Make and Decorate a 4th of July Cake

Complete your 4th of July celebration meal with a beautifully decorated flag cake. Whether you use icing or a fruit and cream topping, either one of these cakes are sure to complement your meal.

My aunt bought me my first decorating bag and tips over twenty years ago, and I have used them for occasions such as this for years.

Before you begin, a list of supplies are needed: Cake mix or recipe, prepared icing or recipe, ruler, cardboard square-found in craft stores or the craft section of your local department store, food coloring, decorating bags, coupler and star tips #16 and #199. If you decide to make a fruit-topped cake, you will need 3 cups whipped topping, not in an aerosol can, 2 pints of blueberries, 3 pints of sliced strawberries, cut in half lengthwise, and a 1/2 cup of confectioner's sugar, in addition to everything above, except the icing and food coloring.

After you have baked the cake, let it cool fifteen to twenty minutes in the pan, then let it cool two to three hours on a wire rack. The cake must be completely cooled before you begin, or the icing will melt. Then level your cake by cutting off any rounding on the top of the cake.

Iced Cake

For the buttercream icing you will need 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening, 1/2 cup butter or margarine, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 4 cups (1 pound) sifted confectioner's sugar, and 2 tablespoons of milk. In a large bowl, cream butter and shortening with an electric mixer, then add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl often. At this point, the icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at high speed until light and fluffy. Keep icing covered with a damp cloth until your ready to decorate.

First, put one-third of the icing in a separate bowl, add 2 tablespoons of milk and mix. Using a rubber spatula, spread over the entire cake. Now divide the remaining icing into thirds and put into three separate bowls. Color one bowl of the divided icing blue, one red and leave the other bowl white.

Using your ruler, measure out a 3 inch by 4 inch box in the upper left-hand corner of the cake. Mark the area by using a piece of string, held taut, and pressing it down into the icing to make an indentation. You may also use your ruler to do this, but the mark left by the string is easier to cover than that of the ruler. Next measure the width of your cake and divide the total number of inches by 13. Mark each section for the 13 stripes using your string or ruler.

Fill a decorating bag with blue icing and with the #16 tip, fill in the three by four inch square you outlined at the top left-hand corner of the cake. With a decorating bag with red icing and with the #16 tip begin filling in the stripes. The first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh stripe is red. Each stripe should take about two rows of icing to fill it in. With a decorating bag of white icing and the #16 tip, fill in the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth stripe. With the white icing, pipe the stars on the flag. There are nine staggered rows, five of the rows have six stars and the remaining rows have five stars. Even-though it won't be the proper way, you might find it easier to pipe ten staggered rows with five stars on each one.

With the white icing and the #199 tip, finish the cake by placing a border around the bottom of the cake.

Berry Topped Cake

Whip the cream with the confectioner's sugar and spread around the sides of the cake. Make a square with the blueberries in the upper-left hand corner of the cake. Using the star tip # 16, pipe rows of cream alternating with rows of strawberries to make the "stripes" of the flag, then pipe the "stars" of the cake on top of the blueberries.