4th of July cupcake

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white or off-white frosting; red mini M&Ms; blue sugar; 1M metal tip; pastry bag.

How to Make It: Use white frosting and metal tip in pastry bag to make 1M swirl (start at the outside of the cupcake and work inward and upward). Sprinkle with blue sugar. Add red M&Ms.

Military cupcakes

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; 3 red and blue conversation hearts.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. position hearts on top.

Fourth of July swirl stars cupcake

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white icing (if you like this look – shorter and softer – using canned Fluffy style icing and room temperature); star sprinkles; 1M swirl metal tip and pastry bag.

How to Make It: With 1M tip, apply icing in a circular motion, working inward and upward. Sprinkle with stars.

Fourth of July flag cupcake

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting (I used “fluffy” by Pillsbury); red sugar; blue star sprinkles; paper American flag.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake generously. Sprinkle with red sugar and blue stars. Add American flag.

Inauguration cupcake

If you’re planning an Inauguration Day party for Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2009, many of EasyCupcakes.com’s patriotic cupcakes would be appropriate. But if you really want to get specific, here’s a design honoring the actual inauguration date of President Barack Obama. You can make this; yes you can!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; frosting tinted blue; star-shaped sprinkles; pastry bag and round metal tip (or use icing in a tube).

How to Make It: Frost cupcake white. Pipe the date, 1-20-09, in blue, being sure to start at the far left so you don’t run out of room. Accent with star sprinkles.

Patriotic flower cupcake

For Election Day, Fourth of July or any patriotic occasion, these red, white and blue flower cupcakes add prettiness to the party.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; blue candy-covered sunflower seeds; red hot candies (cinnamon imperials).

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Arrange blue sunflower seeds, point facing inward, around red hots.

Election Day flag cupcake

Planning an election night party? Or, perhaps you’re reading this post after the Nov. 4, 2008 presidential election and want to decorate cupcakes for the Fourth of July or another patriotic event. This flag cupcakes fit the bill! Whether you’re for Obama, McCain or even Nadar, there’s one thing we can all agree on: Cupcakes are yummy.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; frosting tinted red (use no-taste red paste food coloring if you can); icing in aerosol can such as Betty Crocker‘s (or use pastry bag and ribbon tip); large blue confetti stars.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake red. Attach ribbon tip to icing can and draw stripes across the cupcake, leaving a square at the top left area for the stars. Add blue stars.

Election cupcake with flag

The U.S. presidential race is heating up, but you can cool tempers with a nice batch of cupcakes urging people to get out and vote. Also suitable for class elections, local primaries and so on. Remember, everyone loves cupcakes–they’re nonpartisan.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white icing; red gel writing icing; premade American flag cake decoration (such as by Cake Mate or Wilton).

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use writing gel to write “VOTE” in red. Or, write a candidate’s name. (You could also use writing icing in a tube or pastry bag). Add flag decoration.

American flag cupcake

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white frosting; large blue star sprinkles (Wilton makes some); thin red licorice strings; kitchen shears, scissors or knife.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Cut licorice as shown and arrange in stripes. Add 3 or more star sprinkles. That’s it!