 degrees for 16-20 minutes or until the tops are firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. They'll look like this.

Because the cupcakes are made from a dense cake, I wanted to use a light topping. I opted for a large dollop of homemade whipped cream.

They were a huge hit with the kids and the whip cream turned out to be an excellent choice.

I had one large cupcake and a few crumbs leftover, so I threw this little gem together for the hubby. 

 Blog Tour Info

Check out these wonderful blogs! I can't believe how much personality comes through in a blog post. Thanks to all those who have already participated and to those yet to come.

June 26th - Ruth @ My Devotional Thoughts; Holly @ 2 Kids and Tired Books

June 27th - MK @ MK McClintock.com; Kim @ Well Seasoned Life

June 28th - Jennifer @ Fictitious Musings; Brooklyn @ Brooklyn Berry Designs