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Whether you’re serving it at a Memorial Day party, Fourth of July celebration, or a backyard cookout, this All American Snack Board will become a family favorite in no time! This fun snack board can be served as an appetizer or dessert, and with the perfect combination of sweet and salty snacks, everyone can find something they’ll love.
I’m sure you already know that I am all about celebrating the little things in life! Serving a snack board is a quick and easy way to make any evening feel like a celebration. This All American Snack Board, loaded with red, white, and blue goodies, is perfect to serve for casual entertaining, but it’s also an ideal recipe for all summer holidays!
Soft, sweet Vanilla Bean Cupcakes are front and center in this tasty snack board! They’re super easy to make since the base of the recipe is a boxed cake mix, and they’re out of the oven and ready to serve in just 30 minutes! Plus, you can decorate them with red, white, and blue sprinkles or big swirls of buttercream depending on the occasion.
The BEST part of this All American Snack Board is that it’s customizable! This is one of those recipes that you can make over and over again, switching up one or two snacks each time!
Make This Recipe For…
- Memorial Day Parties
- Labor Day Weekend
- Family Get-Togethers
- Fourth Of July
- Summer Celebrations
- Pool Parties
Items Needed To Make This Fun Snack Board
One of the best parts of making a snack board is that you can choose what to put on it! These are the items I included in my All American Charcuterie Board, but if you want to substitute something like M&M’s for the Mike & Ike’s you absolutely can!
- Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
- Fresh Strawberries
- Fresh Blueberries
- Yogurt Covered Pretzels
- Kettle Cooked Potato Chips
- Mike and Ikes
Ingredients Needed To Make Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
If you scroll down, you will find the recipe card with all the ingredient amounts and the full list of instructions to make delicious Vanilla Cupcakes!
- White Cake Box Mix
- Boxed Instant Vanilla Pudding
- Eggs – beaten
- Sour Cream
- Vegetable Oil
- Milk
- Unsalted Butter – room temperature
- Powdered Sugar
- Vanilla Extract
- Salt
PRO TIP: If the buttercream frosting on your cupcakes is looking too thick, add in one tablespoon of milk at a time until you get the desired consistency. If your frosting is looking more like icing, add in one tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time until it starts looking like frosting.
How To Assemble This All American Snack Board
One option for assembling this snack board is to simply model it off of the photos. I had so much fun making it! This recipe really allows you to get creative, and there are tons of different ways you can arrange all these tasty treats!
I recommend starting by choosing one item to be the central focus of the snack board and then building around that. For this All American Snack Board, I chose the cupcakes to take center stage, and then I began to arrange the other snacks around the cupcakes.
I like to put my smaller snacks like candy into small bowls or ramekins, and then you can scatter the chips and pretzels around the board in an aesthetic way.
How To Serve This All American Snack Board
Versatility is the name of the game with this recipe, there are tons of fun ways to serve it! Depending on the occasion you’re making this snack board for, you can serve it as either an appetizer or a dessert. Here are a couple of my favorite ways to serve this dish…
- Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day Weekend – It’s an ideal recipe to share with friends and family for these American summer holidays! This snack board can be set out on an appetizer table or served with desserts, and the red, white, and blue items are sure to match your party decor!
- Picnic – This snack board really has everything you’d need for a picnic, it has the perfect combination of sweet and salty treats. You can pack all the items into your picnic basket and then assemble the snack board once you arrive.
- Summer Cookouts – All American Snack Board serves as a terrific dessert for summer cookouts, you can simply set it out and let everyone help themselves!
- Birthday Parties for Kids – When I say kids love this recipe, I mean it! If you’re hosting a birthday this summer, I would definitely recommend making an All-American Snack Board. Not only can the kids help assemble the snack board, but the Vanilla Bean Cupcake recipe is perfect to make with your children, it’s fun and interactive without being too challenging.
People Often Ask…
The best part of Charcuterie and Snack Boards is the fact that you can really add whatever you want, after all, you are the one enjoying it! Here are a couple of other foods you can include or substitute if you want…
– Raspberries
– Crackers and Cheeses
– M&M’s
– Popcorn or Kettle Corn
– Cookies
– Dessert Dips
With any Snack Board or Charcuterie Board, how expensive it really depends on what you add. None of the items on my snack board are that expensive, but if you choose to add items like meats, cheeses, more fresh fruits, or cookies then it may cost a little more.
Since the Vanilla Bean Cupcakes in this snack board are made with a short-cut recipe, they aren’t that expensive at all, you probably have most of the ingredients you’ll need already.
More Recipes You’ll Love…
- Easy Champagne Cupcakes
- Lemon Curd Thumbprint Cookies
- Texas Sheet Cake For A Crowd
- No-Bake Rocky Road Clusters
- Monster Cookies
Short-Cut Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
Equipment
Ingredients
For The Cupcakes
- 1 box White Cake Mix
- 1 (3.5 oz) box Instant Vanilla Pudding
- 4 Eggs – beaten
- 1 cup Sour Cream
- 3/4 cup Vegetable Oil
- 1/2 cup Milk – I use whole milk but any kind of milk will work
For the Vanilla Buttercream
- 3 sticks Unsalted Butter
- 24 ounces (1.5 pounds) Powdered Sugar
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 2 to 3 tablespoons Milk – amount depends on how thick you'd like the frosting
Instructions
To Make the Cupcakes
- Begin by preheating the oven to 325 degrees. Place cupcake liners into two muffin tins for a total of 24 cupcakes.
- Pour white cake mix and the instant vanilla pudding into a large mixing bowl. Set the dry ingredients aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, vegetable oil, and milk until well combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl and stir until mixture is fully incorporated.
- Pour cupcake batter into each liner of the muffin tin, you want them to be about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way full. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool fully before frosting the cupcakes.
To Make the Vanilla Bean Buttercream
- Add softened butter to the bowl of a standing mixer. Beat butter on a high setting for about 5 minutes, then change it to a low speed. Slowly add in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl as needed until sugar is mixture is fully combined.
- Add the milk and vanilla extract to the frosting, mix on a low speed until ingredients are well incorporated, then switch back to a high speed for an additional 5-8 minutes or until light and creamy. Frost the cupcakes, serve, and enjoy!
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