Seriously, this is something I thought I would NEVER make. It just seemed so cheezy, over the top, and not at-all-my style. But, the other night, as we were walking around the block we got to the house that decorates for EVERY holiday--and not just decorates, but really goes all out. My son got very excited and said, "Mom, I wish I could live with those people."
"Really? Why?", I asked, slightly hurt.
"They decorate for every holiday and I bet they have decorations in their house too. It would be fun."
A couple of days later, I stumbled upon this recipe and detailed directions on Pioneer Woman. My initial thought was, "No way." Then, as I read the description of the cake and thought about my son's belief that we were un-celebratory--I decided to go for it.
It was a lot of fun! The kids helped and we talked about the history of the flag (Do you know how many stripes there are on the flag? Or what the red signifies? My five year old daughter did. I guess her Montessori teahcers focused on that.) The kids piled in the blueberries and counted as I made stars with the frosting.
Look at how proud they are!
I just have a few bits of advice to give you before you make this cake.
1) It is expensive, the berries, the butter,the cream cheese.
2) It is very fattening, the frosting alone consists of three packages of cream cheese, one pound of butter, one pound of sugar. (If my personal trainer happens to be reading this--just so you know, I only had a very small slice.)
3) It is huge! You will have a lot of cake unless you have a big party and everyone eats a huge slice.
4) It is good! So, if you don't mind number 1 and number 2--you should be very happy about number 3.
5) And, if your kids are like mine, they won't like it. The frosting will be too rich, the cake will be too sweet and the fruit will be too fruity. So, don't count on them to help you eat it. (Good thing, Aaron loves sweets for breakfast.)
For the best recipe and the easiest to follow step-by-step instructions, click here. The Pioneer Woman will walk you through it just as she did me.
And, since the Fourth of July was yesterday you can make this cake next year or instead of making the flag---just sprinkle the berries on randomly. It will be pretty---and not unlike abstract art.
By the way, we have so much cake in the house right now----please come over and eat some!
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