American flag cake

I saw pictures for a flag cake and decided I had to attempt it. I saw some with 4 or 5 layers, some with more. But I knew if I was going to do it, I wanted to do 13 stripes like the flag.

I saw this pic and tutorial but no pics to show along the way. So I will share with you how I made mine.

I should start off by saying I will not use a box cake. Although I grew up on them, it goes against the joy and purpose of baking, in my opinion. Plus no preservatives & you know exactly what's in your food. That said, my cake was not as dense as it could've been, since the layers were so thin. Need to work on a better recipe for that. I used my standard buttercream and kept in the fridge until a few hours before serving. That's a lot of cake to have to hold up with that heavy frosting.

I made two 9" red cakes and one 9" blue cake. I put the cakes in the freezer for a few hours, it makes slicing cake easier. Using a serrated knife, I cut each red cake in half, then into halves again (4 layers per cake). You need 7 red layers total, so you will have one extra to snack on.

Assembling and slicing the red.
I made one red cake to match the bottom half of the flag (3 red layers)
and one to match the bottom of the stars on up (4 red layers)



You can see how thin the layers are here
(this is the bottom half since it only has 3 red layers).

Note the flag nearby for accuracy. I used a shortening can lid as a measure for my circle.

Cutting out the middle, using a paring knife up & down.

blue cake!

Now cut out the red middle.
Be sure this cake is chilled before you do this, either in the freezer or fridge.

Centers cut out & flipped.

Detail. This was actually an extra cake so I brought to a Sunday BBQ.
Not a full flag but still cool.

This is the cake I wound up using.

You could switch it but I thought a blue ring outside made more
visual sense (thanks art school).

Switched & assembled.

You can see that the blue is not quite as tall as the red since it has frosting
inbetween the layers. I pushed it down some when I chilled it.

 

I decided to go with piped large stars since it looked more patriotic.
You could frost like normal too - the possibilities are endless.

When using only butter in your buttercream, it will always have a yellow tint.

Decorated with tiny bunting I had printed out & hung on chopsticks.

My festive table!

TA-DA! This was such a hit with everyone - old & young alike, I will totally make it again.

Detail slice.

Enjoy!