Hello my darlings!
Today I'm feeling excited... can you guess why?
Because in about a week it will be our patriotic duty to celebrate how much we love our country! I love going to see the fireworks and making some special treats to celebrate 'our home and native land'.
For my friends to the south, I will also show you a few fun treats to show your love of the great red white and blue!
So first off I have to show love for my home, and my pride to be CAN-EH-DIAN (no that's not actually how you spell it, but canadians will get the joke).
Since I hate when people steal ideas and cast them off as their own, I will admit, I borrowed these pictures from some other creative people. So thank you for your patriotism and creative use of fruits!
Here is a suuuuper simple and insanely delicious idea that anyone can make. Bonus: if you decorate it right in the pan, you can take it with you, to a picnic or to see the fireworks, whatever you like.
Bake up your favorite cake in a 9x13'' pan. (May I suggest a sweet strawberry cake with some hint of lime icing?) Let the cake cool. Use your favorite vanilla icing (or even whipped cream, if you can keep this cake cool). Frost the cake in white. Slice up a pint of strawberries. Cover 1/4 of the left side of the cake in a straight line, repeat this step for the right side of the cake. In the centre, arrange the strawberry slices in a leaf shape. Cut one or two pieces long and thin to make the leaf's stem. And you're done! Seriously, how easy was that!?
But, maybe you're not looking to make something quite so big. That's ok. Lets make some cupcakes!
These great muffin cups with matching picks can be found at your local Michael's store, usually around 3-4 weeks before Canada day. Bake up your favorite cupcake recipe and allow the cupcakes to cool. For these, I made a basic vanilla cake with a strawberry jam center, and topped them off with swirled vanilla and strawberry icing. So, to create this swirled soft serve ice cream look... tint some white icing with red gel food coloring and mix very well. Add in some strawberry flavor if you like. Fit a piping bag with a 1M tip, lay the piping bag on its side and carefully fill the half thats laying down with white icing, meaning fill the piping bag horizontally instead of the usual vertical. While the piping bag is still on its side, fill the rest with the red icing. When you hold the piping bag upright you should have a vertical line separating the red from the white icing. Pipe each cupcake in a circular fashion and top with a flag pick. I bet that wasn't as difficult as you thought it would be!
Now some treats for my friends who will be celebrating Independence Day!
Similar to the first cake, we're just going to add some blueberries to make a great stars and stripes cake.
Just like before, bake up a 13x9" cake, a nice lemon cake would taste great with the blueberries and strawberries, and its nice and fresh for the summer. Frost your cake with white icing or whipped cream. Slice up 15-20 strawberries. In the top 1/4 left hand corner of the cake arrange blueberries into a square. Then lay out your strawberry slices in straight lines leaving room in between for the white to show, creating red and white stripes. Look at that, 5 minutes, and you're done 2 cakes! (haha)
Want something to compliment your awesome cake, maybe something for little hands, and little mouths. Why not try these fab cupcakes!
This creative baker, made some red and blue marble cake. If you want to do the same, separate out a vanilla cake batter into two bowls. Tint one bowl with blue food coloring, and one bowl with red. Drop 1 tablespoon at a time into each well of a muffin tin, alternating colors. Once each well is 2/3 full, take a toothpick and swirl the batter a little. Bake and cool. Frost each cupcake with your favorite vanilla icing and sprinkle with some patriotic red white and blue jimmies or non-pareils. If you know how to work with fondant, roll out some red, white and blue, and cut out various sized stars. Lay flat on parchment paper to dry for about an hour. Place the stars upright into your frosting. If you want to work with something a little different, try cutting out stars from watermelon slices, or using a sliced star fruit. Delish!
Now, I wouldn't just limit you to baking something special on July 1st or the 4th of July, so here are some super simple cupcakes to celebrate any occasion!
Stop by your local party store and pick up some of these great cocktail sticks. They come flat, but once you open them up they pop up like fireworks! Bake and frost your favorite cupcakes. Sprinkle with either coordinating color shimmering sugars, or multi colored sprinkles. Top with one (or a few) of these sparkly sticks, and you're done. Everyone will love the burst of color, and the fun pop of mini fireworks on their plate. To sneak in an extra surprise, try putting some pop rocks into your frosting, or mixing some in with your sprinkles. Now THAT'S what I call a firework cupcake!
Well my darlings, that's all for today. I hope you enjoy your long weekend, your day off, or just having some time out to celebrate your country!
Until next time,
Happy baking, caking and decorating!
Love and sprinkles, xoxo
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