“Happy Birthday America” Flag Cake

I have made this cake a dozen times and tried several different recipes. My all time favorite is known as a “white almond sour cream cake” (WASC). It is often used by professional bakers for wedding cakes because it is dense and easy to stack. The recipe uses a box mix as the base but adds enough ingredients to taste homemade. This flag design is sure to make your friends and family “ooh” and “aah” when you cut into it! Don’t forget to top it with candles and sing “Happy Birthday America” before cutting.

Cake Ingredients:

2 boxes of white cake mix
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 2/3 cups water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sour cream
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of almond extract
8 large egg whites

Frosting Ingredients:

2 cups vegetable shortening
8 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup whipping cream (6 – 8 ounces)

Sprinkles (red, white and blue)

9″ Round Cake Pans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a very large mixing bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Add remaining ingredients, and blend together with electric mixer for 2 minutes. If you don’t have a large enough mixing bowl, divide the ingredients into two separate bowls for mixing.

3. Divide the batter as follows:

WHITE, 4 1/2 cups batter (3 layers, 1 1/2 cups each)

RED, 6 cups batter (4 layers, 1 1/2 cups each): Add about 1 T. of red food coloring and 1 T. cocoa to obtain a rich red color.

BLUE, 3 cups batter (1 layer, 3 cups batter): Add about 1 1/2 t. of blue food coloring to obtain a rich blue color.

4. Pour batter into greased and floured cake pans (this will help to come out easily without breaking). You can also cut out a piece of parchment paper to cover the bottom of the pan, or purchase parchment paper rounds.

4. Cook the white and red layers for about 12-14 minutes each. The thicker blue layer will take about 20-25 minutes.

5. Allow cake layers to completely cool (see image 1).

6. If cakes seem uneven, use a cake leveler (a great tool that you can get for between $3 and $10).

7. FROSTING: Cream shortening with electric mixer until fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue mixing until well-blended. Add salt, vanilla, and whipping cream; blend on low speed until moistened. Increase speed to high, and blend until icing is fluffy.

8. ASSEMBLE CAKE: Begin with a red layer on the bottom and begin frosting between layers as you alternate red and white. Stop at 5 layers (see image 2).

9. Frost between the final two layers of read and white. Using a small bowl (I used a 5″ diameter bowl), make an indentation in the cakes to help you cut out a small circle (see image 3).

10. Place these final layers on top of the cake and frost around the edges (see image 4).

Image 1	Image 2	Image 3	Image 4
Image 5	Image 6	Image 7	Image 8

11. Using the same small bowl, make an indentation in the blue cake and cut out the center (see image 5).

12. Place the blue layer around the top red and white layer (see image 6). You can use the leftover cake to make patriotic cake pops!

13. Frost the cake and add red, white and blue sprinkles to the top (see image 7).

14. Surprise your friends and family when you cut into this patriotic cake (see image 8).

NOTE: This recipe make about 14 cups of batter. You can adjust the amount of batter you use to make more or less layers. I like to make 7 layers, but Better Crocker’s Flag Cake is beautiful with 5 layers (about 2 cups per layer for red and white — 4 cups for the blue using my recipe).

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