Firecracker Cake for the 4th of July

I can hear fireworks exploding as I type this post.  The display is only a few blocks from our house, and yet we have never gone.  Although I'm not into fireworks, I do enjoy celebrating Independence Day...especially with red, white and blue food :)

All year I have been adding recipes to my 4th of July Pinterest board, and now it's finally time to try some recipes!  I made a red, white and blue layered drink a few days ago, and today I made a firecracker cake to take to a picnic tomorrow.

You'll get an even cleaner slice if you wait for the frosting to harden.  As you can tell from the stray bits of frosting dragged through by the knife, I was too impatient.  I couldn't help it, I was anxious to see what the inside looked like :)

When I first pinned this recipe, I figured I'd make the cake and frosting from scratch.  However, with the 4th falling smack dab in the middle of the work week, I relied upon Betty Crocker.

There are a number of steps to making this cake, however overall it's pretty easy to do.  Just divide the batter, coloring part blue and part red, then layer in a bundt pan.

I was worried because the box said a 12-cup bundt pan was needed, but my 10-cup bundt pan from Kohl's did just fine.  In fact, there was still room after the cake had fully risen.

The frosting process is very similar to the batter process.  Divide the frosting into thirds, add food color, and start drizzling.  I like the look of the cake after adding just the white frosting and sprinkles, and I think that's a nice alternative.

I wish I had added a bit more red food color, as I ended up with pink frosting, but at that point I just wanted to finish up because I had more recipes to make for the picnic tomorrow.

The recipe can be found on Betty Crocker's website, and it was developed by the blogger behind Cooking With Sugar.