Red, White, & Blue Cake
My baby brother did his entire dorm room in patriotic red, white and blues. We all celebrated with an American feast when mom and dad got their citizenship. We’re a family that’s proud to be American. Though, the bittersweet irony of this post in relation to my last post can be pointed out.
Le sigh, I digress.
In the South, we take our BBQ pretty seriously so while everyone else focuses on the coming carnivorous feast (sorry veggies), I’m always the designated dessert-bringer. I’ve always thought that sugar cookies encrusted with hardened “frosting,” embedded with miscellaneous shards of pointy triangles that were once part of a star were blasé, so I took to bringing cakes to celebrate. Confession #765, I’ve never had a birthday cake, but in my mind, cake = celebration.
Now, of course you can enlist the help of fondant to create a neater presentation but golly do I hate fondant (oh, was I not suppose to admit that)? Admittedly, it looks great but I’m more interested in how something tastes. A good friend of mine who now lives upstate works in a bakery and churns out fondant cakes regularly for clients weddings, showers, etc but for her own wedding, she scrapped the play-doh and slathered her tiers in good, old fashioned buttercream. If y’all completely disagree, just let me know and I will consider doing a fondant tutorial.
For the past 3 years, I’ve done a variation of this cake whether it be in cake or cupcake form so if you’re not looking to wait around for its assembly, be my guest to take the individualized portion route instead.
- 2 sticks + 2 tb soft, unsalted butter
- 2 c sugar
- 2 ts pure vanilla extract
- 9 room temperature egg whites
- 3 c unbleached flour
- 4½ ts baking powder
- 1½ ts salt
- 1½ c room temperature whole milk
- 4 sticks soft, unsalted butter
- 6-8 c sifted powdered sugar*
- 2 ts pure vanilla extract
- 1/s ts fine salt
- 2-4 tb cream
- In your first bowl, cream together your butter and sugar. You want to cream for at least 5 minutes and reach a pale, fluffy blonde color.
- Tip in your vanilla and slowly stream in your eggs.
- In your second bowl, sift in all of your dry ingredients. Slowly add this to your first, “wet” bowl.
- Alternate with milk but begin and end with your dry bowl.
- Evenly pour into three well greased and parchment lined 8″ tins. Bake at 350 for 22-25 minutes.
- Cool completely and meanwhile, work on your buttercream.
- Break up all 5 sticks of butter with your mixer and slowly add in your sugar (1/2 c-1 c at a time). Add in your vanilla and salt and cream as needed.
- Assemble as demonstrated in the video.
Now for those of you that are concerned about food colors, here are a few alternatives to consider:
Natural Food Dyes: the only downside to these are that I found them to be a bit pricy and I went through mine in a couple months.
Homemade colors can be extracted from natural sources. The only cons for me: sometimes, it takes more to attain a brighter depth of color but this can possibly be taken care of with produce that is naturally richer in pigment and “stain” effortlessly (like beets) and sometimes this can impact the consistency of my batter/frostings not to mention, I always get paranoid about the taste bleeding in. This can sometimes be combated by utilizing a juicer to expel it’s liquid instead of blitzing them in a processor.
Red/Pink Options: Currants/Cranberries, Pomegranates, Cherries, Raspberries, Beets, Hibiscus Flowers/Tea, Red Wine
Blue/Purple: Blueberries, Blackberries, Acai, Grape Juice
Green: Kale, Spinach
Orange/Yellow: Carrots, Turmeric Powder, Saffron
There are other options, but these are just what I’ve experimented with before. Additionally, crumbled, freeze dried fruits are nice to work with but again, can be expensive.
I realize that it’s a bit early to be thinking about the 4th of July but what am I if not a bit of an overzealous Squishy Monster?
Love Always,
Your Squishy Monster
‹ 4th of July Layer Cake Partyin’ like it’s 1999 ›
Hi,
I love your 4th of July cake, the red, white, and blue does look fantastic, really enjoyed the video.
