Flag Cake!

Flag Cake! Lemon Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

Adapted from Delectable Deliciousness

Well it's raining again..... But I'd use this as an excuse to put on some good music (Florence and the Machine is great baking music), some funky clothes (hawaiian flower print shorts), and bake a cake! A patriotic cake! Just in time for our little holiday known as 4th of July. Then tomorrow, the sun will come out and both the cake and the hawaiian shorts can be put to good use.

I made this cake last year for 4th of July and took it to my neighborhood party. Not only was it delicious but the presentation was a huge hit! It's a pretty dense cake and since there were so many other baked goods at my neighborhood extravaganza last year I had leftovers to pedal on down to Gasworks park with where my friends and I ate even MORE cake and watched the fireworks. It was a good day. 

I will warn you that the assembling of the cake layers is quite a challenge and I would caution anyone who might attempt this cake to read through the directions several times first. (Really.) The best part about this cake is that you'll have leftover cake as you assemble the layers to munch on and make sure everything tastes ok! Rewards for all the hard work. 

Ingredients for 2 layers of cake: **** You must make 1 and 1/2 batches for this cake!!! One layer will be dyed red, one dyed blue, and one left plain. 

2 1/4 cup cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk

4 large egg whites

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

Red food dye
Blue food dye

Directions for cake: 

1. Preheat oven to 350. Prep two 9 inch cake pans. 

2. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt. 

3. Wisk milk and egg whites in a separate bowl.

4. In an electric mixer combine sugar and lemon zest. Add butter and lemon extract. 

5. Add half of flour mix and half of egg mix. Then add the other half of flour mix and egg mix. 

6. Mix until all ingredients are fully incorporated. 

7. Pour into pie pans and bake 30 min. 

Ingredients for frosting: *** Double the recipe to make sure you have a good thick layer of frosting! And from these photos you can see I spread it nice and thick. 

5 ounces good quality white chocolate, chopped fine

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

pinch salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup sour cream

Directions for frosting:

1. Melt white chocolate in microwave by heating in small 30 second intervals. Set aside to cool. 

2. In a mixer beat butter then add powdered sugar until combined fully. 

3. Add salt, vanilla, and sour cream.

4. Add white chocolate and mix until done! 

How to Assemble:

1. Cut red and white cakes horizontally so you have two layers of each.

2. Place one layer of red on your surface topped by one layer of white with a layer of frosting in between. 

3. Stack the remaining red and white layers with blue on top on a separate work area. (no frosting)

4. Place a small bowl in the center of the stack of red, white, and blue, and carefully cut out a circle through all 3 layers. 

5. Set the red and white outer parts and the blue circle aside to be munched on.

6. Stack the red circle topped by the white circle on top of your bottom layers with frosting in between.

7. Finally put the blue outer portion around the red/white circles with frosting. 

8. Finish frosting the entire outside and top of cake.

9. Decorate with fresh blueberries and strawberries if desired. 

10. You're finished! Cut a slice for presentation.