Patriotic Flag Cake

Growing up for the fourth of July, my grandmother always made patriotic flag cakes with me. I decided this year I wanted to make one but I added my own twist.

I decided to make the inside red, white, and blue using red (and blue!) velvet cake with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting between the layers.

This recipe is originally from Paula Deen. I made it a few years ago as cupcakes. Now I just assumed that the recipe could be converted into cake by cooking it longer. I could be wrong. My cakes came out pretty dense. I'm not sure why. My grocery store only had low fat sour cream and buttermilk but I can't imagine that making a huge difference. Here is the recipe I followed:

Red/Blue Velvet Cake Ingredients:
-1 cup butter, softened
-2 cups sugar
-1 tablespoon vanilla extract
-3 large eggs
-1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
-2 cups all-purpose flour
-1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/2 cup buttermilk
-1/2 cup sour cream
-one 1oz bottle red or blue food coloring

The above is the recipe for one cake. Double for a two layer cake and you'll also need:
-blueberries
-strawberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, and vanilla at medium speed with a mixer until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vinegar.

3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

4. Add to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating just until combined after each addition.

 5. Stir in sour cream and food coloring. Pour into greased 9x13 baking pan.

6. Bake for about 35 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on wire racks.

7. Repeat with the above recipe but use blue food coloring instead of red.

I will let you all know how I definitely messed up. I thought the food coloring bottles I bought were 1 ounce each but it turned out they were .25 ounces each and all four colors were 1 ounce together. I hadn't noticed with the red food coloring but when I mixed the blue in, it turned out like this.

Yucky green gray! I went to the grocery store to look for a 1 ounce bottle but of course they only had them in red and green so I just bought another .25 one. It still wasn't blue. More teal. But I was okay with that.

Here's how it came out baked.

Vanilla Bean-Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:
-3/4 cup butter, softened
-one 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
-1 tablespoon vanilla extract
-1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, seeds reserved
-5 cups confectioners' sugar (note: Paula called for 7 cups but that seemed like so much to me and it was already very sweet)

1. Split your vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds.

2. In a large bowl, beat butter, cream cheese, vanilla extract, and vanilla bean seeds at medium speed with a mixer until creamy. Gradually add confectioner's sugar, beating until smooth.

3. Place red cake on serving platter (I used a baking sheet since I didn't have anything large enough). Cover top in icing.

4. Place blue cake on top of that. Coat the sides in icing and then the top. Go back around with any extra icing you have. In a rectangle in the top left, place your blueberries. Then create stripes with your strawberries (mine are quartered).

I made mine just in time for Flag Day!

Enjoy! Please let me know if you have advice converting a cupcake recipe into a cake recipe and if I did something terribly wrong!

I'm linking up here!

Re-purposed Cool Whip Containers

I have been inspired by my bloggy friend, Susan, at Organized 31. One of her specialties is re-purposing items you normally would just throw away or recycle into amazing things! A lot of the recipes I've been making lately call for Cool Whip. Having just moved, I was saving the containers because I didn't have anything to store leftovers in. Now that I have some, I just thought about recycling the plastic containers but seeing all the things Susan has done, I knew I had to save them to re-purpose.

Items Needed:
-Cool Whip container
-Mod Podge
-paper
-scissors, brush

1. Make sure your container is nice and clean. I mean, you should have licked it clean with your fingers when it was empty but you still need to wash it.

2. Then, using the paper insert, trace a circle on your paper of choice. Trim when needed to make sure it fits inside it the lid.

3. Coat the container lid in Mod Podge. Place paper circle inside and coat the top in Mod Podge again. Beware of air bubbles.

4. Using a coordinating paper to your first, cut it into strips and then smaller pieces the length of the container.

5. Apply Mod Podge to container and back of paper. Put paper on container and coat generously in Mod Podge. Repeat until side is covered.

Note: I used scrapbook paper which was heavy duty and harder to Mod Podge as well as some Podgeable paper (in vintage wallpaper from Mod Podge - I got this as a freebie...you'll see why on Monday!). The Podgeable paper was much more...podgeable...because it was lighter in weight. I recommend using thinner paper because it's more pliable and podgeable (we're making this into a word).

6. When I was done and dry, I coated everything in Mod Podge again just to be safe. Now you can use the containers to store your craft supplies! I ordered some letters and they're the perfect size to store them in.

The green one is made from scrapbook paper.

The pink one is the podgeable paper (although the lid is still scrapbook paper).

I was a little embarrassed for guests to see my craft supplies in a Cool Whip container. But, not anymore!

I'm linking up here!

My Apartment: Settled In

I've had some requests to share what my apartment looks like now that I've settled in. I haven't shown anything since I shared the blank slate right before I moved in. This is pretty much going to be a picture dump.

When you walk in the front door, the kitchen is on your left.

Straight ahead is the long dining/living area.

You can see my herringbone canvas tutorial here.

Then it continues right into the living room.

On the right there is a door that leads onto the balcony.

Here is my tutorial for my stenciled pots.

It continues to the left like an L. There is my little guardian owl rock. Love him!

Here is the view going back inside. Here is the tutorial for my side table makeover.

The hall on the left past the closet door leads to the space I have deemed my craft nook.

You can find desk makeover here.

On the right is the bathroom.

On the left is my bedroom.

 My nightstand makeover is here.

 

Here is the link for my dresser makeover.

 

What did you think of the tour? It is definitely still a work in progress but I'm very happy!