Okay, so I saw this sooooper cute cake here, at Glorious Treats...thanks to Em and her link...hi Glory...thanks Em! So, I thought I'd give it a crack! I love to bake...and more importantly, I love to eat things that are baked so off I went to the store and got some stuff:
2 boxes of regular old white cake mix...
Red and Blue gel food coloring and eggs and oil...for the whitest white cake, use only the egg whites...on this go around I did just that and the cake was pretty white...
Got my pans ready...busted out the Pam Baking Spray
Sprayed the pans and then sprinkled some flour on...
...then tapped and rolled the pans so the Pam got fully covered with flour.
No lie...my cakes always slip right on out...I'm convinced it's because I overdo it on the flour!
And I DO use these pans religiously...I think I mighta gotten 'em at Wal Mart or Target to replace the one I had since I was like a teenager that I only ever used for those cinnamon rolls that come in a tube, ya' know, cuz they fit right in there and I always ate the one in the middle first cuz it's the best...so then I tried it with a cake and that little metal lever thingy....it's magic...real magic! You just spin it once around the edge and your cake comes right out! Magic.
So then I made my batter...yummmmm...
...and then I baked mah cakes and trimmed the tops and cut 'em in half and stacked 'em and frosted 'em with a crumb coat, then let it set then frosted it again...
AND THEN MY BOYS CAME HOME!!!
Awwwww....my boys...they've been gone for 8 whole days up at Scout Camp and I missed them so much and I hugged their stinky selves and listened to all their stories and we chatted and they unpacked and all the while some sweet little kitty named Vanessa was helping herself to a bit of the frosting...now don't gag...there's a happy ending to this story...so anyways, I turned the cake around to cut into it for my boys so they could ooh and aaaahhhh and be very impressed by my mad skills...
and that's when we all saw it...it was superbly anti-climatic...
I said ohhhh...
Then the hubs said...well, it's ok...can't you Photoshop it?
And the kid said...cuz he knows these things, as he is a Scout and just did Scoutly things for 8 whole days...he says...um, you know the flag starts and stops with a RED stripe...
I said ohhhh...
pahahahahaaaaa!!!! I made myself chuckle editing that picture!!!
uh...whoops!
Later that evening, the entire thing collapsed.
I call a DO-OVER!!!
So I made some more batter...this time:
One entire cake box worth of batter needs to be RED...ALL RED...TWO CAKES. RED...
I'm not yelling at you, promise...I'm just re-iterating...it's where I went wrong. Don't do what I did.
The other box of cake batter needs to de divided in half...about 2 1/2 cups...give or take.
One batch stays white to give you one white cake and the other batch needs to be blue to give you one blue cake. I used the gel food coloring and gave the red batch a full teaspoon and the blue batch half a teaspoon.
Mix it up good. The colors are awesome!
I baked the cakes two at a time as per the instructions on the box...this, the second time around, I sent the kid into the store cuz it makes him feel special and he got French Vanilla cake mix. Whatevs...it works just fine. And so now you know you have options...
So I got two thingies of frosting...pictured here is the whipped kind. I blame it for the final collapse. I say DON'T DO IT! Stick with the REGULAR frosting.
And I didn't EVEN try to even out the cake tops or to slice them in half with a serrated knife. uh uh. no. I used that handy gadget called a Cake Slicer. It's magic, too! Ya just adjust the wire height and slice off the top domed part to give the other layers a nice flat surface to live on. And then you lower it to slice the cakes in half. I did kind of a sawing motion back and forth while the cakes were just cooled. Seemed to work nicely. I've also done that on just thawed cakes, too and it works just as well...
speaking of frozen cakes...once you get em cooled and sliced these things are going into the freezer...okay, so let's do inventory.
You should now have:
One Blue cake with the top sliced off,
One White cake with the top sliced off and then sliced in half &
Two Red cakes with the tops sliced off and then sliced in half.
Set the Blue cake aside for now.
Set aside TWO Red cake layers (use the two bottom slices)
Set aside ONE White layer (use the bottom slice)
With a cup or a bowl or a mug or a template you'll need to cut out a circle in the Blue cake...smack dab in the middle and remove the core. You need a Blue ring and I tell ya', having a semi-frozen cake was very helpful here cuz you want it to be sturdy when you have to place your layers.
With that same circular object you chose for the Blue cake, cut out a circle from one of the Red tops and from one of the White tops. You can stack em and cut em at the same time or not. Either way should get ya the same result. And you don't have to go right in the middle. Pick your best, even spot to get your plug from.
Check to make sure the frosting-licking cat is locked away...or sleeping peacefully on the windowsill before you move on to the next step...just sayin'.
Please start with a RED layer...and then frost the top all the way to the edge. Turning the cake tray as you go really helps. And using one of those frosting tools that bends to give you a flat surface is nice, too. Pampered Chef Icing Spreader. Magic!
Then add a WHITE layer on top and add frosting. Just a nice thin coating is fine. No need to overdo it.
Then add another RED layer and frosting...
