Red, White, and Blue Festive Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a medium-sized bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and oil together on medium-high speed until completely combined. This will only happen if the butter is fully at room temperature. About 2-3 minutes.
With the mixer on low speed, stream in the granulated sugar then beat on medium speed until combined and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well on low speed in between each addition, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary. Add the vanilla extract and mix on low-medium speed until combined.
With the mixer on low, add half of the dry ingredients. Once almost fully incorporated, add half of the milk and mix until almost combined. Repeat this with the other halves of the dry ingredients and the milk. Do not over mix.
Divide the batter evenly amongst the cupcake cups. The batter should be the perfect amount for 12 regular-sized cupcakes. Fill the liners until they are ½-3/4 of the way full.
Bake the cupcakes for 16-18 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

In a medium-sized bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter by itself on medium-high speed for 1-2 minutes until smooth and creamy.
Add the powdered sugar, salt, vanilla extract and milk/heavy cream and beat until combined. You may need to add more powdered sugar (to thicken) or milk (to thin) depending on the desired consistency.
Separate the buttercream evenly into different bowls. For red, white, and blue cupcakes we need three bowls, but if you are doing other colors and need more, so be it!
Add a drop of food coloring to each of your bowls and mix to combine. Take a piece of wax paper (my favorite), parchment paper or saran wrap and spread the frostings vertically along the wax paper. They can be touching each other/slightly layering each other. I like to cut my wax paper into an 8x8 inch square, spread on the frosting, then cut off the excess paper if need be.
Roll up the wax paper so the frosting is rolled on top of one another. Cut off the excess ends, place the wax paper in a piping bag with your favorite piping tip.
Once the cupcakes are completely cool, frost the cupcakes with the buttercream. Enjoy!