flag cake
Last year, I brought a flag cake to a 4th of July rooftop barbecue. Earlier in the week, I’d harbored fantasies about making an elaborate ice cream cake or layered berry yogurt popsicles or salads teetering on the edge of food safety standards but New York City, as it always seems to be in the first week of July, was at the crest of a week-plus of ever-increasing temperatures and stickiness, a summit where it tends to linger for a few even more airless days before finally releasing the thunder and lightening, sinking the mercury back to a brief day or two of something resembling temperate before it starts the climb again. What, me? No fan of NYC summers? Where would you get such an idea?
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
What these numbers assume — 10 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Cream Cheese | 1 oz (28g) | 99 |
| Blueberry | 1 cup (148g) | 84 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Raspberry | 1 cup (123g) | 64 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Vanilla | 1 tsp extract (4ml) | 12 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (1 cup, 1/2 pound or 225 grams) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups (400 grams) sugar
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) pure vanilla extract
- 4 cups (465 grams) cake flour
- 3 2/3 cups (460 grams) all-purpose flour plus 1/3 cup (45 grams) cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
- 1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking soda
- 1 teaspoon (6 grams) table salt
- 2 cups buttermilk (475 ml), well-shaken
- 8-ounce (225 gram) block cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (1 stick or 1/4 pound) butter, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 2 to 3 cups (240 to 360 grams) powdered sugar
- Powdered sugar
- 1 cup blueberries (1/2 pint, about 170 grams), very dry
- 3 cups raspberries (1 1/2 pints, about 360 grams), very dry