Easy Desserts to Impress this 4th of July

Schools out for SUMMER! We are so excited to celebrate 4th of July with you! We have wracked our brains for the best of the best fun and flavorful drinks, fun baking ideas you can make with your kiddos, and BBQ favorites to make celebrating the 4th that much easier and sparkly! What is the 4th of July without SPARKLE?! How do you like to celebrate the 4th of July?

One of my favorite recipes is perfect for celebrating the 4th and is fun for kids or just friends and family, FIREWORK Cupcakes! All you'll need is the following:

For the Cupcakes:

• 1 box white cake mix (+ ingredients listed on box)

• Red Food Coloring

• Blue Food Coloring

• Festive Cupcake Liners 

• 4th of July Sprinkles 

For the Icing:

• 1 cup salted butter (2 sticks), softened

• 4-5 cups powdered sugar

• 5-7 tbsp heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prepare a cupcake pan by lining it with cupcake liners. Prepare box mix according to package instructions.

Pour cake batter into three separate bowls. In one bowl add the blue gel food coloring and mix until you reach your desired color. Do the same for bowl number two but with the red gel food coloring. Leave the last bowl as original cake batter.

Pour the cake batter into the cupcake pans alternating between the three colors to achieve an even amount of the blue, red, and white batter. Only fill ¾ of the liner.

Use a toothpick to swirl the cake batter in each tin lightly.

Bake in the oven for 18-21 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

In the meantime, use a mixer to beat the salted butter until creamy. Gradually add the powdered sugar and then add in the heavy cream and mix until combined. Add to a piping bag and frost your cupcakes!

Red, White, & Blue

Decorate with Edible Decorating Dust or Glitter, red white and blue sprinkles and red pull and peel licorice to achieve a firecracker look!! The added glitter makes for a sparkly and fun treat anyone will love.

One thing my kids love doing for the holidays is crafts. This year we are making Tissue Paper Sparklers! They're super easy and fun, and the kids get a kick out of them. You can experiment with all sorts of color combinations, too.

Equipment

• Pair of scissors

Materials

• 3 large sheets tissue paper (3 DIFFERENT COLOURS)

• glue

• 1 straw or skewer

Instructions

• Cut each of the 3 colors of large tissue paper sheets in half. Stack each of the half sheets together.

• Fold the stacked sheets in half, lengthwise.

• Using scissors, make small vertical cuts into the bottom edge of the stacked and folded papers, stopping a few inches from the folded edge.

• Apply a thin line of glue to the folded edge.

• Place your straw or skewer onto the start of the glue and begin rolling it up, twisting the tissue around until the end.

• Dab a small amount of glue to the seam and press to seal it shut.

• Leave to dry, then fluff out the tissue paper to form your sparkler!

Blue Sprinkles & Flavored Tinker Dust 

Another fan favorite is cocktails! Who doesn't like a nice cool cocktail over the 4th of July holiday? Mix these simple ingredients together to create a festive holiday inspired cocktail! The glitter really sparkles this drink up and makes it EXTRA festive!

Take your favorite glass and dip the rim in lemon juice. While still wet, dip the rim into a plate filled with Sugar Sand.

For your drink you'll need:

• Bakell Cocktail Glitter

• 1 oz grenadine

• 3 oz lemonade

• 1 oz vodka

• 1 oz blue curacao

• Flavored Tinker Dust

Add grenadine to a glass then fill with ice.

In a shaker filled with ice, shake lemonade, Bakell Cocktail Glitter, Flavored Tinker Dust and vodka then gently pour the mixture over the back of a spoon into the glass creating the white layer of the drink.  This will sit on top of the grenadine.

Cascade blue curacao over the back of a spoon to make the final blue layer.

Also, you know you can't have a 4th of July Celebration without a BBQ! What are some of your favorite food items to make for the 4th?! My dad loves to be the one on the grill brushing on his favorite sauces, a nice cold beer in hand, and a goofy apron on. We love to have ribs, hot dogs or hamburgers for the kids, potato salad, a big Caesar salad, deviled eggs (a must!), corn on the cob, and twice baked potatoes cooked right on the BBQ! When it's BBQ time we all gather outside and let the kids run free, enjoy our cocktails, let the food cook, light some sparklers, and wait for it to get dark to enjoy the fireworks!