American Flag Sheet Cake Recipes

THE BEST AMERICAN FLAG SHEET CAKE RECIPE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. Butter and flour an 18x13x1.5-inch sheet pan, or spray with a nonstick baking spray.
• In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric or stand mixer on high speed, until light and fluffy. On medium speed, add the eggs, two at a time until incorporated. Then mix in the sour cream and vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and stir until smooth.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until just combined. Do not over mix. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the top with a spatula.
• Bake for 25-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and cake is golden brown. Let the cake cool to room temperature.
• For the frosting, combine the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Spread about 2/3 of the frosting on top of the cooled cake. Use a toothpick to outline the flag on the frosted cake.
• Fill the upper left corner with blueberries. Use sliced or diced strawberries for the red stripes. Fill a pastry bag with a star tip with the remaining frosting and pipe the white stripes between the rows of strawberries. Pipe the stars between the blueberries.
• Cut into squares and serve. Refrigerate leftovers.

JULY 4TH FLAG CAKE

Steps:

• Make the cake:
• Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350°F.
• Butter the bottom and sides of a 13- by 9-inch metal baking pan and line the bottom with wax or parchment paper. Butter the paper and dust the pan with flour, knocking out any excess.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the boiling water, cocoa powder, and instant coffee granules until smooth. Whisk in the milk and vanilla.
• In a second medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars and beat on medium until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat on medium until fully incorporated. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour and cocoa powder mixtures in batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. (The batter may look curdled.) Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top, and bake the cake until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan, 35 to 40 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then invert the cake onto the rack, remove the wax or parchment paper, and let it cool completely. DO AHEAD: The unfrosted cake, can be cooled, wrapped securely in plastic wrap, and stored at room temperature up to 24 hours, before assembling and serving.
• Make the frosting:
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese and butter and beat until creamy and smooth, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low, add the sifted confectioners' sugar in three batches, mixing until fully incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is smooth. Chill the frosting in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before assembling the cake.
• Assemble and serve the cake:
• Frost the top and sides of the cake with 2 1/2 cups of the frosting. Transfer the remaining frosting to a pastry bag fitted with the star tip.
• Using a toothpick or small knife, outline a 4 1/2-inch-long by 3 1/2-inch-wide rectangle in the top left corner of the cake. This area will be reserved for blueberries.
• Starting with the longer side of the cake that is closest to you, pipe a line of frosting along the top edge of the cake then arrange two horizontal rows of raspberries directly above the line of frosting. Pipe a second line of frosting above the raspberries and arrange two more horizontal rows of raspberries directly above the frosting. Repeat this process two more times, making sure to exclude the top left corner that is reserved for the blueberries. Arrange the blueberries in horizontal rows in the top left corner of the cake.
• Slice and serve the cake immediately or store it, covered securely in plastic wrap, in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

AMERICAN FLAG SHEET CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 13" x 18" rimmed baking sheet - spray with your favorite non-stick spray or wipe down with a bit of oil.
• In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir with a whisk or a wooden spoon to combine.
• Using the back of a wooden spoon, make three indents in the flour mixture. Into one indent, pour the vanilla. Into the second, pour the vinegar. Into the third, add the oil. Pour the water over the top. Stir well until combined.
• Spread the batter in the baking sheet and, using an offset spatula, spread the batter to the edges of the pan, making it as level as possible. Bake for 14-17 minutes; until the sides have pulled away from the edge a bit and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Pull the cake out of the oven and set on a wire rack to cool completely.
• While the cake cools, make the buttercream frosting. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, whip the butter until smooth. Add a cup of powdered sugar and mix in at low speed. Add remaining powdered sugar, a cup at a time, and mix until smooth. Add the vanilla and the milk. Mix until smooth and an easily spreadable consistency. If too thick, add more milk - just a teaspoon at a time, as it thins out easily. If too thin, add more powdered sugar.
• Once the cake is completely cool, frost it with the buttercream - simply smooth it all over the top in a thin, even layer.
• Now, it's time to decorate! Visually divide the cake into thirds and, in the top third, fill in with rows of blueberries. Add rows of halved strawberries next; the amount of stripes depends on the size of your strawberries, so just eyeball it, and if you need to adjust the berries, you can use the tip of the offset spatula or the tip of a spoon to create stripes in between the rows of berries.
• Serve as soon as possible; it can be made ahead of time, but the strawberries will probably start to leak after awhile, so keep that in mind.

