Red White and Blue Frosting

Name: Red White and Blue Frosting
Prep time: 9 min
Total time: 139 min
Ingredients: 3 sticks unsalted butter; 24 oz. powdered sugar; 1 pinch salt; 1 tablespoon vanilla extract; 5 drops red gel food coloring; 5 drops blue gel food coloring; 3 tablespoons whipping cream

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Make red, white and blue buttercream frosting for your 4th of July cupcakes.

Three 4th of july cupcakes decorated with red, white and blue frosting.

You can make multicolored red, white and blue frosting to decorate your patriotic 4th of July Cupcakes.

I love homemade buttercream frosting. It is a rich and creamy frosting perfect for cupcakes.

Homemade frosting is very easy to make. All you need are a couple of ingredients to make it.

Ingredients needed to make red, white and blue frosting

You can find the full ingredient amounts below in the recipe card.

Red, white and blue frosting ingredients.

unsalted butter
powdered sugar
salt
vanilla extract (I always use my homemade vanilla extract)
red gel food coloring
blue gel food coloring

How to make red, white and blue frosting

Step 1: Cut the butter into cubes. Place the butter into a large bowl and allow to soften on the counter.

Step 2: Beat the softened butter with a mixer until light and creamy.

Step 3: Sift ⅓ of the powdered sugar and the salt into the bowl.

Step 4: Beat the sugar and salt into the butter.

Step 5: Add the vanilla extract to the bowl and beat in.

Step 6: Add the cream to the bowl and beat in until fluffy.

Four photo collage of step 3, 4, 5 and 6 to make buttercream frosting.

Step 7: Beat more sifted powdered sugar into the bowl and scrape the sides of the bowl.

Step 8: Add the remaining sifted powdered sugar to the bowl and beat until thick and creamy.

A bowl filled with fluffy buttercream frosting.

Step 9: Divide the frosting into three bowls.

Step 10: Add red food coloring to one bowl and blue food coloring to the other bowl. Leave one bowl uncolored.

Step 11: Mix the food coloring into the frosting until evenly combined and there are no visible streaks of color left in the frosting.

Step 12: Transfer the red, white and blue frosting to piping bags.

4 image collag with the steps to color frosting red, white and blue.

Step 13: Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and decorate with sprinkles.

Step 14: Enough frosting to frost 24 cupcakes.

How to pipe multicolored frosting

There are a couple of different ways to pipe multi colored frosting. Today I am going to show you two of the methods I use to pipe frosting when I am decorating cupcakes with more than one color frosting.

Multi colored frosting using one piping bag

Place a large star tip into the bottom of a 12 or 16 inch piping bag but do not cut the tip off.
Place the empty piping bag into a tall glass to stabilize it while you're filling it with the frosting.
Place a heaping tablespoon of red frosting into the bag off center.
Place a heaping tablespoon of white frosting into the bag off center, next to the red frosting.
Place a heaping tablespoon of the blue frosting into the bag in the remaining empty area of the decorating bag. It will slightly overlap the red and white frosting.
Continue filling the decorating bag in this manner until the bag is filled being sure to leave a couple of inches at the top of the bag empty.
Remove the bag from the glass, twist the top of the bag and secure the bag top with a thick rubber band.
Snip off the tip of the bag.
Begin frosting the cupcake from the center out creating a nice rosette swirl pattern with the frosting. As you squeeze the frosting out the colors will begin to blend making a pretty multi colored swirled frosting on the top of the cupcake. Repeat frosting all of the cupcakes.

3 colored frosting using multiple piping bags

Step 1: Fill individual 12 inch piping bags with each of the three colors of frosting. Do not over fill the piping bags. Only fill them about a third of the way.

Step 2: Place a large closed star tip into the bottom of a disposable 16 or 18 inch piping bag. Push the tip down tightly into the tip of the bag.

Step 3: Snip the tips off of the three filled piping bags. Slid each of the individual piping bags of frosting down into the larger piping bag fitted with the star tip. Make sure each of the open tips are down far enough into the bag to reach the star tip.

Step 4: Secure the top of the large piping bag with a rubber band. Squeeze the piping bag so some of the frosting begins to come out to make sure each of the three colors start to come out of the piping tip.

Step 5: Frost each of the cupcakes with the multicolored frosting.

3 rows of frosted cupcakes on a wire rack.

Decorate the frosted cupcakes with sprinkles and 4th of jJuly cupcake picks.

Red, white and blue cupcakes decorated with sprinkles.

Recipe FAQS

How do you make red and blue icing?

Red and blue icing is made by mixing vibrant red and blue gel food coloring with vanilla or white icing.

Which food coloring brand is the best for icing?

Americolor soft gel paste food coloring. This is the brand I have been using for years. I get the best colors using this brand to color cake and cupcake batter and icing.

Recipe Expert Tips

Softening the butter: The butter will take a couple of hours to soften. Cutting it into cubes will speed it along.
Powdered sugar: 24 ounces of powdered sugar equals 4 ¼ level cups of un-sifted powdered sugar.
Food coloring: My preferred brand of food coloring is Americolor soft gel paste food coloring. Liquid food coloring should not be used to color frosting.
4th of July cupcake decorations: Decorate the cupcakes using patriotic sprinkles and 4th of July cupcake toppers.

More cupcake recipes you'll love

Click the buttons below in the recipe card to print, save to Pinterest or save the recipe to your favorites.

Leave a comment if you have a question about this or any other recipes I have shared. Tried one of my recipes? Leave a star rating on the recipe. Come hang out with me on Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram.