Memorial Day Cake
Steps involved
Make cake layers
Make cream cheese icing
Make buttercream (no color)
Put 3 small amounts of buttercream aside for camouflage
Put 3 larger amounts of buttercream aside for flag - the blue section will need the most
Color all icing
Assemble and crumb coat cake
Pipe out and transfer camouflage
Refrigerate cake
Peel away parchment and create flag design
READ BEFORE CONTINUING: The following recipes are scaled to make the cake pictured above -- a 4 layer cake made with 6-inch round cake layers. If you wish to make a smaller cake, please scale down these recipes.
recipes used
1.5 - 2 batches Italian meringue buttercream
I made this buttercream vanilla flavored by adding 1.5 tablespoons of vanilla to my 2x batch (can add less or more to taste)
I always like to have extra buttercream rather than not enough, so if you're not sure how much to use, I would recommend 2
Cream cheese icing (recipe below)
Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp. butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1-2 tsp. vanilla extract
milk, if needed to thin icing
Mix butter and cream cheese together
Add vanilla, mix
Slowly add powdered sugar and mix until all incorporated
If icing is too stiff you can add a splash of milk until it's the consistency you like
Colors used
To get these colors, I used Wilton's Color Right Food Coloring System.*
For the cake layers: *for tips on how to get vibrant cake layers, click here.
Red layers:
Red: 45 drops
Crimson: 15 drops
Blue layers:
Blue: 25 drops
Black: 3 drops
Red: 5 drops
For the icing:
The colors may differ depending on how much icing you're coloring and the starting color of your buttercream (certain butter brands are more white or yellow which can make the buttercream whiter or more yellow). These are the amounts I used and should get you close.
Red Icing:
Crimson: 75 drops
Red: 30 drops
Blue Icing: *may need a few extra blue drops than I have listed
Blue: 105 drops
Black: 3 drops
Red: 5 drops
Yellow: 27 drops (do these last in case you don't need them)
First Camo Icing:
Brown: 4 drops
Yellow: 2 drops
Second Camo Icing:
Blue: 5 drops
Yellow: 9 drops
Brown: 3 drops
Black: 2 drops
Third Camo Icing:
Blue: ~ 8 drops
Yellow: 8 drops
Brown: 7 drops
Black: 10 drops
Supplies/tools
To find the tools I use for almost every cake I make and decorate (including pans, cake boards, icing smoothers, etc.), click here.
The supplies/tools below are specifically for decorating this cake, which I used in addition to the ones in the link above.*
Optional: Thick-walled cake pans (to prevent the sides of the cake from browning too much and taking away from the color of the cake layers)
*Some of these links may be affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I earn a small amount from some purchases, however, this does not affect my recommendations.
Decorating the cake
After the cake has been assembled and the crumb coat is added:
Cut a piece of parchment long enough to wrap around the whole cake (at least 22 inches) and tall enough to cover the middle section of your cake (where you want the camouflage to be).
Attach a basket weave tip, Wilton tip # 47, to each of 3 piping bags. If you don't have 3 basket weave tips, you can attach a coupler to each bag and use the same tip on all 3. Fill each bag with one of the camouflage colors.
With the smooth side of the piping tip down and the ridged side up, pipe horizontal strips of icing on the parchment paper. Alternate between colors and length of the lines to give it a digital camouflage effect. Make sure all the strips are touching and all of the gaps are filled.
Continue piping until the parchment is filled, leaving room on either side to hold.
Take cake out of the fridge. Carefully, to make sure the parchment doesn't fold in on itself, pick up the parchment and wrap it around the cake. *This works best if you have a cake turner or a person turning the cake for you as you go. If doing this step alone, it may be easiest to start in the middle, wrap one side around, followed by the other.
Keep the parchment paper on and place in the fridge until the icing has become firm.
Once firm, peel back a corner of the parchment paper to make sure the buttercream stays behind. If the buttercream comes with the paper, stick the cake back in the fridge and allow to cool for longer. If the paper comes off cleanly, take the cake out of the fridge and gently remove the parchment paper, leaving the icing behind.
Fill 3 piping bags with icing - one red, one blue, and one white.
Pipe white icing on the bottom 1/4 - 1/3 of the side of the cake. When piping, avoid piping in a straight line - give it an intentional wave. Smooth with an icing smoother.
Take a stripe icing comb and scrape stripes into the icing. Take the red icing in a piping bag and fill in the stripes with red icing.
Pipe blue icing onto the top of the cake and down about 1/4 - 1/3 of the side in the same way you piped the white.
With an icing smoother, smooth the sides of the cake, cleaning it off in between each go.
After icing is smooth, take a piping bag with white icing and a star tip (Ateco tip #26) and pipe stars evenly on the blue section of the cake.
Slice and enjoy :)
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO
