I used to at all times make my Flag Cake recipe each 4th as a result of it’s a practice. However I’m going to allow you to in on a bit of secret…currently I’ve been dishonest and making a semi-homemade model as a substitute!

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After you’ve crossed state traces to purchase the GOOD fireworks (shh, I gained’t inform), threaded rooster onto numerous skewers, and prepped your potato salad, you don’t have plenty of time left to make dessert to your Fourth of July celebration. Do you:
- A) Seize a clamshell container of unhappy, dry grocery retailer cupcakes with gobs of crimson, white, and blue frosting on high? Then watch your visitors scrape off the frosting, gingerly take a chew, and discretely toss the remainder?
- B) Skip the dessert as a result of… Fruit Salad is sort of like a dessert, proper?
- Or C) Escape the beaters and make a Flag Cake from scratch as a result of is it even Fourth of July with out it?
In case your reply is C, I’m with you, pal, however life currently has been busy!
As an alternative, listed below are two straightforward choices to make a shortcut flag your visitors will completely adore:
- Make the frosting, not the cake. Use a yellow or white cake from a boxed combine, and make a do-it-yourself cream cheese frosting whereas it bakes. (I exploit the one in my unique Flag Cake recipe). I discover cake mixes are fairly nice, however premade frostings are too cloying. Your visitors will assume it’s 100% from scratch!
- No time for both? Decide up an undecorated sheet cake with vanilla frosting (Costco makes a GREAT one).
- Much less-fuss slicing. As an alternative of slicing the strawberry skinny and arranging them in fanned rows, reduce them in half length-wise and line one up subsequent to the opposite, uncut sides dealing with up.
Tricks to Make It Shine
- Prep Forward-ish. Should you’re utilizing the cake combine (or going the additional mile and doing it from scratch), you’ll be able to bake the cake a day early. Frost and enhance simply earlier than serving to maintain it recent, although. (Should you’re bringing this to a celebration, you’ll be able to convey it frosted, however I nonetheless advocate including the berries simply earlier than serving if in any respect potential.)
- Make Positive Your Berries Are DRY. Rinse the berries and gently pat them dry to maintain them from making your frosting watery.
- Add Patriotic Sprinkles. Utilizing a boxed combine? Add some crimson, white, and blue jimmies for a patriotic Funfetti cake.
- Get the Servings You Want. Bake the cake in a half sheet pan (a la my unique Flag Cake) and also you’ll get 24 servings out of this dangerous boy. Or get fewer, thicker slices in a 9×13 pan.
