Festive For the Fourth

I love lemonade stands. When I think of them, I often thinking of my childhood aspirations to run a lemonade stand and somehow make hundreds of dollars. Two things. One, I never made a lemonade stand due to the un-accessible location of my home. and...two. The fact that I never had a lemonade stand also means that I didn't make hundreds of dollars.

So other than the lemonade stand being a fail for me, Nicole decided that she needed to partake in this legendary money maker. I was game. But, the really nifty thing about it was that she decided that she was going to donate the money the Cancer Society in honor of her mom. (Nicole is the sweetest thing ever)



But then, Nicole uttered the most beautiful words ever to come out of a child's mouth. "We need to make cupcakes." Have I mentioned that I love Nicole. See, Cupcakes and me are like root beer and vanilla ice cream...like Sunny and Cher....like Michael Jackson and awkward child rumors. So, I thought we would go all out for the cupcakes..I mean...it's July 4th!

So, we died the funfetti batter blue. You can do it too. If you have 38 drops of blue food coloring...you too can make these fun-colored cakes of wonder.

But first, you MUST start with cute cupcake wrappers. You see, this part is essential. Why? Well, if you place the cupcakes in beautiful liners, the flavor of beauty will transfer onto the cupcake...and well...it's just what you are supposed to do.

Look how cute they turned out. I baked them as normal...just blue.....and festive!

Then, the best part....decoration. Nicole wasn't fond of the term "pastry bag," (after her 5th or 6th cupcake) so I let her sprinkle-ize while I piped. We had a pretty good system going.

Look how beautiful they turned out! Now, I bet you are wondering what fabul-ash icing I used. Well, I stumbled upon this wonderful recipe called Dunkin Hines in a can. The flavor is undescribable ;)

Look at her. Isn't she the cutest thing ever. (And look at our fancy-schmancy lemonade)

Happy 4th of July!