Memorial Day Series – Red, White and Blue Ice Cream Cupcakes

I thought in honor of Memorial Day that I would do a series of recipes perfect for patriotic entertaining. First things first, dessert!! Ice cream and cake are the quintessential all American dessert. These cupcakes are perfectly patriotic and will go over well with kids, 1 to 100!

Yield: 24 cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 batch white cake batter*
Red and blue food coloring
1 batch vanilla bean ice cream (I used homemade, straight from the ice cream maker as it is very easy to top the cupcakes)
Fresh strawberry slices and fresh blueberries

*Note: A full recipe of cake batter could make a TON of these cupcakes. I usually only make 24 because I don’t have more cupcake pans or room in my freezer for more, but you could make extra with the full batch of batter (or bake an extra cake layer for fun).

Directions:
Preheat oven and prepare white cake batter as directed. Line two cupcake pans with foil liners. Divide the cake batter into two separate bowls, coloring one half with red and one half with blue food coloring. Drop approximately two tablespoons of batter into each cupcake liner so that you have 12 red and 12 blue cupcakes. Bake in the preheated oven until the cake is baked through and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (Baking time will depend on the cake recipe you use, but for me it was about 10-11 minutes.) Allow to cool in the pans to room temperature. Then freeze for 15-30 minutes.
Once the cupcakes have frozen slightly, fill each cupcake liner to the top with vanilla ice cream. Freeze until firm and ready to serve. Just before serving, top the blue cupcakes with fresh strawberries and the red cupcakes with fresh blueberries.

Source: annies-eats.com