Celebrate the USA!

Dazzle everyone with our bakeshop-beautiful holiday salute that’s a cinch to whip up with cake mix, pretzels, candy and scrumptious buttercream frosting

Red, White and Blue Pretzel Cake

ACTIVE TIME: 4 hrs. TOTAL TIME: 51⁄2 hrs. SERVES: 16

11⁄2 cups royal blue candy melts, melted

11⁄2 cups red candy melts, melted

11⁄2 cups white candy melts, melted 42 pretzel rods, from 2 (12 oz.) pkgs. Coarse white decorating sugar 1 (15.25 oz.) pkg. white cake mix

(including water, egg whites, oil) No-taste red and royal blue

concentrated food colorings 11⁄2 cups butter, at room temp. 3 cups confectioners’ sugar 3 Tbs. milk 1 tsp. almond extract

Cake sparklers

1 Line 3 rimmed baking sheets with wax paper. Using small brush, working with one color of candy melts at a time, brush candy melts over pretzel rods to cover 5" of rods, brushing off excess candy. Transfer to baking sheets. Let stand until starting to set, but still slightly wet, about 1 min. Sprinkle with coarse decorating sugar. Let dry.

2 Heat oven to 350°F. Coat 2 (8") round cake pans with cooking spray. Prepare cake mix with water, egg whites and oil according to package directions. Divide batter between two bowls; tint one bowl red and other bowl blue with food colorings. Transfer to separate pans. Bake until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean, 22–25 min. Transfer to racks; cool.

3 On medium speed, beat butter until fluffy, 2 min. On low speed, gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar, then milk and almond extract until blended. On medium-high speed, beat frosting until fluffy, 2–3 min. Place blue cake layer on serving plate; spread top with 1 cup frosting. Top with red cake layer. Spread cake top and side with remaining frosting. Trim pretzel rods to just over height of cake, and, if necessary, trim any excess candy coating along sides of rods. Press rods onto side of cake. Insert sparklers into cake top.