Photo from White Lily Flour
From Denny: We eat with our eyes before we eat with our taste buds. This pretty patriotic cake sure gets your attention! Red, white and blue layers of cake are slathered with Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting and decorated with summer fresh blueberries and strawberries.
For a beginner baker - or if you are pressed for time and don't want to fuss with a difficult icing - this easy cake is for you. The cake layers are made from scratch and use buttermilk for great taste and texture, much like using sour cream in a cake or muffin.
When you finish icing the cake and have to wait a few hours before serving, hold off on the fruit garnish. With cakes like this I like to garnish with fruit as I serve the slices. That way you don't have to be concerned about the fruit starting to break down its juices and start to run watery all over your perfect cake and icing, sliding off like some summer park water slide! :)
Have a great Fourth of July weekend and thanks for visiting!
Independence Day Cake
From: White Lily Flour and The J.M. Smucker Co.
Makes: 12 servings
Ingredients:
Nonstick cooking spray
3-1/2 cups bleached all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1-1/2 tsps. baking powder
1-1/2 tsps. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1-1/4 cups buttermilk
1-1/4 cups all-vegetable shortening OR 1ø sticks all-vegetable shortening sticks
5 large egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. almond extract
1 tbl. red food coloring
1 tbl. blue food coloring
Garnish:
Fresh blueberries and strawberries, optional
Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting:
2 cups butter, softened
2-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. almond extract
1 (13-oz.) jar marshmallow cream
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat three 8-inch round pans with nonstick cooking spray. Line bottom of pans with parchment paper, cut to fit. Coat paper with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda in large bowl. Add buttermilk and shortening. Beat with electric mixer at medium speed for 2 minutes. Add egg whites, vanilla and almond extracts. Beat an additional 2 minutes, scraping sides of bowl as needed.
3. Pour ont-third (about 2 cups) of batter into prepared pan. Divide remaining batter into 2 medium bowls. Stir in food coloring to make one red and one blue batter. Pour batter into remaining pans. Tap pans on counter several times to remove air bubbles.
4. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes before removing from pan. Remove cake and cool completely on wire rack.
5. For frosting, beat butter in a large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until creamy. Gradually beat in sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until fluffy. Beat in almond extract. Stir in marshmallow cream until well blended.
6. Place blue cake layer on cake plate and generously frost top. Stack white layer and generously frost top. Add red layer, frosting top and sides of entire cake. Garnish with fresh blueberries and strawberries, if desired.
*** Check out more recipes: Muffin Monday and Cake Tuesday
*** For more Fourth of July posts see also:
63 Quotes About Freedom and Liberty: Happy Birthday, America!
How Do We Live Freedom and Liberty? Libations Friday - 2 July 2010
Fourth of July When Life is Simple poem - Libations Friday 25 June 2010
Dennys Photo Gallery: Fourth of July Watermelon
Cake Tuesday: Red, White and Blueberry Shortcakes
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