If you're looking for something patriotic, or enjoy putting together puzzles out of cake, here's a project to take to your 4th of July cookout (or cook in, as the weather may dictate for some). It's a cake you make that, when assembled, makes each piece into an American flag. Perhaps it's a little gimmicky, but it's pretty cool when you see the entire thing come together.
This cake has been making the rounds on the internet for awhile now, but generally in the form of a recipe and a few assembly photos. Last year my sister Ali and cousin Carly made the cake and I recorded a video. Unfortunately, they ran out of frosting and couldn't finish the cake until the day of the 4th so I've been saving this video for an entire year. If you want to see how this cake is actually made and assembled, a few tips on how to expedite the process, and some of the problems you may run into, watch the video above. Here's what you'll need:
Two vanilla cake mixes (although you might want to get a third just in case you screw something up or want to make a bigger cake), plus any ingredients those mixes call for. You can make the cake from scratch, but we tried it that way this year and it tasted like a sugary egg sponge. Using a mix is faster and it tasted much better to us.
Two containers of vanilla frosting. Any standard-sized store brand will do. (You won't need all the frosting in both containers, but you'll need more than one.)
One bottle of red food dye and one bottle of blue food dye. It's a little troubling, but you'll use it all up.
8" or 9" cake pans, depending on how much cake you're going to get out of the cake mix you bought. (Most cake mixes can make two 9" cakes, so you should be fine either way.)
A 4" cookie tin top (or anything that can cut an even 4" circle out of cake).
Once you've got all that stuff, watch the video above to learn how to make it. It's much easier to see this cake come together than to imagine it based on written instructions, but if you want to march forward blindly (or just have a little bit of textual reference) you can follow the instructions below:
Use one cake mix to make the red cake batter. (You'll probably need the whole bottle of red food dye to get the right color.) This should yield two red cakes. Split the other cake mix in half and mix one half normally (without food dye) and the other half with blue food dye.
Bake the red cakes in your 8" or 9" cake pans (depending on how much you made. When those cakes are done, bake the white cake and the blue cake in the same pans (or at least two more pans that are the same size).
Slice both red cakes horizontally through the middle to create four red layers.
Slice the white cake in half just like the red cake.
Place a small dollop of frosting on the platform where you're going to put the cake so the cake doesn't move around while you're assembling it. Once you've done that, add one of the red layers.
Frost the red layer, being sure to remove any stray crumbs beforehand.
Add one of the white layers, then frost that too.
Add another red layer and frost it. Now you've got the base of your American flag.
Take the blue layer—the only cake that wasn't sliced in half through the middle—and use the 4" cookie tin to cut a circle in the middle. You'll probably need to use a knife to fully remove the center, but however you get it out you can just set it aside—you're not going to need it. (This wouldn't be an American cake if we didn't waste part of it!)
Place the blue layer (with the center missing) on top of the red layer you just frosted, then frost the inside of the blue layer (but not the top—we'll do that in a bit).
From the remaining white layer of cake, use the 4" cookie tin to cut out a circle, then do the same from the red layer. All you need are the circles you cut out of each layer and you can discard the rest.
Place the white circle on the bottom, frost the top of it, and then place the red circle on that frosted top. This will create a cake sandwich.
Place the circular cake sandwich you just made inside the whole in the blue layer. Once you do this, your cake has been completely assembled.
Frost the entire outside of the cake with the remaining frosting.
Add any decorations you want, or just leave it blank and white so it'll be a surprise to whoever cuts into it first.
As you can see from all the steps, the process is a little complicated. That said, this should only take you a little over an hour to make if you're using cake mixes. Enjoy, and happy fourth!