Celebrate America’s birthday with a red, white and blue cake
Fireworks displays, parades and street festivities have all been canceled for America’s 244th birthday, but there is still a sweet way to celebrate the Fourth of July. With a cake, of course.
Just any cake won’t do. We need one that has some pizazz to get those oohs and aahs. It also needs to feature flavors that are something to sing about. And if it’s red, white and blue, it will truly represent the American spirit.
Think inside and outside the box for this cake.
Tried-and-true boxed mixes and store-bought frostings almost always result in light and moist cakes with fluffy creamy toppings. But you can be creative, too. Drizzle the cake with patriotic colors or cover it with red, white and blue rosettes. Finish it off with sparkles or candles on top, and you’ll have a mini light show in your own backyard.
Thinking outside the box gives you many more options. A realistic pick would be a red, white and blue layered cake made from scratch and blanketed with homemade white frosting. Both white sponge or angel food cake work well here.
For expert tips on layered cakes, we turned to Melissa Walnock, who has been an instructor for almost nine years at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. She has worked at Jean-Georges, Tabla and Union Square Cafe in New York City
and The French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., and is now the pastry chef instructor at Apple Pie Bakery Cafe, a student-run operation on Culinary Institute campuses that serves breads, pastries and hot foods. (The restaurant is currently closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.)
She advocates using a serrated knife to cut a cake layer horizontally but a chef’s knife to cut the frosted cake vertically. For a wow factor, go with four layers of cake and three layers of filling, she says. The layers should have a half inch of icing between, and the outside should be iced with a quarter inch.
Here are some other bits of advice she shared in a recent phone interview. The Q&A has been edited for length:
Q: What are some musthaves when making a layered cake?
A: Use a serrated knife to make a clean cut through a sponge cake horizontally. A chef’s knife will pierce through the cake, and there will be a lot of crumbs.
An offset metal spatula is necessary to ice the cake. It comes in different sizes — 3, 6, 8 or 10 inches. Pick one according to the size of the cake. A 3- or 8-inch spatula will cover most cakes.
A cake turntable is a really, really great thing to have. You don’t have to get an expensive one. The plastic ones made by Wilton and found at Michael’s are good enough.
You can get away with a hand-held mixer with two spindles if you are creaming butter and sugar. You don’t need a KitchenAid stand mixer. A whisk will do if you are blending dry ingredients and wet ingredients.
Q: Is there a best-sized cake pan to use?
A: I usually go with a deeper pan for layered cakes. I can get three layers easily from a 4-inch pan. Home ovens are smaller than commercial ones, so if you use too many smallersized pans in there, the cakes will tend not to bake evenly.
Q: Because most home bakers use 8-, 9- or 10-inch pans that are 2 inches high, what is an ideal number to place in the oven at one time?
A: You can use three pans at one time, but I would use two separate racks. Place two on one rack and leave some space between them and place the third one on the rack underneath in the open space between the two pans. This way the heat can hit all of them evenly.
Q: Is it advisable to cook the cake layers one pan at a time?
A: I would not advise that, and I will tell you why. Typically, the cakes will have baking powder and baking soda. These will react immediately, especially the baking soda, with the cake base. So the longer they sit out, the less the baking soda and powder are going to function when the batter goes into the oven. The cake won’t be as tall or fluffy if the batter is left out for too long.
Q: How do you make the layers flat and even?
A: Before I even take the cake out of the pan, I would use a serrated knife and run it along the top of the pan and remove the dome. That way the cake pan is your guide ... and you will have a nice flat top ready to start with.
Q: What’s a good way to slice a layer into two or three parts?
A: Once I get the cake out of the pan, I will turn it on its side and mark the layers with a knife. If you lay the cake flat horizontally, the marking can be deceiving.
Then I will put it back down on the turntable and line the knife with the first mark I had made. Then without cutting or puncturing it, I turn the cake and run the knife along the side to draw a guideline. If you run it all around the cake it will get you to where you started, and you will be in a good shape.
Finally, I cut the cake by following the line I had marked. I do the same thing with the second marking and/or third marking.
Q: After removing it from the oven, when should the cake be cut?
A: Never, ever, ever, ever, EVER cut a warm cake. It needs to be cold.
Q: Cooled or cold?
A: At the very least, I will place the cake in a refrigerator to cool it down. If you cut through a cake that is warm or at room temperature, you will be pulling out a lot of crumbs. But when the cake is refrigerated, the butter, oil and other fats solidify, and it will be easier to cut through.
Q: But won’t the cake get too dry in the refrigerator?
A: No, not at all. If you want to keep the moisture in, wrap the cake with [plastic] wrap. You want to make sure the cake is on the cooler side when you cut it.
Q: What is the proper consistency for the icing?
A: I like it to be fluffy, on the softer side. If it is too cold, it will be too thick, and when you spread it, you will be pulling the cake and crumbs apart. I know it is kind of silly to say this, but it should have the consistency of a store-bought cake frosting. You want it soft and spreadable.
Q: Is there a best way to cut a tall, frosted cake?
A: Use a chef’s knife and some warm water to cut through the layers of cake and buttercream nice and cleanly. Dip the knife into the water every time you make a cut. This way, you won’t smear the buttercream everywhere.
Q: How do you prevent the cake from drying out after a few wedges have been cut?
A: I wrap the exposed part with plastic wrap. The buttercream will protect the part of the cake that it covers, but the plastic wrap will be needed for the cut area. Take the plastic wrap and fold it a couple of times so that it is a few layers deep. Then push it into the open space so that it will stick to the filling. Don’t touch the exterior frosting with the plastic wrap.
Q: Do you have any decorating ideas for a Fourth
of July cake?
A: I like a nice, clean white buttercream frosting because it makes the cake stand out. You can dot it with blue and red buttercream and then drag it with
a spatula to give a watercolor effect. Or you can go with a red and blue rosette border or drag a skewer to swirl red and blue into the white. Another idea is to use a star-tipped icing bag for red, white and blue stars and place a couple of sparklers on top.