July 4th Flag Cake Recipes

4TH OF JULY CAKE

Steps:

• For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350˚. Grease and flour a 17-by-12 1/2-inch sheet cake pan. (Note: this recipe may be halved for a smaller pan, as this recipe feeds an army.)
• In a bowl with a mixer, mix the butter and sugar together on high speed until light and fluffy, about a minute or so. Add the eggs, two at a time. Mix after each addition. Add the sour cream and vanilla.
• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cornstarch, kosher salt and baking soda. Turn the mixer to low and gradually add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture, one scoop at a time. Mix after every addition. Keep adding the flour mixture until just combined. Do not over mix!
• Pour the thick cake batter into the prepared pan. (It's much thicker than regular cake batters.) With a knife or offset spatula, spread the cake batter evenly over the pan.
• Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, 20 to 30 minutes. I baked mine for exactly 20 minutes, so you probably want to start checking then.
• For the the cream cheese icing: Add the cream cheese and butter to the bowl of a mixer. Whip to combine. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix until thoroughly combined, scraping the sides once during mixing.
• Put about ½ the frosting on the cake. Mark off the area of the stars with a toothpick. (No need to be proportionately accurate; just guesstimate.) Prepare a pastry bag with a large star tip and fill up to 2/3 with icing. Fold down both corners to keep icing from splurging out the top.
• Grip the folded-down end tightly under your fingertips and start squeezing two lines of frosting at the bottom of the cake. Make two rows of raspberries on the cake, then add another two lines of frosting.
• Keep repeating: two lines of frosting, two lines of raspberries, two lines of frosting, etc.
• Fill the square in the corner with a nice layer of blueberries. With the star tip, squeeze little dollops of frosting all over the blueberries to look like stars.

JULY 4TH FLAG CAKE

Steps:

• Make the cake:
• Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350°F.
• Butter the bottom and sides of a 13- by 9-inch metal baking pan and line the bottom with wax or parchment paper. Butter the paper and dust the pan with flour, knocking out any excess.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the boiling water, cocoa powder, and instant coffee granules until smooth. Whisk in the milk and vanilla.
• In a second medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars and beat on medium until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat on medium until fully incorporated. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour and cocoa powder mixtures in batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. (The batter may look curdled.) Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top, and bake the cake until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan, 35 to 40 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then invert the cake onto the rack, remove the wax or parchment paper, and let it cool completely. DO AHEAD: The unfrosted cake, can be cooled, wrapped securely in plastic wrap, and stored at room temperature up to 24 hours, before assembling and serving.
• Make the frosting:
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese and butter and beat until creamy and smooth, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low, add the sifted confectioners' sugar in three batches, mixing until fully incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is smooth. Chill the frosting in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before assembling the cake.
• Assemble and serve the cake:
• Frost the top and sides of the cake with 2 1/2 cups of the frosting. Transfer the remaining frosting to a pastry bag fitted with the star tip.
• Using a toothpick or small knife, outline a 4 1/2-inch-long by 3 1/2-inch-wide rectangle in the top left corner of the cake. This area will be reserved for blueberries.
• Starting with the longer side of the cake that is closest to you, pipe a line of frosting along the top edge of the cake then arrange two horizontal rows of raspberries directly above the line of frosting. Pipe a second line of frosting above the raspberries and arrange two more horizontal rows of raspberries directly above the frosting. Repeat this process two more times, making sure to exclude the top left corner that is reserved for the blueberries. Arrange the blueberries in horizontal rows in the top left corner of the cake.
• Slice and serve the cake immediately or store it, covered securely in plastic wrap, in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

4TH OF JULY FLAG CAKE

Steps:

• Beat cold milk and instant pudding in a bowl until no lumps remain. Beat cream cheese in a separate bowl until creamy. Gradually add in milk-pudding mixture and mix until smooth. Mix in whipped topping.
• Mix graham cracker crumbs and melted butter in a bowl until crumbs are completely moistened. Spread into a 9x13-inch baking dish and push down to create an even crust.
• Set aside 45 blueberries and 60 raspberries for topping. Mix remaining blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries together in a bowl and pour on top of the graham cracker crust. Spread pudding mixture evenly over the berries, making the top as smooth as possible. Top with reserved blueberries and raspberries to make a flag design.

4TH OF JULY FLAG CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375.
• Mix with a pastry blender flour, butter and powdered sugar.
• Push dough evenly onto a baking sheet.
• Bake about 10 minutes or until golden brown.
• Mix powdered sugar, softened cream cheese and cool whip with a hand mixer until creamy and well blended.
• Spread mixture over crust after it has cooled. Reserve a small amount for "stars.".
• Finish with arranging blueberries and strawberries into American Flag. 7 red strips and 6 white.
• Pipe reserved icing as stars over blueberries.

FOURTH OF JULY FLAG CAKE

Steps:

• Slice one cup of the strawberries and set aside. Halve the remaining strawberries and set aside.
• Line the bottom of a 12x8 baking dish with the pound cake slices. Top with one cup of the sliced strawberries, 1 cup of the blueberries, then all of the whipped topping.
• Place strawberry halves and remaining 1/3 cup blueberries on the whipped topping to create a flag design. (Strawberries should make 5 red stripes, blueberries should make a square in the top left corner using about 55-60 blueberries).

FOURTH OF JULY CUPCAKE FLAG CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375°F (350°F for dark or nonstick pans). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. With 1 box of cake mix, make batter as directed on box, using water, oil and eggs. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (about 2/3 full).
• Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. While 24 cupcakes are baking, make batter with remaining cake mix, water, oil and eggs. Repeat baking and cooling to make 24 more cupcakes.
• While cupcakes are cooling, tint 1 container frosting with blue food color; tint 1 1/2 containers frosting with red food color. Set both aside. Spoon remaining white frosting into decorating bag with large tip.
• On covered board or cutting board, arrange cooled cupcakes into rectangle. Mark off 12 cupcakes to be frosted blue. Pipe thick lines of white frosting onto remaining cupcakes; spread with spatula until smooth. Spoon blue frosting into separate decorating bag; pipe onto the 12 cupcakes and smooth. Carefully move blue section of cupcakes to join other portion of cupcakes.
• Into decorating bag with large star tip, spoon red frosting. Pipe stars in rows to make red stripes. Using smaller star tip, pipe white frosting stars onto blue frosting section.