Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a muffin tin with 12 paper cupcake liners. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk them for about 30 seconds until everything's combined well.

In another bowl, cream together softened butter with eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla extract and milk, stirring until the wet mixture looks smooth and uniform. Pour the wet ingredients into your dry mixture and stir until just combined—don't overmix or the cupcakes get tough.

Divide the batter into two bowls equally. Add red food coloring to one bowl and blue to the other, stirring each until the color spreads throughout. I made the mistake of adding color too fast once and ended up with streaky cupcakes, but honestly they still looked kinda cool.

Fill each cupcake liner about halfway with batter, alternating colors so you get a patriotic pattern. You'll want them roughly equal so the baking time stays consistent across the pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack for complete cooling. Don't try frosting warm cupcakes or the frosting melts right off—trust me on this one.

Beat softened butter and cream cheese together until fluffy, which takes about 2-3 minutes. Add powdered sugar gradually while beating until you get a thick, spreadable frosting. Frost each cooled cupcake generously, then arrange them in a tower shape on a cake stand or platter.

You can add sprinkles, fresh berries, or little flags to each frosted 4th july pull apart cupcakes family cupcake for extra patriotic flair. The whole tower usually takes about 10 minutes to assemble once frosting is done. Stand back and admire your work—it genuinely looks professional even though you just made individual cupcakes.