Red, White & Blue Cake

 I'm a bit late with this but since I was unable to make anything patriotic for Memorial Day or the Fourth of July because of moving to Japan and not having my stuff and all I felt like I had something to make up for.  This is my Red, White & Blue cake.  My husband thought it was a bit clownish but I felt it had just the right amount of patriotism added to it!  I found a recipe that was similar to this one but it was boxed cake and melted whipped frosting from a can and I don't like either.  So I decided I'd make the cake and frosting from scratch.  Granted the frosting didn't really look the way the original picture I was shooting for in thin drizzly lines but that's because I decided to make a buttercream frosting instead of a whipped frosting.  My daughter loved helping me with all the colors in the cake and frosting, especially since I very rarely use dye in my food.  I'm not big on dye but I made an exception. 

I think I over did it on the frosting just a tad though because it was hard to taste the cake over the insanely sweet layers of red, white and blue buttercream, but I'll never complain about something being too sweet.  Here in Japan the desserts simply aren't sweet.  Every time I eat one I feel like they must have forgotten to add the sugar.  But, hey that is part of what I love about being an American, I can use as much sugar as I want!  

Classic White Cake:

1 c. room temp. milk
6 egg whites
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 c. all-purpose unbleached flour (or cake flour)
1 3/4 c. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

3/4 c. (6 oz), softened
Red & Blue food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease a bundt pan with vegetable shortening and flour the pan. Combine milk, eggs whites and extracts in a small bowl with a fork. Set aside. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in an electric mixer and mix at slow speed with a paddle attachment. Add butter. Continue beating at slow speed until mixture looks like wet sand Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Add remaining milk mixture and beat for an additional 30 seconds, scraping the sides of the bowl if necessary. Do not overmix.  Divide batter evenly in three separate bowls.  Leave one white, add red dye to the other and blue dye to the third.  I actually needed the entire bottle of red and blue but mine were mini-sized bottles.  Bake 45-55 minutes, until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Allow cake to cool completely before frosting.  

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting: 


1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. room temp. butter
2-3 tbsp. half and half
4 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Red & Blue food coloring


Add all ingredients into a mixer with whisk attachment and beat on low speed until combined.  Then turn to medium low and beat until fluffy and desired consistency.  Separate into three bowls, add red & blue to two bowls until desired color.  I spooned mine into a zip lock baggie and cut the corner to get a stream of frosting for easier application to the cake.

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