FOR THE CUPCAKES:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a muffin tin with 12 paper cupcake liners.

Make the cupcake batter based on the instructions on the back of the cake mix.

Then divide the batter evenly into 3 small bowls.  Use the gel food coloring to dye one bowl red and one bowl blue.  Then leave the other bowl plain so that the batter will be white.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups layering the batter on top of each other.  Start with the red batter, then the white and the blue.

Bake for 15-18 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cupcakes comes out clean.  Then allow the cupcakes to cool completely.

FOR THE ICING:

In a large bowl cream the butter until smooth.

Beat in the confectioners sugar (one cup at a time) on low speed until well combined.

Stir in vanilla and milk.  Whip until thoroughly mixed and fluffy on a medium-high setting.

Divide the frosting into 3 bowls.   Use the gel food coloring to dye one bowl red and one bowl blue.  Then leave the other bowl plain so that the batter will be white.

Then put each color of the icing into the same piping bag with a Wilton 1M tip and pipe the icing onto the top of the cupcakes.  This will give the icing a swirl effect with the red, white and blue colors.

Top with the sprinkles and then the cupcakes are ready to enjoy!