Tippy Tuesday: Sweet Taste of Independence

I would like to share with my readers what is now a new family tradition for us -- a real flag cake! I'm not just talking about the typical strawberries and blueberries used to decorate a cake as a flag. I found the idea here. Props to this young lady for having a practical passion and pursuing it -- she's even been featured on the news! Seemed simple enough and very unique, so I had to try it! And as an added bonus, I'm breaking down and giving you all my secret to souping up boxed cake mix to be an incredibly moist, tender cake. Non-readers might be sorry! ;-)

2 boxes white cake mix

2-3 cans cream cheese frosting

1 tube red food coloring gel

1 tube blue food coloring gel

6 eggs

2 cups buttermilk*

1 cup vegetable oil

Parchment paper

Butter

*If you don't have buttermilk (who does?), use 2 tablespoons lemon juice and add enough milk to make 2 cups. It's a 1 Tbs to 1 cup ratio. Let sit 5 minutes.

Line the bottoms of 2-3 round cake pans with parchment paper. Using a paper towel, lightly coat the paper with butter. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 (adjust to 325 for dark pans). Combine the cake mix, eggs, buttermilk, and oil in a mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat on medium 2 minutes. Use a 1 cup measure to evenly divide the batter into three separate bowls, being careful to get it as exact as you can. In one bowl, thoroughly mix in all of the red gel. In another bowl, thoroughly mix in all of the blue gel. Leave the remaining bowl white. Pour each batter into a cake pan. Bake as directed on box, about 30 minutes. Remove to wire rack; cool for 10 minutes. Turn out of pan onto extra sheets of parchment paper; cool completely. Gently peel off parchment circle.

Level tops of cakes to make each layer the same height. (Here I rabbit trail -- I "splurged" on one of those cake leveler things. If I had known years ago it was only $4 at Michaels, I would have been lovin' cake baking a lot more over the years! It makes QUICK and easy work of leveling tops of cakes and splitting layers! GET ONE! End rabbit trail.) Then, split ONLY the red and white layers evenly into two layers each.

ASSEMBLY:

1) Spread some icing on one white half, top with one red half. Place on center of cake plate.

2) Spread some icing on the remaining white half, top with remaining red half.

3) Find a small bowl or coffee cup that, when placed in center of cake layer, will leave about a 2 inch ring. Use either a serrated knife to cut around the object or if the dish has no handle, gently press the object down into the cake to cut a circle. Do this for both the blue layer and one red/white layer.

4) Spread some icing on the red/white layer on cake plate. Place the blue ring on top. Do your best to gently ice the inside of the blue ring (ha! that was the hardest and most-failed part of making this cake). Gently push the small red/white circle into center of blue ring.

Use remaining icing to finish off the cake! I EEKED out using 2 cans. Three would have been much less nail-biting. :-) I used a toothpick dipped in icing to gently drag in towards the center to create the firework effect.

The thing I love about this cake is that it looks so simple on the outside, unobtrusive and not so special. But then when you cut into it... HAPPY 4TH OF JULY, AMERICA!