Fourth of July Treats

Summertime is a time for fun and relaxation, celebration, and the Fourth of July! The thing is… eating heavy, sugary sweets in the heat while celebrating independence is just uncomfortable. Featuring summery fruits in your desserts is a lovely way to lighten up the dish! We made patriotic cupcakes with raspberries and blackberries!

Red, White, & Blue Cupcakes

Ingredients (cupcakes)

1 box vanilla cake mix
1 cup buttermilk (this is instead of the water called for on cake mix box)
Vegetable oil (amount called for on cake mix box)
4 eggs
Raspberries
Blackberries
Liners for cupcake tins (we used festive blue ones!)

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Cut the raspberries into halves and the blackberries into quarters.
Place liners in baking pan.
Mix the cake mix, buttermilk, vegetable oil, and eggs in a mixing bowl. Beat at high speed for 2 minutes. (You can use an electric mixer; we used a whisk and our muscles).
Fill each liner 1/3 of the way full. Drop two of the raspberry halves and two of the blackberry quarters into each cupcake.

Cover with batter until each liner is about 2/3 full.

Bake for 15 – 20 minutes, until tops are springy and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool and make topping.

Ingredients (topping)

2 cups of raspberries or blackberries
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
and a can of ReddiWhip

We followed Emeril’s recipe for raspberry filling for cake – to a point. Here’s what we did:
Place fruit, water, and sugar in saucepan.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Simmer until the fruit breaks down (for us, this was about 7 minutes).

If you simmer for too long, it will thicken too much. Press mixture through a mesh sieve. Spoon topping on cupcakes, over ReddiWhip as desired.

Enjoy!