Whoa! that looks delicious!
and so does the cake…
that little piece is huge!
Very colorful and delicious looking Angie.
xoxo.
Les.
A fantastic video my friend for a cake which rocks my socks
Ohhhhhhhhhh!! Amazing. I’ve never made layered cake and even one layer it’s super rare (LOL)! I love this triple layers of red, white and blue!
Southern BBQ – I’m there.
Cake – I’m there.
Southern BBQ & cake – I still around.
Awesome colours Squishy! I always find that bright blue in cake seems like such an odd colour. Great list of alternative colourings though. I’ve actually got nice fresh beets at home right now… I was thinking about using them in a cake so I’ll see how it turns out, colouring-wise!
Thanks for the list!
For some reason, I love colored food. Do you remember that green ketchup they had for a while? LOVED IT.
http://www.glamkittenslitterbox.com/
Twitter: @GlamKitten88
Ha, we were clearly thinking along the same brain waves- See my most recent post! I really like your layer cake, especially the way you frosted the exterior to match. Stunning!
bbq is a wonderful wonderful thing! so is that cake!! i love the colors and im sure it tastes delicious!
-Jessica
http://runninginsideus.blogspot.com/
bird isn’t the word–it’s bbq, lol. I’ve created a monster! I know what I’m having for dinner tonight =D
You know what they say about great minds…
I do. I wish they made pink ketchup, lol
Lemme know how it works out for you, Charles! (I think beets are one of the best things to use).
This is what I need to be eating tonight! I seriously think I created a monster, lol.
C’mon over and have some with me, Nami!!
You are always sweet, my friend =D I hope you have a great weekend!!!
Thank you, Les. I hope everything went alright this week and that your weekend is pleasant and without (too much) sadness
lol…you’re a devil. so, if Tommy hasn’t filled the spot…;)
Thank you! I hope you have a great one, my friend!!
looks so colorful and yummy, totally perfect for the 4th! Have a great one beautiful! xx
Straight from the mouth of a beauty queen
Angie. Love your nail color on both videos. Both cakes are wonderful. Your fourth of july cake is my computer back ground for a few days.We just came from my sister’s visitation. Her funeral and burrail is tomorrow.
A safe and happy Fourth of July to you and your family Angie.Thank you…
xoxoxo.
Les.
“Overly zealous Squishy Monster” – love this! You should change the name of your blog, ahhah.
Cake looks delish, obvs. Everyone’s going to be so excited you brought it – and the video tutorial is such a great idea! So much easier to learn.
So, if it has that many egg-whites, does that mean it’s healthy?? Hope so. Or if not, we can just pretend, yes?
Great post. Looks really time consuming, so I commend you. Have a great 4th!
-Gabrielle
omg that cake is stunning! so festive!
What a gorgeous, patriotic cake! I agree about fondant…ick. And thanks for the tips about natural food dye sources…red dye tastes awful, so I’d love to find an alternative
That is such a fun cake! I love how patriotic it is. Perfect for the 4th!
Thanks Joanne! I love a girl who eats well with others
No problemo! =D
Thanks ya’ll! =D
Wow, what a gorgeous, show-stopping cake! Well done.
(I don’t like fondant either.)
Thanks, Valerie!
Angie, it’s reasons like THIS why I asked you to guest post for me! This looks fantastic, and I’m not even from the States! I want to faceplant into it right now. Make me a version for St George’s Day, perhaps pretty please?! (although don’t ask me when it is, I have no idea…March, I think?!)
You are too sweet, Tom!
What a beautiful cake! This looks amazing!!!
Thanks! I hope you enjoyed your 4th!!
This is a gorgeous cake! A true beauty.
You are very good with instructions on video!
you are so kind, thank you!!!
Hi!!! I just discovered your blog and I loved it … I will try more than one of your recipes. Thanks for publishing
Tartas Madrid
Welcome aboard!! =)