Flag Sheet Cake for the 4th of July!
I really love this cake! I have to have plenty of people to share it with though, or I will end up eating the whole thing myself – and that is a lot of cake to eat by oneself. You can get about 30 servings out of this cake, so it is perfect for feeding a crowd!
This sheet cake reminds me of a pound cake – it is delicious, dense, and moist. It also reminds of a sugar cookie crust – you know, like one you would use with those sugar cookie fruit pizzas, but in cake form. Yep, not just some average sheet cake here.
Of course, it is going to taste amazing – there’s lots of butter, sour cream, and cream cheese going on in this recipe. Yum!
The thick, creamy cake batter fills up the baking sheet nicely, but if often overflows a bit while it bakes.
I put some foil on the bottom of my oven while the cake bakes to catch any spills. Then, once the cake is cooled, I trim off (and eat) any over-extended edges. Of you could discard some of the batter to help prevent the overflowing. By the way, I love my 17-inch cooling racks (one of which is in the photo above) – they are the perfect size to fit inside a baking sheet, hold lots of cookies, and whatever else.
Lots of butter and cream cheese – yeah, this is a good frosting. It isn’t overly sweet and goes perfectly with this cake. You can use a clear vanilla extract in white frosting to keep it a little more white.
Use a toothpick, or something similar, to mark the design of your flag on the frosted cake. Fresh blueberries for the blue and sliced strawberries for the red. I use a small or medium star tip and an icing bag to fill in the white stripes and add little stars between the blueberries. Nothing too complicated here, but it looks pretty!
This cake would be awesome for any summer party really. You don’t have to make it as a flag. It is perfect with fresh strawberries or raspberries, and probably any other of your favorite fruits. Treat it like a sheet cake fruit pizza! 
Ingredients
- 18 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3 cups sugar
- 6 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup sour cream, room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 21 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 pound cream cheese, room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- fresh blueberries
- fresh strawberries, sliced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour an 18x13x1.5-inch sheet pan, or spray with a nonstick baking spray.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric or stand mixer on high speed, until light and fluffy. On medium speed, add the eggs, two at a time until incorporated. Then add the sour cream and vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and stir until smooth.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until just combined. Do not over mix. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. (The cake may overflow slightly while baking, so I line the bottom of my oven to catch any spills.) Let the cake cool to room temperature.
- For the frosting, combine the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth.
- Spread about 2/3 of the frosting on top of the cooled cake. Use a toothpick to outline the flag on the frosted cake. Fill the upper left corner with blueberries. Use sliced strawberries for the red stripes. Fill a pastry bag with a star tip with the remaining frosting and pipe the white stripes between the rows of strawberries. Pipe the stars between the blueberries.
- Cut into squares and serve. Refrigerate leftovers.
This recipe is slightly adapted from Ina Garten on the Barefoot Contessa.
An angled spatula makes spreading so much easier and faster!
