The Four Best Desserts for Your 4th of July Celebration

No matter whom you have at your 4^th of July gathering this year, these desserts and treats are sure to be a hit with everyone, children and adults alike!

Pretzel Sparklers
long rod pretzels
white chocolate, melted
sprinkles (red, white and blue) or star cake decorations

Melt the white chocolate. Dip the pretzel rod halfway into the melted chocolate then sprinkle the sprinkles over the wet chocolate. Lay on waxed paper or place in a cup to dry.

Peanut Butter Sundaes

1/4 cup peanut butter
1 tbsp butter or margarine, softened
1 tbsp light corn syrup
1 pint (2 cups) vanilla ice cream
4 tsp chopped, dry roasted peanuts
1/2 cup hot fudge ice cream topping
1/4 cup whipped cream, if desired
4 maraschino cherries, if desired

In a small bowl, combine peanut butter, margarine and corn syrup; blend well. Spoon 1/4 cup ice cream into each of four 6 to 8 oz clear plastic or paper cups. Top each with peanut butter mixture and peanuts. Spoon another 1/4 cup ice cream into each cup; press down gently. Cover each cup with foil. Freeze 30 minutes or until ready to serve.

To serve, spoon 2 tablespoons ice cream topping into each cup. Top each with hot fudge, whipped cream and cherry.

Star Cookies

Blue food coloring

Red food coloring

Your favorite cookie dough

Use food coloring paste to tint one third of the dough red and another third blue, kneading the dough to evenly distribute the color. Leave the last third untinted. Chill the dough until it's firm, then roll out each color and cut out a bunch of larger stars.

With a medium-size cutter, cut a star from the center of each large star.
Now use the medium stars to fill in the centers of contrasting larger stars, lightly pressing them in place.
Lightly press the medium stars into the larger stars' centers.
Using a third, smaller cutter, you can even create tricolored stars.

American Flag Cake

2 pints of strawberries
1 recipe of your favorite white or yellow cake
1 1/3 C of blueberries
1 tub of whipped topping

Mix up and bake your favorite cake mix or recipe. Let cool.

Slice 1 cup of strawberries, set aside. Halve remaining strawberries, set aside.

Top cake (in pan) with 1 cup sliced strawberries, 1 cup blueberries and all of the whipped topping. Arrange remaining strawberry halves and blueberries on whipped topping to create a flag design. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Enjoy!