Get ready to celebrate the red, white, and blue with this AMAZING patriotic cupcake cake! Using the American Flag as my inspiration, this is a fun, creative and EASY dessert that will definitely make all your summer entertaining fun.
Made with a boxed cake mix, cream cheese frosting, your guests will be amazed at how easy it is to put together and how beautiful it looks - perfect for any Fourth of July celebration!
Craving even more red, white, and blue deliciousness? Check out our other festive 4th of July Foods to complete your patriotic feast!
Celebrate Independence Day with a patriotic showstopper! This pull apart cupcake cake is in a fun design of the American Flag and is sure to wow your family, friends, and party guests.
This recipe was inspired by my Reindeer Cupcake Cake that's just as fun and easy to make for the Christmas holiday season.
Looking for more Easy Desserts and Patriotic Recipes? Try my Fourth of July Cake, Red Velvet 4th of July Cake, and even my Sugar Cookie Flag. Yum!
Table of Contents
What is a pull apart cupcake cake?
To create a pull-apart cupcake cake, bake the cupcakes according to the directions on the back of the cake mix box using standard cupcake liners.
Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, arrange them in the design on a cake board or large platter. This way, the cupcakes will look like a cohesive, single cake when placed next to each other.
The cupcakes are often decorated with frosting, sprinkles, or fondant to create a cohesive design, and can be easily pulled apart or separated for serving.
This type of cake is becoming increasingly popular as it is easy to make, eye-catching, and great for sharing at events such as birthdays, weddings, and other celebrations.
🛒Helpful Kitchen Tools
Large Cake Display Board
Disposable Icing Piping Bags - 12 Inch Pastry Bag Frosting Bags for Cake Cookies Baking Decorating - Plastic Tipless Piping BagsHobbyland Edible Sprinkles1M Open Star Piping Tip
📋Ingredients
Here's a quick overview of the ingredients for this recipe. Find the exact amounts and click the Instacart button to easily add them to your cart – all in the printable recipe card below!
Recipe Substitutions and Variations
- Instead of canned cream cheese frosting, you could use your favorite frosting flavors like vanilla buttercream or try my Homemade Cream Cheese Frosting.
- You could also use a homemade cupcake recipe like I did with my red velvet Patriotic Cupcakes.
- Gel Food Coloring - I recommend using gel food coloring instead of traditional food coloring. The colors are very vibrant when combined with the cream cheese frosting.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Prepare the cupcakes according to the box directions.
Step 2: On a tray or cake board large enough to hold 35 cupcakes, place cupcakes 5 rows high and 7 rows across.
Prepare the Frosting
Step 3: Divide the cream cheese frosting into three portions. Tint one portion blue and another red using gel food coloring. Leave the third portion white. Fill three pastry bags fitted with 1M open star tips with each color of frosting.
Top Tip
Make sure your cupcakes are completely cooled before frosting them so the frosting doesn't melt.
Frost the Flag Cupcakes
Step 4: Leave the top 9 cupcakes unfrosted. Start frosting the second row with 4 white cupcakes from the right, then frost the entire fourth row white. Frost the 9 left corner cupcakes blue. On the first and third rows, frost the 4 rightmost cupcakes red. Finally, frost the entire fifth row red.
Quick Tip
You could purchase edible white stars to decorate the tops of the blue cupcakes!
- Makes Decorating Fun And Easy - it can be used as a cake decoration during Easter, Christmas, Halloween, Enjoy these sweet sprinkles.
Before You Begin!
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Recipe FAQ
How can I make store bought frosting better?
You can elevate the taste of your canned frosting with a few tips:
- add a pinch of salt
- whip the frosting with a whisk attachment
- add more flavoring like vanilla extract or almond extract
- add 4 ounces softened cream cheese to one container of frosting.
Prep Ahead Tips
You can prepare the cupcakes up to 3 days before you need to serve this cupcake cake; only don't frost them!
After baking the cupcakes, allow them to cool completely. Then, store them in an airtight container.
The day of your celebration, remove the cupcakes from the refrigerator and allow them to come to room temperature for about an hour before frosting and decorating.
Storage Tips
Refrigerator: Store cupcakes frosted with cream cheese frosting in the refrigerator in an airtight container for about 3-5 days.
Freezer: If freezing with the frosting, flash freeze the cupcakes, then wrap in plastic wrap before placing in an airtight container. Remove the plastic wrap before defrosting in the refrigerator. I find it easier to freeze cupcakes without the frosting, then add the frosting once they've thawed.
Top Tip
Both boxes of cake mix yielded 45 cupcakes total. I only used 35 for the cupcake cake, so I served the remaining ones on the side. Add fun patriotic picks to them to help decorate around the cupcake cake!
Frosting colored with gel food coloring darkens the longer it sits, so allow it to rest about 15 minutes before adding more and more food coloring to get the right shade of red or blue.
If your frosting seems a bit thin to hold its shaped when piped, add a tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time until it reaches the perfect consistency.
More Recipes to Love
- Check out my other recipe for American Flag Sugar Cookie Fruit Pizza
- Or you might enjoy this recipe for Red, White, and Blue Cupcakes.
- We love this easy cake mix cookie recipe for 4th of July Cake Mix Cookies.
📖 Recipe Card
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Patriotic Cupcake Cake
Ingredients
- 2 15.25 ounce boxes yellow cake mix, plus the ingredients listed on the back of the box.
- 2 containers cream cheese frosting
- red gel food coloring
- blue gel food coloring
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Place paper baking cups in each of the 12 regular-size muffin cups.
- Prepare one box of cake mix at a time according to the directions with the ingredients listed on the back of the box.
- Bake according to the box instructions.
- Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.
- Place the cupcakes on a tray or cake board large enough to form the shape of the American flag. You will need a total of 35 cupcakes. Place 7 rows of cupcakes across the width of the board and 5 rows high.
Frost the Cupcakes:
- Add 1 cup of frosting to a bowl and add blue gel food coloring until you reach your desired shade.
- Add about 2 cups of frosting to a bowl and add red gel food coloring until you reach your desired shade.
- Add about 1 ½ cups of white frosting to a pastry bag with a 1M piping tip attached. Do the same for the blue and red frostings.
- On rows 1-3, add blue frosting to the first 3 cupcakes on the far left. These 9 cupcakes in the left corner represent the stars.
- Frost the remaining cupcakes on rows 1, 3, and 5 red.
- Frost the remaining cupcakes on rows 2 and 4 white.
Notes
- Both boxes of cake mix gave me 45 cupcakes total. I only used 35 for the cupcake cake because of the size tray I used. I frosted the remaining cupcakes and served them on the side. You can add fun patriotic picks to them to help decorate around the cupcake cake if you want.
- Frosting colored with gel food coloring darkens the longer it sits, so allow it to rest about 15 minutes before adding more and more food coloring to get the right shade of red or blue.
- If your frosting seems a bit thin to hold its shaped when piped, add a tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time until it reaches the perfect consistency.
Beth says
LOVE that this recipe uses a boxed cake mix Lois! Thanks for sharing! Creatively, Beth
Olivia says
These cupcakes are so pretty and festive!
Maria says
What a fun and festive treat! These look perfect for a 4th of July celebration! I am excited to feature your post at the Senior Salon Pit Stop link party this week. Thank you for sharing!
Maria @ kraftyplanner.com
Dee | GrammysGrid.com says
Perfect for celebrating! I found your post at a party and wanted to let you know that I host parties too. Won’t you drop by and linkup with me? I have an Unlimited Party that starts on Wednesday, the current one is themed for All Things American and Patriotic.