America's Birthday Cake!

Today I woke up at 2am, and drove (very carefully) under the stars, so that I could celebrate America's birthday early with all of Madison, Wisconsin at WKOW 27 with this American Flag cake and cupcakes!

An American flag inside of a cake! That in and of itself is a celebration that you can eat!

Typically, I decorate the outside of everything with crazy swirls, colors, and sprinkles.  It was challenging for me to keep the whipped cream frosting on the outside simple and plain. But this time, it was time for the cake that was hiding to shine (or sparkle like a firework?)!

This is how I constructed an American flag inside of a cake (and it is easier than you think, you just have to think inside out):

• I mixed enough of my favorite white cake batter to make seven 7 round 8" layers of cake.
• 3 of my layers were Americolor Gel Paste Super Red.
• 3 of my layers were White.
• 1 of my layers was Americolor Gel Paste Electric Blue.
• After the cakes baked and cooled, I cut the red and white layers in half. After I cut them in half, they were about 3/4" tall.  
• I did not cut the blue layer in half.  I trimmed any excess cake off of the top of the blue cake so that it was level, but still thicker than the rest of the cake layers.
• Using a 4" round template made out of card stock, I cut a hole out of the center of 1 white layer and 1 red layer. At this point, I was done with these layers-they didn't go anywhere else on my cake.   I may or may not have eaten some pieces of them! I did keep the red & white rounds and set them aside for later. These are important for creating the final masterpiece.
• Using my 4" round template, I cut another hole out of the center of the blue cake.  
• I stacked each layer on top of each other in this order (applying thin layers of frosting to the top of each layer as I built the flag cake): Red, White, Red, White, Blue.
• As soon as my cake was stacked, I lightly frosted the 4" red & white cake rounds I cut out earlier. I filled the hole in the blue cake with the circles.  First with the red layer. Second with the white layer.  
• I used a simple whipped frosting to decorate the outside of the cake, and topped the cake with sparkly stars and a glitzy Uncle Sam hat.

When I cut open the cake, my breath was taken away.It was beautiful.

But there was something missing. Glitter and sprinkles. So I added mini white stars by hand.

Then I got to thinking, next time I make this cake I may just add the mini white star sprinkles to the batter!

'Merica is the home of the free...and the delicious.

Leftover batter was used to make matching cupcakes!

Do you see the mason jars with cupcakes inside of them and firework cupcake toppers?

I used the leftover cake trimmings to make little mason jar parfaits!

Those would be a hit at a picnic for the 4th of July.

Happy Birthday, America!!!!!!

(I always find an Ellen cutout whenever I go to the TV studio and take a picture. It's tradition. She is one of the people that has inspired me to become Amanda Cupcake!)