K, here's the BLUE layer...see how wide it is. The prior collapse freaked me out, not gonna lie. So I over-compensated and guess what? It's fine. So take some frosting and either pipe it in with a piping bag or try to use the spreading tool then wind up using your finger to get it to spread without it getting all crumby. My finger worked out great! Ya just wanna get something in there cuz the next step is to put some frosting between the WHITE and RED mini layers...then plug the hole in the BLUE layer...with the mini layers...WHITE first then RED, cuz the flag starts and stops with RED...
K, take a second and breathe...I stuck the cake in the freezer for a moment while I went to gather some crafty things for a banner for the cake top...gotta have a banner. It's really the "IN" thing these days.
So now you wanna do what's called a crumb coat, which is just a thin layer of frosting that you put all over the cake to keep the crumbs in check so they don't get all mixed in with the top coat of frosting...it's kinda like a primer for cake. So crumb coat and stick it in the freezer again so you can make a banner.
On a piece of scrap paper, I traced the shape of whatever I could find sitting there...which was a memory card for my camera...it's like an inch wide. I guessed where the center would be and drew the cut lines to make it shaped like a banner flag and cut it out. Then I figured it should fold over the string so I traced that template and then flipped it vertically and traced it again on top of the first trace to make a double banner.
So when I cut it out and fold it in half it'll fit perfectly and snugly on my string. I traced and cut the shape out onto some festive papers...LOVE me some Bazzill Dotted Swiss paper! I tied some Bazzill In Stitch'z Floss to a coupla blue straws then positioned the banners where I wanted them to be and then glued em together with some Mod Podge Dimensional Magic (just like Crystal Accents).
I stuck the straws in a chunka Styrofoam to help in the assembly.
Pulled the cake outta the freezer, frosted it, jammed in the banner served up a slice and dug in, baby!
Looooooookit!!! It's so fun and festive and tasty!!
mmmmm....deeeeeee-lissh! God bless the USA! Am I right!?!
And thanks again, Glory for the superb inspiration.
What an awesome name for a gal with a flag cake on her bloggie...!
Linking up with:
...and look for it on Tatertots & Jello's Facebook Page!
17 COMMENTS:
- Susan Crabtree said...
- this looks AWESOME!
- JUNE 30, 2011 5:57 AM
- Sims Family said...
- Oooh! I LOVE this! I need to buy me some cool gadgets!
- JUNE 30, 2011 6:47 AM
- Teresa said...
- So, so cute and no way am I going to attempt it this year. Too much work for this un-crafty person! :-) Some day.
- JUNE 30, 2011 8:01 AM
- Desiree @ The 36th Avenue said...
- I just want to let you know that you just got a STICKER from the 36th AVENUE... Thank you for sharing! The post will be up in an hour or so ;)
- JUNE 30, 2011 11:21 AM
- Cat Jones said...
- Sweeeet mama! Thanks Desiree!!
- JUNE 30, 2011 12:52 PM
- Leslie said...
- Your (second) flag cake is absolutely gorgeous! ...and this is the best tutorial I’ve seen for it. Thanks so much!
- JUNE 30, 2011 2:36 PM
- Lil' Luna said...
- love it, girl!! You did a great job!
- JULY 1, 2011 10:00 AM
- Glory/ Glorious Treats said...
- Great job! I'm so glad I was able to offer some inspiration! Isn't this a fun cake! (If you have a chance and could change the teeny link "here" to my name (Glorious Treats) I'd really appreciate it- thanks!)
- JULY 1, 2011 10:26 AM
- Ali Grace @ ali-grace.com said...
- FABULOUS! I LOVE IT!!!
- JULY 1, 2011 10:47 AM
- Cat Jones said...
- Glory, darling!! You got it! I'll change the color to something more fun and festive, too...and make it BIGGER...sorry, sweets!
- JULY 1, 2011 2:01 PM
- Glory/ Glorious Treats said...
- I appreciate the change =) Have a great weekend!!
- JULY 1, 2011 4:08 PM
- Lindy@Itsy Bitsy Paper said...
- Awesome!! I am having a Red, White and Blue Linky Party that I'd love for you to join in on by adding your link! http://www.itsybitsypaperblog.com/2011/07/red-white-and-blue-linky-party.html
- JULY 3, 2011 6:33 AM
- Cheryl said...
- So sweet, love the cake and all your comments, fun to read!
- JULY 3, 2011 7:12 AM
- Cat Jones said...
- Consider it done, Lindy :O) thanks a ton! Cheryl...mwah! Thanks, doll!
- JULY 3, 2011 7:18 AM
- Kirsten @ Mushki Loves said...
- Hi! I love this! So festive! I am so pinning it! I am a new follower!I would love it if you stopped by blog, take a look around and if you like what you see, follow me back! Thanks! Have a great holiday! Kirsten www.mushkiloves.blogspot.com
- JULY 3, 2011 8:09 PM
- Sheila said...
- This is awesome. Wish I had the patience to do this!
- JULY 3, 2011 9:06 PM
- Lindy@Itsy Bitsy Paper said...
- Thank you so much for linking up to my Red, White and Blue Linky Party! www.itsybitsypaperblog.com
- JULY 7, 2011 7:10 AM
