Flag Cake

I made this cake so excited and it took longer than I thought it would because, as it turns out, my baking soda was old so my cake didn't rise as it should've. But it was tasty and looked so good. I was pretty proud of myself. Try it, its not as hard as you would think!

Independence Day Cake

Recipe Source: 17andBaking.com

The beginning of this post is about assembling the cake. You can use any white cake recipe but you need to use one that is pretty dense, a box mix will be too light and airy. The recipe I used is at the end of this post.

You will need 3 - 9inch layers. 1 blue, 1 red, and one left white.

Bake lay­ers accord­ing to recipe instructions. Let com­pletely cool. Level off the tops of cakes.

Once you have a red layer, a blue layer, and a white layer, you need to slice the red and white layer hor­i­zon­tally with a long, ser­rated knife or Wilton makes a tool made to slice your cakes in half, I found mine at Michaels but I know they have them at Wal-Mart. These lay­ers form the stripes of the cake.

Next, take one red half-layer, and one white half layer and stack them on top of one another. Take the blue layer that hasn't been cut and set it in front of you. Place the stacked red and white layer on top of the blue layer. Check that they are evenly cen­tered on top of one another.

Using a cir­cle tem­plate as a guide, cut a cir­cle exactly cen­tered through all three lay­ers of the blue, white, & red. For this you could use a lid or a small bowl about 5 inches across for a 9inch cake. Try to get as close to this mea­sure­ment as you can so the color ratio looks right. Cut care­fully and mak­e sure you get through all the layers.

Next, sep­a­rate the blue from the red and white lay­ers. Take the mid­dle out of the blue. You won’t use the blue circle, so set it aside. You now have a ring of blue. 

Now remove the out­side ring from the red & white lay­ers. You wont use these either so set them aside. You should have a 5-inch cir­cle con­sist­ing of 1 white half-layer, and 1 red half layer. This will be the top stripes of your flag cake.

To Assemble....

Take the white half-layer that doesnt have the circle out of the center and place it on your cake stand. Spread a layer of frost­ing over the top. Try to keep it as even as you can. Lay the red half-layer that doesnt have the circle cut out of it on top of the frost­ing, mak­e sure it's cen­tered. These make up the bot­tom two stripes of your flag. Frost like the last layer. Make it as even as you can.

Now take the blue donut like cir­cle and cen­ter it on top of the bot­tom stripes. Using a small spat­ula or knife, spread a thin layer of frost­ing around the inside of the blue ring. 

Take the white 5-inch cir­cle and set it inside the blue ring. Push it down as far as you dare so it doesnt break. You want it as even with the blue as you can get it. Spread a thin, thin layer of icing over the white that is inside the blue ring. Place the red cir­cle on top and press down care­fully, try­ing to make the top lay­ers even.

Frost your cake! Keep the cake refrig­er­ated until ready to serve.

White Cake 

Recipe Source: SecretLifeofaChefsWife.com

**This cake makes 2 - 9 inch layers for the Flag Cake, you will need to make this recipe twice and divid­e and col­or­ as directed below before baking.

8 Table­spoons Unsalted But­ter, softened
1/2 cup Veg­etable Shortening
1 Table­spoon Bak­ing Powder
1 3/4 cup Gran­u­lated Sugar
3/4 tea­spoon Salt
2 tea­spoons Pure Vanilla Extract
5 large Egg Whites, room temp
2 3/4 cup Cake Flour, sifted
1 cup Milk, room temp

1. Pre­heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2- 9 inch cake pans. Place parch­ment in the bottom of each pan and grease the bot­tom again. Then tap flour all around the inside as well, tap­ping out the extra flour. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream together but­ter and short­en­ing until very well incor­po­rated and very light in color, about 2 minutes. Add the bak­ing pow­der, sugar, vanilla, and salt and beat one more minute.

3. Add the egg whites one at a time, beat­ing very well and scrap­e down the sides in between each addi­tion. This should take about 5 min­utes. The mix­ture will be very fluffy and thick. Add about 1/4 of the flour, and then 1/3 of the milk. Add another 1/4 flour, another 1/3 milk until you add the last 1/4 cup of flour. Make sure all ingre­di­ents are well incor­po­rated, but don't over beat the bat­ter. 

4. Split your bat­ter in half and add the food col­or­ing at this time. I made one batch and col­ored 1/2 blue, and 1/2 red. It will take quite a bit, espe­cially of the red. To get the white layer you need to make a sec­ond batch of batter, leav­ing it white. You will have a left­over layer of white cake. Use a spat­ula to spread the bat­ter around evenly. 

5. Bake the two lay­ers in the oven for 27–32 min­utes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

6. Remove pans from the oven and let cool 10 min­utes. Use a knife to loosen the edges and care­fully remove from pans and let fin­ish cool­ing on a wire rack. When the cake has cooled com­pletely, wrap it in plas­tic wrap and store in the fridge.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe Source: SecretLifeofaChefsWife.com

3 - 8oz pkgs Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup Unsalted But­ter, softened

1 lb Pow­dered Sugar, sifted

2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

Whip together the cream cheese and but­ter until fluffy. Add the sifted pow­dered sugar. Mix on low until combined then add the vanilla and turn up to medium high until fluffy.

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