14 Berry Patriotic Sweet Treats

Celebrate our nation's independence all summer long with these 14 Berry Patriotic Sweet Treats...

Just so you all know, we are just under a week until the 4th of the July. Like 6 days, to be exact.

 

We are keeping things pretty low key this year. Since my parents will be out of town on vacation next week, it will just be us. We are going to spend the day together as family, grill out, break out the corn hole & sparklers, and then catch the fireworks from the lake on a blanket from our front yard. 

My daughter has been really looking forward to "American Day" pretty much since summer vacation started over a month ago (yes, that is what she calls it ;) ). 

While we won't be hosting & entertaining our usual holiday crowd for the 4th, I am still planning on whipping up a little red, white, & blue sweet treat for the four of us to enjoy. 

When perusing some of my favorite food blogs for patriotic dessert recipes ideas, I started noticing a theme going on- summer berries lend themselves very well to the 4th of July color scheme. 

Blue Velvet & Raspberry Buttercream Cookiewiches

A fresh raspberry buttercream is sandwiched between two soft & chewy blue velvet cake mix cookies in these perfectly patriotic Blue Velvet & Raspberry Buttercream Cookiewiches...

My luck with bringing patriotic recipe ideas to fruition hasn't been very good in the past couple of years.

Until today, I literally had one- just one- 4th of July themed recipe on the blog.

My Red, White, & Berry Cupcakes are fun & absolutely delicious, but you will have to excuse the photos if you click over to take a peek at them.  

But after those cupcakes, my red, white, & blue recipe mojo went kaput. 

Some of you all may recall the Patriotic Pie Fail from last summer.  It looked amazing and like a real winner before I cut into it... but after I cut into? One big delicious, goopy mess.

And I was about to give up on this Fourth of July as well.  Two recipe fails in a row this month- one was a burnt tart and the other was cake bars that refused to bake all the way through and set up. 

(If you happen to follow me on Instagram, you were probably a firsthand witness to those recipe flops of mine.) I was about to throw the towel in and finally accept my fate that I was not meant to publish another patriotic inspired recipe ever again on the blog.

But then inspiration struck...

I spied Duncan Hines Blue Velvet Cake Mix on the grocery store shelf... and then my mind wandered to the White Chocolate Peeps Cookiewiches I made in April... and BOOM! :)

Why not make cookiewiches with blue velvet cookies?

And sure, I could have just made a plain ole buttercream and colored it red and called it a day, but what fun is that? ;)

So instead, I sandwiched a sweet & tart fresh raspberry buttercream between the cookies. 

And whoa! Just whoa, folks...

Red, White, & Berry Cupcakes

Just in time for any Independence festivities you may have planned for this weekend (and if you are quick, even this evening!)- Red, White, & Berry Cupcakes!  These cupcakes are super easy and come together quickly. Well, mainly because I cheated and used a boxed cake mix.  ;)
So what will you need to make these?

1 box of white cake mix
1 cup of raspberries
1 cup of blueberries (or blackberries)
2-3 tbsp of sugar
Your favorite white frosting recipe (or you can make it even easier & used canned frosting)

Mix the cake mix according to the directions on the box.  I reduced the water by 1/4 cup since I knew the berries would be adding moisture to the batter.  
Next, mix your berries together in a small bowl with 2-3 tbsp of sugar.  You can use either fresh or frozen berries.  I actually used frozen raspberries and fresh blueberries since it is what I had on hand. 

Mix the berries into the cake batter and then using a small measuring cup, fill your cupcake liners in a muffin tin about 2/3 full each with batter.  Bake according to the directions on the box for cupcakes.

Once baked, let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.  Whip up your favorite vanilla or buttercream frosting (just make sure it is white!). I figured that since I used the cake mix shortcut for the cupcakes that I would at least make a frosting from scratch. ;)  I used a cupcake frosting recipe from the blog, Natasha's Kitchen.  Click here for the recipe.  I divided the frosting into 3 bowls, using food coloring to dye one bowl blue, one red, and left the third one white.  

I admit it- I don't use fancy pastry bags for my icing.  I use a plain old gallon sized food storage bag with a bottom corner snipped off and then just slip my icing tip into the snipped off corner.  I literally just spooned each color icing into the bag side by side, but if you would like to the colors to stay more separate you could put each color into quart sized storage bags with snipped corners, and then set those bags down inside the larger gallon sized bag.  I kind of like the tie-dyed effect I got by just letting the colors mix and mingle. ;)

Just frost your cupcakes and then decorate however you see fit (Or not all, if you prefer. The frosting is pretty enough!).  I used some red, white, & blue star-shaped marshmallows and some red and white pinwheel party picks I found in the dollar section at Target.  

Red, White, & Berry Cupcakes!

Happy 4th of July!