Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl — set it aside. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes with an electric mixer. This is the foundation of your patriotic pull apart cupcake cake, so don't rush it.

Add eggs one at a time to the butter mixture, beating well after each addition. Pour in vanilla extract and mix until combined. Now alternate adding the flour mixture and milk, starting and ending with flour — do it in thirds to keep everything smooth. Beat just until combined after each addition so you don't overdevelop the batter.

Divide your batter evenly into three bowls. Leave one bowl plain white, add red gel coloring to the second bowl until you get a bright red, and blue gel to the third. Mix each until the color is consistent throughout — use a toothpick to blend stubborn streaks.

Fill your muffin liners by alternating colors: a scoop of white, then red, then blue in each cup. You'll see them create a fun striped effect as they bake. Fill each liner about three-quarters full for perfect-sized cupcakes.

Bake for 16-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Don't panic if they look slightly underbaked — they'll continue cooking slightly as they cool. Let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. The patriotic pull apart cupcake cake cupcakes need to be completely cool before frosting.

While cupcakes cool, make your cream cheese frosting. Beat softened cream cheese and powdered sugar together until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes. If it looks too soft, pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes before frosting. I accidentally made mine too runny once and a quick chill saved the day.

Arrange your cooled cupcakes into a circle or ring shape on your serving platter — this is where the magic happens. Frost each cupcake with a generous dollop of cream cheese frosting, then sprinkle rainbow sprinkles on top for that festive patriotic look. Step back and admire your work — you've just created an easy party cake that looks like you're a professional baker.