4th Of July American Flag Cake Recipe

The 4th of July is one of the best holidays for making color-themed desserts. Combinations of red, white, and blue can show up in pies, cookies, ice cream, and of course ... cake. I have eaten my fair share of 4th of July American flag cakes over the years, but most of them were dry and prepared from box mixes and purchased tubs of frosting or Cool Whip. If you want to wow your July 4th crowd this year with a truly festive-looking AND tasting dessert, this flag cake recipe is for you. Tender vanilla cake with a hint of almond and swirls of red and blue is topped with a silky white chocolate and mascarpone icing and decorated with summer-ripe blueberries and raspberries. I based this recipe on my favorite white velvet cake, which has a tender crumb and literally melts in your mouth with each bite. And the icing is so good, you might want to put it on every cake, no matter what time of year. The combination of the tangy mascarpone and the buttery white chocolate is sublime with the fresh berries.

What I love about this cake is that it is great served straight from the icebox or at room temperature, allowing the icing to soften. It is designed to be cut and served from the pan, meaning it is portable and ready for any 4th of July activities you have planned. You can also make the design your own, using the extra icing for stars and decorative borders. Adding a few sparkling candles would also be a perfect way to wish America a happy birthday!

A successful 4th of July American flag cake starts with quality ingredients handled at the proper temperature. Dry ingredients for the cake include cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and fine salt. You will alternate the dry ingredients with room-temperature buttermilk when adding to a creamed mixture of softened unsalted butter, granulated sugar, canola oil, vanilla and almond extracts. Make sure you are using pure vanilla and almond rather than artificially-flavored products. The combination of both butter and oil in this cake recipe keeps it moist and tender. Rather than using whole eggs, you will whip the whites to soft peaks before folding into the batter. Have your whites at room temperature to get the most volume out of them. You will color a portion of your cake batter with red and blue gel food colors. Using a gel or paste food color will not thin out the batter the way liquid food color will. To make the icing you will need confectioner's sugar, more softened unsalted butter, Italian mascarpone cheese, and a bit more of the vanilla and almond extracts. To finish the icing you will mix in melted and cooled white chocolate. Do not use white baking bars or chips, as these products will not have a sufficient cocoa butter percentage to evenly melt and blend seamlessly into the cake batter. For creating the flag, choose ripe yet firm fresh blueberries and raspberries.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with non-stick baking spray.

In a large bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Cream together the butter and sugar with a stand or hand mixer until pale and fluffy.

Slowly mix in the oil and extracts.

Add ⅓ of the dry ingredient mix, mixing well.

Add half of the buttermilk.

Continue to mix in the dry ingredients alternating with the buttermilk.

In a separate mixing bowl with a clean attachment or beaters, whip the egg whites to soft peaks.

Mix the whipped egg whites into the cake batter in 2 additions.

Remove 2 (¾-cup) portions of cake batter into small bowls.

Tint one bowl red and the other blue using the food gel colors.

Spread the remaining white batter in the pan.

Drop colored batter dollops on top of the white batter.

Swirl with the tip of a sharp knife to lightly marble the batter.

Bake the cake for about 30 minutes, until a tester inserted comes out clean (do not overbake).

Cool the cake completely in the pan.

While the cake is baking and cooling, melt the white chocolate in a heat-proof microwave-safe bowl at 30-second intervals on medium power. Cool to room temperature.

Cream together the butter and confectioner's sugar until light.

Add the mascarpone and extracts, mixing just until smooth.

Drizzle in the melted and cooled white chocolate and beat on medium for about 1 minute.

Spread a layer of icing on the cooled cake in an even layer. Reserve the remainder for decorating.

Make a rectangle of blueberries in the top left corner.

Make stripes with the raspberries, leaving rows of the white icing in between.

Transfer the remaining icing to a pastry bag fitted with a small star tip and pipe icing stars between the blueberries and a border around the cake (if desired).

Refrigerate the cake until ready to serve.

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The portable nature of this cake makes it perfect for 4th of July potlucks and picnics. It is also a great dessert to make ahead of time so that it can be pulled out of the refrigerator and transported on the busiest of holidays. The cake itself can be baked up to 3 days before serving, or frozen for up to a week. Freezing the cake will actually make it a bit more moist as an added bonus. Just make sure you wait to ice the cake until after it has thawed. If you want to freeze your baked cake, allow it to cool completely, then wrap it in 2 layers of plastic wrap or a layer of plastic covered with foil. The icing is easiest to work with if it is made right before you want to apply it to the cake. Trying to re-whip or spread cold icing will result in separation due to trapped moisture.

If you are lucky enough to have leftovers, transfer them to a smaller container or individual plates and wrap them with plastic. Keep the extra cake refrigerated until you're ready to eat it. Extra cake can also be frozen, just be sure that you don't freeze cake that was already frozen once before.

This white velvet-esque cake was designed specifically around the use of cake flour. Cake flour yields a more delicate crumb and a soft, fine texture. This is in part due to the fact that cake flour has a lower gluten content than all-purpose flour, resulting from containing less gluten-forming protein. Cake flour is also more finely milled and bleached, which gives cakes a light, tender interior and a more even crumb. Simply substituting all-purpose flour into this recipe will create a heavier and more porous texture.

So what can you do if you don't have cake flour on hand? A hack I learned in culinary school decades ago was to mix ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons bleached all-purpose flour with 2 tablespoons cornstarch. Why the cornstarch? Substituting cornstarch for part of the flour helps to lower the overall protein and gluten content, plus it adds some extra tenderness. It isn't perfect, but this is a great substitute in a pinch and will keep your cake from being too heavy or dry.

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