4th of July Flag Cake

Are you looking for a 4th of July dessert with a lot of "wow factor"?  Well, look no further than this 4th of July Flag Cake!  Isn't it amazing?!  This is much easier than it looks.  I used a box cake mix and made some buttercream frosting, but feel free to use canned frosting or make both from scratch.  If you use canned frosting, beat it with your mixer before frosting the cake.  It will give it a nice light and fluffy texture.

4th of July Flag Cake
(Printable Recipe)

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2 boxes White cake mix, plus ingredients to make cake (I used Duncan Hines)
red food coloring - recommend gel food coloring (I use Americolor Super Red found at Hobby Lobby)
blue food coloring - recommend gel food coloring (I use Americolor Royal Blue found at Hobby Lobby)

Buttercream Icing
1 cup butter, softened
6 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup whipping cream

Grease and flour two 8" cake pans.  Prepare one box of cake mix and color it red.  Divide the batter equally into the two prepared pans. Bake as instructed on the box.  Allow to cool and remove from pans.

Grease and flour the 8" cake pans again.  Prepare remaining cake mix. Pour half of the batter into one of the cake pans.  Color the remaining batter blue and pour into remaining cake pan.  Bake as instructed on cake box. Cool and remove from pans.

You will end up with 1- 8" round blue cake, 1- 8" round white cake and 2- 8" round red cakes.

Using a serrated knife or cake leveler, slice the red and white layers horizontally in half.  So you have a blue layer (2″), four red layers (each 1″), and two white layers (each 1″). Set one white and two red layers aside, those will be the bottom three stripes of the flag.

Using a 4" cookie cutter, cut a circle out of remaining white layer and another circle out of one of the remaining red layers. (You will not use one of the red layers)  Finally cut a 4" circle out the center of the blue cake.

You will have 2- 8" layers of red, 1- 4" layer of red, 1- 8" layer of white, 1- 4" layer of white and 1-8" layer of blue with a 4" circle cut out of the center.

Prepare the buttercream frosting. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. With mixer on low speed, add 6 cups sugar, whipping cream (or milk), and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy. If necessary, gradually add more powdered sugar to reach desired consistency.

To assemble the cake, frost the bottom three layers together - set the uncut red layer on cake plate and spread with frosting.  Top with the uncut white layer and spread with frosting.  Top white layer with the uncut layer of red cake and spread with frosting.  Set blue cake ring on top and place the white inner circle on top of the uncut red layer, inside the ring of blue.  Frost, and top with the red inner circle. Frost the entire cake and top with sprinkles if desired.