Memorial Day Treats Part 2: Patriotic Cake!

In this second installment of Memorial Day treats, I will show you the fun cupcakes/cake I made. First: THE CUPCAKES!

I found these fun patriotic cupcake papers in the recesses of my cupboard. I think I bought them at Walmart a few years ago for the 4th of July. WIN!

Next I divided the batter into 3 bowls and dyed one red and one blue. Then similar to the tie-dye cupcakes I made, I spooned each color into the papers - started with blue on the bottom, then white, then red.

I used a 1 tablespoon scoop to evenly add the batter. Though I did run into the problem of not having enough of each color. I need to learn how to divide the batter more evenly. Unlike the tie-dye cupcakes, I didn't mix the colors around once in the papers.

I used white frosting and topped with red, white, and blue star-shaped sprinkles.

Next I moved on to the Flag Cake. I saw this cake on a website a few years ago and have never had the chance to make it. I learned a lot making this cake.

Lesson #1: Evenly divide batter. I made white cake batter, poured what I thought was half into one 9in pan then dyed the other half red. Unfortunately I ended up with more of a 1/3 white, 2/3 red ratio.

Not sure if you can really tell from this picture, but the red cake is WAY taller than the white cake. I then repeated the process but left half white and dyed the other half blue. I did better with the second batch evening out the batter, but still not perfect.

Lesson #2: Use a cake leveler. I just used a knife to cut my cakes in half horizontally. They were all kinds of uneven. It looks like Betsy Ross may have been drinking a little when she made this flag.

You create the flag effect by placing half a white layer, then half a red. Next you take the whole blue cake and another half red/white combo and cut a circle out of the middle. You use the outer blue circle and the inner red/white circle when you're putting the cake together. BONUS: lots of scrap cake - Cook's Treat!

Here is a view from the top. I used copious amounts of white frosting to make up for how uneven the cake was. Then I decorated them the same way as I had the cupcakes.

Lesson #3: MORE ICING! I didn't ice between the top red and white layer and they didn't adhere as well as I would have liked.

Lesson #4: Add a crap ton of dye. Not only did Betsy Ross drink too much and sew this flag all crooked. She also passed out and left it in the sun. I hope she's proud of her pastel flag.

Mmmmmm. Tastes like freedom. 

Memorial Day Treats Part 1: Dipping things in Chocolate

I went to my friend's legendary Memorial party this weekend. It's theme - Solo Cup. How awesome is the solo cup flag they made? I got together with a friend on Saturday and we made LOTS of treats for the party. Today we'll look at the first half of the desserts - Chocolate covered Strawberries, and pretzels!

First we melted white chocolate wafers. I think I've mentioned before if you don't have a double boiler, you can just use a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water.

With the first few we dipped the strawberry in blue sprinkles, but that messed up the chocolate and made it a weird shape. When we began to spoon on the sprinkles they looked much better. 

We put our finished strawberries on some wax paper and then stored them in the fridge. I'd recommend keeping them there until they're ready to serve. I had mine out for a little while and the strawberry juice started to leak out and mix with the sprinkles - it was a bit of a mess. But oh-so-yummy! Also makes me really want a rocket popsicle. 

We also dipped pretzel rods in the chocolate - because, why not? Next we loaded them with patriotic sprinkles. I had also bought blue candy chips to melt down, but the colored melts are a totally different consistency and not very conducive to dipping. I even tried adding some oil, but nothing helped. Oh well, the white with sprinkles looks better anyways!