American Flag Cake

Happy 4th of July! I hope you have fun things planned for celebrating tomorrow! I will be...not working, at the very least, so that will be a good way to Wednesday! I will also be eating a slice of this cake and some bonus dessert I made with the extras, so even though I'm struggling to feel patriotic these days, my insides will def be red, white, and blue!

So, how about this beauty? Can we pause for a sec and just look at this thing? I managed to impress even myself, and as my own biggest critic, that is hard to do. But this cake is an accomplishment, and I'm going to take a beat and recognize that. 

I took two cake recipes from my favorite cake book, American Cake, and mashed them together to create a tasty, edible flag. The red and blue layers are classic red velvet, dyed with shocking amounts of food dye (so sorry but it's just how you do it) and the white layers are my favorite cake of 2018, champagne (previously here and here). They get stacked with a little peach jam to make it all stick together, and then the whole tower gets wrapped in a cloak of tangy cream cheese frosting. I will pledge allegiance to that!

Before you look at this cake and think, "I could never do that, it's too much work," then let me assure you that, yes, yes it is definitely too much work. But you can still do it! I promise, the satisfaction of knowing your cake looks like a real flag with thirteen whole layers of red velvet and white champagne stripes is almost worth it! When you are building a masterpiece, you've gotta spend the time. 

Now, I say this after the fact, with a hazy recollection of the wee hours of last Friday morning and fresher memories of peoples' compliments. So maybe take everything I'm saying with a grain of salt. I did have my moments of wondering why oh why couldn't Betsy Ross just have stopped with two colors when sewing the flag? TWO WAS FINE! Because by the time I was baking yet a second blue layer the next day and trying to perfectly color match it to the first one, I was ready to call that long-dead lady some not-so-nice names. But again, I was making a masterpiece, and sacrifices will be made, such as sleep and time and adherence to FDA recommended levels of food dye. 

So I will warn you, the directions below are a tad involved. You can, of course, bake thicker layers and cut them into the thinner layers, but I don't have those torting skills and so I opted for the more time-consuming option of baking my layers individually. But, no matter which method you choose, don't worry too much about perfectly even, stacked layers. This is after all a cake, not a real flag, and you can just tell everyone that your sliced cake is supposed to look like it is waving in the wind o'er all those ramparts. Ta da!

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Red & Blue Velvet Champagne Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Red & Blue Velvet Cake and Champagne Cake layers adapted from Anne Byrn. You will want to make the full recipe for each color, to make sure you have enough batter for all the layers plus any extra for mistakes (trust me). In total, you will need three 8-inch red layers, three 8-inch white layers, four 6-inch red layers, three 6-inch white layers and two 8-inch blue layers, so plan accordingly.

For Red & Blue Layers: make 1 full recipe for each color

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbs red food coloring (for blue, use 2 tbs royal blue food coloring + 1-2 drops violet)
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 cup milk, room temperature
• 1 tbs white vinegar
• 1 tsp baking soda

For White Layers:

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour (see notes)
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• scant 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 5 egg whites, room temp
• 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup dry champagne, room temperature
• 1 2/3 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbs + 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 stick + 1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

For assembly and the frosting:

• 3/4 cup peach jam
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 packages (16 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
• 8 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Make the red and blue layers, one at a time: place a rack in the center of oven and heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour as many 8-inch and 6-inch cake pans as you have, or use disposable pans. For the red layers you will need three 8-inch pans and four 6-inch pans; for the blue, you will only need two 8-inch pans.
2. Decide which color you are starting with, and make one recipe of the velvet cake: Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, then blend in the vanilla and the food coloring and set aside. 
3. In a separate, large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa and salt. In a measuring cup, stir together the milk, vinegar, and baking soda. Add the dry and wet ingredients to the batter while mixing on low speed, alternating, and beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Scrape down the bowl as needed.
4. Divide the batter between prepared pans: for the red layers, spread two heaping spoonfuls of batter (see notes) evenly in each 6-inch pan (4 total) and three heaping spoonfuls in each 8-inch pan (3 total). For the blue layers, divide the batter evenly between two prepared 8-inch pans.
5. For red layers, bake the cakes for 6-8 minutes for 6-inch layers and 8-9 minutes for 8-inch layers. For blue layers, bake 22-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean and the layers are pulling slightly away from the edges of the pans. Let layers cool slightly in pans and then turn out to cool completely on a wire rack.
6. Make the batter again for your second color (red or blue) and repeat.
7. Make the white layers: Again, butter and flour your pans. You will need three each of the 8-inch and 6-inch layers.
8. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. In a separate large bowl, add the egg whites, champagne, vanilla and oil and whisk to combine well. Set aside.
9. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat sugar and butter for 3-4 minutes on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the flour mixture and the egg white mixture, alternating, starting and ending with the dry mixture. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed. Divide the batter between pans, spreading 2 heaping spoonfuls of batter in each 6-inch pan and 3 heaping spoonfuls in each 8-inch pan.
10. Bake, 6-8 minutes for 6-inch layers and 8-10 minutes for 8-inch layers, until cakes are just beginning to pull back from the sides of the pans. Cool on a rack for a few minutes, remove from pans and cool completely.
11. When ready to assemble, heat peach jam in a small saucepan over low heat until it thins out a little. Place a red, 8-inch cake layer on a cake board and brush a thin layer of the warm jam over the top using a pastry brush or back of a small spoon. Place a white 8-inch layer on top and brush with jam, then top with a red layer. Repeat until you have three each of the red and white layers. 
12. Trim off any rounded tops from your blue cake layers, then, using a 6-inch cake ring or 6-inch diameter bowl to cut a 6-inch circle out of your blue cake layers. Stack the first 8-inch ring on top of your stacked red and white layers, then brush the inside and top of the blue layer with jam. Gently place a red 6-inch layer inside the blue ring, brush with jam, and top with a white 6-inch layer. Brush with jam and top with a red layer, and repeat, until you have 4 red layers and 3 white 6-inch layers. The top layer should be red. Brush the sides of the exposed red and white 6-inch layers and then gently lower the remaining blue 8-inch ring of cake over the top and sides. The top of the blue layer and last red layer should be relatively flush with each other, but it doesn't have to be exact. The difference just shouldn't be so extreme that you can't hide it with frosting.
13. Make the frosting and ice the cake! In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy and well-blended. Slowly add in the sifted powdered sugar until fully combined and frosting is stiff but spreadable. Mix in the vanilla and beat for a minute to make sure frosting is as fluffy as can be. Spread a bit of the frosting over the sides and top of the cake to smooth out any crumbs. Chill cake for 20 minutes, then frost with remaining frosting as desired. Slice and serve!

Notes:

• I'm sorry to call for 2 kinds of flour, but the champagne cake really gets its amazing texture from using the cake flour, while the red velvet can hold up to using regular AP flour. 
• When I saying "heaping spoonful" for spreading the batters in the pans, I'm talking about regular-sized spoons you'd use for eating, not serving spoons or little teaspoons. You should have enough batter in each pan to fully cover the bottoms but only come up the sides about 1/4 inch, no more than 1/2 inch. I wish I had been more scientific in my measurements but this part was happening around 1 am, so I was not.

Strawberry Frosted Donut Cake

Tomorrow is my birthday!   Ginny is magically going to be in town, and she's given me the gift of staying in and cooking for her and her sister and some friends. If you know me, you know this is all I want! I'm making two Zuni Chickens, cheesy potatoes, and someone else is in charge of dessert. 32 is off to a good start!

But if I were doing dessert, this giant donut would be a worthy candidate for a birthday cake. It looks like a donut, but behaves like a cake. It's got size enough to feed a crowd and plenty of surface area for candles, if you need it. My donut obsession finally bled into my cake obsession and I suppose it was only a matter of time.

Cakes are baked, and it might be a more logical leap to turn baked donuts into a cake, but today I'm talking about the OG of donuts, the fried donut. It is the best donut, no question! Baked donuts are easier and quicker to make, and certainly less dangerous to cook, but there is something irreplaceable to me about the deep fried, doughy version. And when I decided to make a giant donut, I knew this was the way I was going to do it.

I made a batch of dough, cut out a 6-inch circle with a cake ring and a 2-inch biscuit cutter. Then I fried it. The trick is not to be scared! Yes, you are dunking an unwieldy slab of dough into hot oil, but with patience and the right tools, you can avoid maiming yourself. 

The giant donut turns into a cake with a filling of jam. The secret, to me, is not too much jam. I just want enough to clearly create layers, but not enough to veer into squishy, jelly donut territory. Though, side note, today is apparently International Jelly-Filled Doughnut day, so this cake feels extra-appropriate! 

I cut the donut in half through the middle while still warm, then spooned on the last of my seascape strawberry & rose geranium jam from Sqirl. A worthy sacrifice, I think. I then put the pieces back together and glazed the whole thing with a tart strawberry glaze made from freeze-dried strawberries and sugar that contrasted so well with the sweeter jam filling. The end result is a doughnut you can slice and eat with a fork, or just indulge yourself and pick it up with your hands. It is a donut after all!

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Strawberry Glazed Donut Cake

Doughnut recipe adapted from Joy the Baker

For the dough:

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 2 tbs warm water
• 1 cup whole milk, slightly warmed
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 large egg yolks
• 3 1/2 cup flour, plus more for dusting
• 2 tbs sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 qts oil, for frying

For the glaze:

• one package freeze dried strawberries (1.2 oz)
• 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
• 2-3 tbs lemon juice or water
• strawberry jam, for filling 