AMERICAN FLAG CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and line 4 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper.
• Combine white cake mix, egg whites, vegetable oil, milk, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl. Beat for 30 seconds using an electric mixer on low speed. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 more minutes. The batter will still be slightly lumpy.
• To make the red cakes, measure half the batter into a separate bowl and whisk in red food coloring. Evenly transfer the red batter into 2 of the 8-inch prepared cake pans; smooth tops of batter with a spatula. Transfer half of the remaining uncolored batter into a 3rd prepared cake pan; smooth top as before. This will be the white cake portion.
• Add blue food coloring to the remaining uncolored batter in the large mixing bowl; fold 1 cup white chocolate chips into blue batter until combined. Transfer batter to remaining prepared 8-inch cake pan; smooth top of batter with a spatula.
• Bake all 4 cakes in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Remove the cakes from oven and place onto cooling racks until cooled completely.
• Run a knife around edge of each cooled cake. Invert cakes, remove pans, and peel off parchment paper. Use a sharp knife to trim tops of cakes flat and even.
• Cut both of the red cake layers and the white cake layer in half horizontally. You will have 4 thin red cake layers and 2 thin white cake layers.
• Place a 4-inch round stencil on top of 1 thin red cake layer; cut out a 4-inch red cake round. Repeat, placing stencil on 1 thin white cake layer to make 1 4-inch white cake round. Center the 4-inch round stencil on the blue cake; cut out and remove center portion covered by the stencil to make a blue cake ring.
• To assemble the cake, you will need 2 thin 8-inch red cake layers, 1 thin 8-inch white cake layer, 1 4-inch thin red cake circle, 1 4-inch thin white cake circle, and 1 blue 8-inch cake ring. Reserve the leftover thin red cake layer and other cake pieces for making crumbs for decorating.
• To assemble cake, place 1 8-inch thin red cake layer on a cake pan and frost the top generously with white frosting. Place the thin 8-inch white cake layer on top of the red one, and frost the top. Place remaining 8-inch thin red cake layer atop the white one. Frost the red layer.
• Place the blue ring cake on top of the 2nd red cake layer and carefully frost the inside of the blue cake ring. Gently fit the 4-inch white cake layer into the blue cake ring. Frost the top of the 4-inch white center. Place the 4-inch red cake layer on top of the white one. Gently press small cake circles flush with the top of the blue ring.
• Frost the entire outside of the cake generously with the remaining frosting.
• Crumble red and blue pieces of leftover cake into 2 separate bowls. Score lines into the top of the cake's frosting with a kitchen knife to make a flag design on top of the cake. It should have a 2-inch square at the upper left for blue field and white stars, and 7 thick horizontal stripes about 1 inch wide.
• Fill the square field at the upper left with blue crumbs and press 1 tablespoon white chocolate chips upside-down into the blue crumbs to make 'stars.' Fill the bottom stripe and every other stripe with red crumbs to make red stripes. Sprinkle white sugar generously into the white stripes to make them stand out.
• To serve, cut cake into wedges. The inside of the cake will reveal its layers of red and white stripes and blue field with white chocolate chip stars in every slice.

FLAG CAKE

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Butter and flour an 18 by 13 by 1 1/2-inch sheet pan.
• Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed, until light and fluffy. On medium speed, add the eggs, 2 at a time, then add the sour cream and vanilla. Scrape down the sides and stir until smooth.
• Sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until just combined. Pour into the prepared pan. Smooth the top with a spatula. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool to room temperature.
• For the icing, combine the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mixing just until smooth.
• Spread three-fourths of the icing on the top of the cooled sheet cake. Outline the flag on the top of the cake with a toothpick. Fill the upper left corner with blueberries. Place 2 rows of raspberries across the top of the cake like a red stripe. Put the remaining icing in a pastry bag fitted with a star tip and pipe two rows of white stripes below the raspberries. Alternate rows of raspberries and icing until the flag is completed. Pipe stars on top of the blueberries.
• I serve this cake right in the pan. If you want to turn it out onto a board before frosting, use parchment paper when you grease and flour the pan.