Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place cupcake papers in a cupcake pan. - Set aside.

In a stand mixer, cream the butter with all but 1 ½ tablespoons of the sugar until fluffy.

Add the sifted flour, baking powder, and baking soda, alternating with the milk and vanilla. Mix until combined. Be careful to not over mix.

In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until they are light and fluffy.

Add in the 1 ½ tablespoons of reserved granulated sugar, little by little.

Once the egg whites form peaks, fold them into the cupcake mixture.

Distribute the batter evenly into cupcake liners, filling each liner about ⅔ of the way up.

Bake for 19 - 20 minutes at 350 or until you the toothpick test comes out clean or they spring back when gently pressed in the center.

Make sure your cupcakes are completely cooled before adding the icing. If not the frosting can melt.

Using a stand mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy.

Add in the sifted confectioner's sugar, little by little, alternating with the vanilla and whipping cream.

Mix until fluffy and then divide into three separate bowls. Distribute evenly, I would suggest using a kitchen scale.

Add in the food coloring to 2 of the bowls and mix until the color is even throughout all the buttercream. Reserve the 3rd for the white.

Transfer each color into a piping bag.

Take a piece of plastic wrap and lay it on your counter.

Then take the blue color piping bag and spread a line over the plastic wrap. The line should measure approximately the length of your piping bag. It should fit into the bag and fill it almost completely in length. Repeat once again on top so you have a line that is double the thickness.

Continue doing the same thing for the red color, then the white, and repeat each color once more until there are two blue lines, two white, and two red.

Roll one edge in until it touches the last color which should be white. At the end, the blue touches the white color. This will give you the shape of a cylinder.

Tie up the ends.

Cut one of the ends and place that part into the tip of another piping bag with your decorating tip already in place. This way your swirl of icing will be three colors and the colors won't smudge together.

Pipe a quarter-sized round of frosting in the center of the cupcake- going straight up and down. Don't swirl just yet. This will be the support for the center of the swirl you are about to make so the center doesn't sink.

Then add a large swirl onto each cupcake around the frosting you just added, from the outside inwards, wrapping around the center dollop for a nice colorful swirl.