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together yeast and warm water until the yeast dissolves. Let rest until foamy, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the warmed milk, butter, egg yolks, flour, sugar and salt to the bowl. Mix with the dough hook on low speed for 5 minutes until a soft dough forms. Beat on medium high for 3 minutes until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Remove the dough hook and scrape the dough into the middle of the bowl. Sprinkle lightly with flour, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 1/2-2 hours.
3. When dough is almost done rising, heat a large pot of oil to 350 degrees. Dust a flat surface generously with flour, then turn the dough out and flatten slightly into a round. Transfer the round onto a large flat spatula or cake spatula. Cut the dough into a large circle, 6-7 inches in diameter (easy with a cake ring), then cut out the center of the round with a 3 inch round cutter, being careful not to twist the cutter as you cut down on the dough. 
4. Gently shake the cut dough back and forth on the spatula to make sure it releases easily, adding a little more flour underneath if necessary. When oil is at temperature, gently ease the dough into the oil. Fry for 5 minutes and then flip, using two spatulas or wooden spoons to ease the dough over in the oil. Cook for 5 minutes more, then gently lift out of the oil with the spatulas.
5. Drain the doughnut. Let cool slightly then cut in half horizontally. Fill with jam, then place halves back together. 
6. Prepare the glaze: Blend strawberries in the bowl of a food processor until fine, then sift with the sugar. Whisk in the lemon juice or water until you have a pourable but not too thin consistency. Pour over the doughnut and let set. When completely cool, slice and serve.

Strawberries & Cream Cake

Recently, a friend of mine hosted a barbecue and I volunteered to bring a cake, as I tend to do. A couple days before the event I checked with her on the number of guests. I had planned to make a 6-inch cake, but she told me twelve people were coming.  I love making little 6-inch cakes but I also cannot stand the idea of running out of dessert. So, I did the only logical thing. I considered this news for about two minutes, then texted her to say that I’d be bringing two cakes. As one does.

One of those two cakes was the sprinkles and frosting cake I posted last month. The other was this lovely thing. In contrast to the explosion of sprinkles and pink, super sweet frosting, this cake held the more sophisticated position with barely sweet mascarpone whipped cream, vanilla cake, and beautiful, just in season strawberries. I don’t like to pick favorites but I think this was my favorite. Nothing is too sticky or too sweet, and with only three components it just seems so elegant in its simplicity. And once you start to find perfectly ripe strawberries, it really sings. 

(Also, not to brag, but one time I brought this cake to a restaurant for another friend’s goodbye dinner, and the staff asked me where I bought it. That basically made my year.)

This time, I actually thought my strawberries needed a little boost, so I flavored a bit of the whipped cream with freeze dried strawberries. This was delicious, but is completely optional, and also completely unnecessary when the strawberries get really good. If you were to make this cake now or into next month, you won’t need it.

In the end, we had the perfect amount of cake. And the only bit left after the frenzy was one little piece of this one. I don’t think anyone was sorry.

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Strawberries & Cream Cake

Vanilla recipe adapted from Style Sweet CA. Makes two, 6-inch layers.

• 1 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1/2 tbs baking powder
• scant 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg + 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

For the frosting and the filling:

• 2 cups of cold heavy cream
• 8 oz mascarpone, room temperature
• 2 tbs powdered sugar
• 1 tbs vanilla bean paste
• 2 cups strawberries, hulled and clean, plus more, for garnish.

1. Make the cake: Butter and flour two, 6-inch cake pans and set aside. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whisk together dry ingredients and set aside. In a small bowl, stir together sour cream and milk and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the  paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugar on low speed until fluffy, about 4-5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
3. Add the eggs and yolks, one at a time to the mixture while beating on low speed, then beat in the vanilla until mixture is well-blended. With the mixer on low, add in half the flour mixture, then the milk, then the remaining flour, fully combining each addition before adding the next. Once flour is fully mixed in, increase the speed to medium low and beat until smooth, about 15-20 more seconds.
4. Divide the batter between the prepared cake bans and bake 20-25 minutes, until a wooden skewer inserted comes out clean and edges of cakes are pulling away from the sides of the pans a bit. Let cakes cool in the pans for 10-15 minutes, then turn out to cool completely on a wire rack.
5. While cakes are cooling, prepare the filling and the frosting. Whip together cream, powdered sugar and vanilla for 2 minutes until thickened. Add the mascarpone and whip to stiff peaks. Chop the strawberries and fold into half of the whip cream mixture and set aside.
6. When cake layers are cool, level the layers so you can stack them evenly. Torte each layer so that you have four even cake layers. 
7. Assemble the layers and decorate: Pipe a border of the whipped cream frosting around the edges of your first layer, then fill in with the strawberry filling mixture. Stack another layer on top and repeat, until you top with your last layer (you may have some leftover filling at this point. It makes an excellent taco with the cake scraps from leveling). Spread the remaining frosting over the cake layers, as thickly or as naked as you want. I prefer to let the layers peek through. Decorate the top of the cake as you wish with any remaining strawberries.

Notes:

• You can choose not to torte the layers so that you only have 2 layers of cake (as pictured). You will have more leftover filling, as the recipe is based on more layers.
• If you want to add more strawberry flavor, you can swirl in some strawberry whipped cream frosting with the vanilla (as pictured). For this variation, adjust the vanilla frosting amounts to 1 1/2 cups whipped cream and 6 oz mascarpone. Put 1 tbs of granulated sugar and 1/8 cup of freeze-dried strawberries in a food processor and pulse to a fine powder. Add the remaining 1/2 cup cream and stir with a fork, then pulse with the remaining 2 oz mascarpone to a thick consistency. Use for decorating as desired.