American Flag Cake with a Soft Crumb

For American Flag Cake with a Soft Crumb, the counter starts with unsalted butter soft and pliable, sugar 345, and eggs. Portion it for 20 people.

Count on 30 minutes of prep, 25 minutes of cooking, about 1 hour from the first measurement to the plate.

Ingredients Method

What goes in the bowl

For the cake

• ¾ cup unsalted butter soft and pliable (170g)
• 1 ½ cup sugar 345
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup sour cream 225g
• ½ cup whole milk 130g
• 2 ½ cups cake flour 300g (see note*)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
• ¾ cup rainbow sprinkles 124g

Optional Simple Syrup Soak

• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup water

For the buttercream

• 5 large egg whites
• 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 cups unsalted butter room temperature, 4 sticks, cool but still pliable
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ cup lemon curd

For the decorations

• 2 quarts fresh strawberries
• 1 cup fresh raspberries
• 1 ½ cups fresh blueberries

How the cooking goes

For the Cake

1. Warm the oven to 350°F (either convection or regular).
2. All ingredients should be at ambient temperature. Sift the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl whisk together the sour cream and milk. Keep it to one side.
3. Spray baking dish and keep it to one side.
4. In the bowl of a electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or with a hand mixer) cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the extracts with the last egg.
5. Alternately add milk and dry ingredients, beginning and ending with dry.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake immediately. Bake in preheated oven until a cake tester comes out clean, approximately 20-25 minutes. Be careful not to over bake or it will dry out.

For the Optional Simple Syrup Soak

1. In a small pot mix the water and sugar and heat on high just until it comes to a boil. Take it off the heat and cool until it is no longer warm.
2. You can add a little lemon juice or vanilla extract if you would like! Gently soak your cake with a pastry brush. Keep the rest of the simple syrup for cocktails! ?

Prepare Remaining Ingredients

1. While your cake is cooling, prepare the Swiss Meringue Buttercream from scratch or refresh buttercream that you made in advance. Once it has come together and is nice and light and fluffy, add your lemon curd. If you are using the lemon curd from the lemon bars, mix the curd a bit in a small mixing bowl with a spatula to loosen it. If you add the cold, stabilized curd to the silky buttercream, you might get lumps!
2. Prepare a piping bag with your tip of choice. You used an Ateco 885 tip for the stripes and a Wilton 2D for the stars. You would have preferred to use an Ateco 842 or 843 but the closed star tips are at work.
3. Slice your strawberries. You sliced them about 1/8 inch thick but the thinner you slice them the more movement you’ll achieve in fanning them out.

Assembling the Cake

1. Lay a thin layer of the buttercream on the cake using an offset spatula. Pipe a border where the blueberries (stars) will go. You made mine in the top third of the cake. Pipe the stripes.
2. Fan out the strawberries and then transfer them to the cake using a small offset spatula or knife. You alternated one strawberry with one raspberry and then repeated until you got to the end of the row. You then started with the opposite berry so that you didn’t end up having a line of raspberries in the flag. It’s all in the details!
3. Serve immediately or wrap well and refrigerate. The buttercream will taste best at ambient temperature but it is up to you!

After it comes off the heat

Let the pan settle before you slice, so the crumb stays together. Cover leftovers once they are cool.

If you want another plate from Cakes, open Mardi Gras Bundt Cake Baked Until the Center Springs Back and Carrot Cake Baked Until the Center Springs Back.