Get your white cake mix out.

Follow instructions to make batter.

Put 1/3 of the batter in a smaller bowl.

Dye the batter in the small bowl red. Make it as dark as you can. Our flag is not PINK, white, and blue! ;-)

I adore foil cupcake wrappers! Just remember: the white paper wrappers between the foil wrappers are not just decoration. If you only use the foil wrappers, they'll stick to the cupcakes and be ugly.

Use a spoon to fill the cupcake cups about 1/4 full.

This is tedious. Stick it out, though; it's worth it!

Using a different spoon, fill the cups up to 1/2 full with the red batter.

Continue!

Finish the white batter by putting spoonfuls on top of the red batter. I didn't have enough white batter to cover all the red batter up. Don't dye too much of the batter red!

Bake for however long the box tells you to at whatever temperature it says.

Allow to cool before you frost. Do NOT skip this step! Your cupcakes will look bad because the frosting will melt.

Yum! Dye all the frosting blue.

Put it in your frosting gun!

Using the round tip, make pretty swirls. Make sure you use consistent pressure. Start on the outside and go to the inside. When you get to the center, pull straight up to get the cute curly-cue.

Finish frosting the rest of the cupcakes and then sprinkle with patriotic-colored sprinkles.

The striped inside!

Beautiful!