Bomb Pop Cupcakes

I love the Fourth of July. I love fireworks and cookouts and watermelon and beer and picnics and friends and, well, just about everything that goes with the Fourth of July.

This year, the Fourth was even better than before – I got to spend it with this guy!

Cute, huh? Love him.

Another thing I love about the fourth, are these guys:

Who wouldn’t love something that combines cherry, lime, and blue raspberry? If you haven’t had one, you’re missing out.  Trust me.

See? Everyone loves ‘em.

This year, I decided to try and turn these babies into cupcakes. I’d seen a photo on Pinterest and figured I could make it happen. So, I took one of my favorite cake recipes, added the key flavors, layered the colors, and voila! Bomb Pop Cupcakes!

And they were fantastic! The flavors blended well and the light cake wasn’t too sweet as to be overpowering. Plus, they’re dang cute! I’ll definitely be making these again.

Bomb Pop Cupcakes 

INGREDIENTS

Cupcake base

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk

Flavoring

• Juice of two medium lemons and one medium lime
• 1 teaspoon cherry extract
• Red gel food coloring
• 1 small box blue raspberry jello
• Boiling water

Frosting

• 4 sticks butter, softened to room temperature
• 1/2 cup milk
• 8 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon raspberry extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoon lime juice
• 1 teaspoon cherry extract
• Blue gel food coloring
• Red gel food coloring
• Wooden popsicle sticks for garnish

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar til light and fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla.
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Alternately add dry ingredients and buttermilk to butter and sugar mixture, starting and finishing with dry ingredients, and mixing until just combined.
4. Separate out 1 cup batter into a small bowl. Add cherry extract and red food coloring until desired color is reached. Spoon a heaping tablespoon into each liner.
5. Add lemon and lime juice to remaining batter. Using a cupcake pen, fill liners 2/3 full with lemon-lime batter.
6. Bake about 18 minutes or until tops of cakes spring back when touched. Remove from oven and let pans cool on wire racks.
7. Once cupcakes have cooled, remove from pans and poke holes in the tops with a wooden skewer.
8. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup boiling water and blue raspberry Jell-O until completely dissolved. Carefully spoon Jell-O mixture over cupcakes, allowing it to soak into the holes.
9. To make the frosting, cream the butter until light and fluffy.
10. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating on low speed until incorporated. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy.
11. Split the frosting in half and separate into two bowls, then separate out an additional one cup frosting from one of the bowls.
12. Add raspberry extract and blue food coloring to the full bowl. Using a large pastry bag, pipe the blue raspberry frosting onto the cupcakes.
13. Add lime juice to the remaining large portion of frosting and pipe on top of the blue raspberry layer.
14. Add cherry extract and red food coloring to the small bowl, and top the other two layers with the red layer.
15. Insert a popsicle stick in the middle of the cupcakes and serve. 

'Til next time, friends!