I used to all the time make my Flag Cake recipe each 4th as a result of it’s a practice. However I’m going to allow you to in on just a little secret…these days I’ve been dishonest and making a semi-homemade model as a substitute!

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After you’ve crossed state strains to purchase the GOOD fireworks (shh, I received’t inform), threaded hen onto numerous skewers, and prepped your potato salad, you don’t have lots of time left to make dessert in your Fourth of July occasion. Do you:
- A) Seize a clamshell container of unhappy, dry grocery retailer cupcakes with gobs of pink, white, and blue frosting on high? Then watch your visitors scrape off the frosting, gingerly take a chew, and discretely toss the remainder?
- B) Skip the dessert as a result of… Fruit Salad is sort of like a dessert, proper?
- Or C) Escape the beaters and make a Flag Cake from scratch as a result of is it even Fourth of July with out it?
In case your reply is C, I’m with you, good friend, however life these days has been busy!
As a substitute, listed here are two straightforward choices to make a shortcut flag your visitors will completely adore:
- Make the frosting, not the cake. Use a yellow or white cake from a boxed combine, and make a selfmade cream cheese frosting whereas it bakes. (I exploit the one in my unique Flag Cake recipe). I discover cake mixes are fairly nice, however premade frostings are too cloying. Your visitors will assume it’s 100% from scratch!
- No time for both? Decide up an undecorated sheet cake with vanilla frosting (Costco makes a GREAT one).
- Much less-fuss slicing. As a substitute of slicing the strawberry skinny and arranging them in fanned rows, minimize them in half length-wise and line one up subsequent to the opposite, uncut sides going through up.
Tricks to Make It Shine
- Prep Forward-ish. For those who’re utilizing the cake combine (or going the additional mile and doing it from scratch), you’ll be able to bake the cake a day early. Frost and adorn simply earlier than serving to maintain it recent, although. (For those who’re bringing this to a celebration, you’ll be able to convey it frosted, however I nonetheless suggest including the berries simply earlier than serving if in any respect attainable.)
- Make Positive Your Berries Are DRY. Rinse the berries and gently pat them dry to maintain them from making your frosting watery.
- Add Patriotic Sprinkles. Utilizing a boxed combine? Add some pink, white, and blue jimmies for a patriotic Funfetti cake.
- Get the Servings You Want. Bake the cake in a half sheet pan (a la my unique Flag Cake) and also you’ll get 24 servings out of this unhealthy boy. Or get fewer, thicker slices in a 9×13 pan.