American Flag Cake
(Courtesy of All Recipes)
Ingredients:
3 (10.25 ounce) packages white cake mix
9 egg whites
1 cup vegetable oil
3 3/4 cups milk
2 Tbspns clear vanilla extract
2 Tbspns red food coloring
1 Tbpn blue food coloring
1 cup white chocolate chips
10 cups fluffy white frosting
1 Tbspn white chocolate chips or as needed
2 Tbspns white sugar or as needed
1 (4-inch) round paper or cardboard stencil
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350
Grease and line 4 (8 - inch) round cake pans with parchment paper
Combine white cake, 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 be slightly lumpy
To make the red cakes, measure 1/2 the batter into a separate bowl and whisk in red food coloring
Evenly transfer the red batter into 2 of the 8-inch round cake pans
Smooth tops of batter with a spatula
Transfer half of the remaining uncolored batter into the 3rd round cake pan
Smooth the top as before (This will be the white portion of the cake)
Add blue food coloring to the remaining uncolored batter in the large mixing bowl
Fold 1 cup white chocolate chips into the blue batter until combined
Transfer blue batter to remaining 8-inch round cake pan
Smooth the top of the batter with a spatula
Bake all 4 cakes in the oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, this should take about 30 minutes of baking
Remove the cakes from the oven and let cool completely
Run a knife around the 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 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 and 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 layer, 1 thin 8-inch 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 and frost the top
Place remaining 8-inch thin red cake layer on top of the white one and frost
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 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 to 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 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 Tbspn of 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 stand out
To serve cake, cut cake into wedges
The inside of the cake will reveal it's layers of red and white stripes and blue field with white chocolate chip stars in every slice
