Hello! I am so extremely excited to share these 4th of July cupcakes with you because I love how they turned out, AND because this is my first official post on bethcakes.com! 🙂 It’s taken me much longer than I planned, which doesn’t surprise me, but it’s here now and that’s all that matters!
So, I’m just going to get right down to it. There are Poprocks on these cupcakes. That’s where the “firecracker” part comes from. I feel like everyone has that one memory of Poprocks. Maybe it was the first time you tasted them, or maybe it’s every time. You put them in your mouth, they begin sizzling, and you grin like a little kid. You know what I’m talking about. That’s what I wanted, but in cupcake form.
Last year, I made some similar cupcakes and topped them with Poprocks and sparklers. My friends and I lit them and listened to Whitney Houston’s version of the Star Spangled Banner while shining a flashlight on someone’s American flag shirt. Super patriotic.
But when we blew the sparklers out, the Poprocks had melted a little and they didn’t sizzle. So no candles this year!
These cupcakes are extremely easy to make, whether you use all store bought mixes or make them yourself. Now that I’ve graduated, I’ve been attempting to move all my stuff from my apartment back into my parents house. So, that means all my stuff is scattered between two floors of our house and the basement. Seriously when we were moving out, I repeatedly asked myself Why. Why do I have so much stuff? So I took the easy way out and bought box mixes and canned frosting. Plus, food coloring is a pain in the butt sometimes, am I right?

ingredients
- 1 box Red Velvet Cake Mix
- 1 box white cake mix
- blue food coloring
- toothpicks
- 1-2 cans cream cheese frosting
- 4 small packets of red/cherry Poprocks
- red, white and blue sprinkles
instructions
- Prepare red velvet cake mix according to the directions on the box. Set aside.
- Prepare the white cake mix according to the directions on the box. Add blue food coloring until the desired shade is reached. (I used between 1/2 tbsp and 1 tbsp.)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two cupcake pans with paper liners. (If you only use two pans, you'll have leftover batter. You can always use all of the batter and have a lot of cupcakes.)
- Fill the bottom of the paper liners with one color of batter. Then add some of the second color. Fill the liners 2/3 full. Stir each cupcake liner of batter once with a toothpick.
- Bake cupcakes for 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
*For the best Poprock-sizzle effect, bake these cupcakes the day you plan to eat them.
If you’d like to make these cupcakes from scratch:
This is my favorite red velvet cake recipe – from Bakerella
And this is a wonderful white cake recipe – from I am Baker
Lastly, from my old blog, my go-to cream cheese frosting recipe
These were great. One of the things I liked about them (in addition to how great they tasted) was the blue and red cake. I felt very patriotic eating them. 🙂
Congrats on the new site!! 😀 Love love love poprocks on cupcakes! Gorgeous!
Thanks! Poprocks make everything more fun, right? 🙂
LOVE the website! And these cupcakes were truly fantastic, some of the best I’ve tasted! And that’s a LOT! Your photos keep getting better and better.
Thanks, I’m glad you liked them!
Yaaay for the new site and graduating from the collegiate baker! These look lovely- I almost wish I was baking cupcakes for the fourth just so I can put pop rocks on them!
Thanks so much, Faith! Poprocks make everything more fun. It doesn’t have to be just cupcakes! 🙂
Yummy! These look great Beth. Excellent job on the cupcakes and the new website. Fantastic job on both!
Thanks, aunt Cathy! And thanks so much for all of your help with the site!! Couldn’t have done it without you! 🙂
Very nice! Wish I could have one NOW!
Thanks! I would totally give you one if I could!
You’re so interesting! I don’t believe I have read anything like
that before. So great to find someone with original thoughts
on this subject. Seriously.. thank you for starting this up.
This web site is one thing that is needed on the
web, someone with a little originality!Vegetarian Catering
These look soooo good! I made butterbeer cupcakes for Harry Potters bday (because that is how cool I am.) I know it is an old recipe but I love those cupcakes, I am now just using that base because all of my cupcakes turn out similar to sweet rocks with frosting. I cant wait to use this recipe after the 4th!!!