Firecracker Red White and Blue Cake

The 4th of July is this coming Thursday, so I thought it was appropriate to have RED, WHITE, and BLUE week.

I love the 4th of July. Growing up we always went to a neighboring town and watched my Grandpa ride in the parade. Some years he would have a big float, other years he would drive one of his antique cars. It was fun to see the excitement of the parade and see family that we didn't necessarily see any other time of the year. The parade was usually followed by a big family bbq where everyone would bring a dish to pass. So that also means lots of YUMMY food.

I hope that you all enjoy the recipes this week.. and enjoy your 4th of July.

So before I get to into this recipe. Take a deep breathe, trust me its not as hard as it looks.. It is actually quite easy if you follow instructions.

Has anyone been watching the new baking show with Jeff Foxworthy as the host, I must admit I am loving it. My dream would be to be on it next year... A couple of weeks a go they had to do a cake with a design on the inside. They had some elaborate cakes, and I was like that is amazing. Then when I was researching 4th of July ideas I saw this cake and was thinking it would be a good first baby step to try this out.

Ingredients
1 Boxed White Cake Mix
Water, vegetable oil, and egg whites (called out on the box)
blue food coloring
red food coloring
1 container white frosting
1 container of red, white and blue sprinkles

Set the over for 325 deg and grease a bundt pan. I used butter spray for my grease. 

Make the cake mix per the directions on the box. The cake mix I got required 1 cup of water, 1/4 cup vegetable oil, and 3 egg whites. Put all ingredients in a bowl. Mix till they are all moist on low for about 30 seconds. Then mix on medium speed for about 2 minutes.

Take out one cup of batter and put into a seperate bowl and add the red food coloring. It took me a lot of food coloring to get the color that I wanted. I have to admit I added it slowly.. and ended up with 85 drops. Yes 85 drops. Luckily for you I had a mishap getting the first one out of the pan, so on my redo I found out that 85 drops equals at tsp. So if you add a tsp of red food coloring you will get a good red color. This is your red layer.

Take out another cup of the white batter and put it in a separate bowl. Add the blue food coloring. It took about 9 drops of blue food coloring to get a good color that I liked. As you guessed this is your blue layer.

Put the red layer in the bottom of the pan.

Then add the white batter. Do not mix them!

Then add the blue batter, keeping it toward the center vs going all the way to the edges.

Bake per directions on the box. I baked mine for 36 minutes, which was the high end of the range.

Now pay attention... After taking it out of the oven wait 15 MINUTES to take it out of the pan. If you do this then you will get a beautiful cake like this one.

If you get confused and choose to follow a recipe on the internet instead of the 15 minutes the cake box tells you. You will have an epic fail like this one.

So wait 15 MINUTES.. and life will be good.

Divide the frosting into thirds. Microwave the first bowl for 10 seconds and sprinkle on the cake, this is your white frosting layer. Take the second bowl and microwave for the same 10 seconds and put 3 drops of blue food coloring. Sprinkle on the cake, this is your blue food frosting layer. Then microwave the last bowl and add 9 drops of red food coloring. Sprinkle on the cake and you have all your RED, WHITE, and BLUE frosting layers. Sprinkle the top with the SPRINKLES.

TADA! You have a beautiful Firecracker Cake for the 4th of July.

Now cut a piece and enjoy!

This recipe was adapted from the betty crocker website.