VANILLA-FLAG CAKE

Duff Goldman’s Vanilla Cake (Ace of Cakes)

Recipe from People Magazine, November 2009

Makes 2-9inch round cakes, or about  36 cupcakes

* Cake below was baked in a 17 ” pan, and I doubled the recipe and got an additional 14 cupcakes.  A single batch will be plenty for an 8″ or 9″ cake.

INGREDIENTS

3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, unsalted
2 cups sugar
4 tsp vanilla extract
6 eggs
3 tbsp canola oil
2/3 cup buttermilk

Wilton Gel in red and blue, reserving remaining batter for cake.

Fresh Strawberries, and Blueberries

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, sift to combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a stand mixer, fitted with a flat beater, cream the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes until light. Add vanilla. Then eggs, one at a time. (Don’t worry if the batter looks curdled.) Add oil and buttermilk.

Slowly add flour mixture in 3 additions and mix until just combined. Try not to overmix! Divide batter  into three bowls and add red gel in one bowl, blue in another bowl, and the last bowl leave plain.

Once batter has been colored, spoon the different colors all around in the pan.  After all batter has been added, take a toothpick and make swirl designs throughout the cake.

Bake about 25-28 minutes (cupcakes 15-18) or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

1 cup milk

8 ounce pack cream cheese (softened)

1 small package vanilla pudding (INSTANT)

1 Large container Cool Whip

1 small can pinapple (crushed)

1/2 cup fresh coconut

Fresh Strawberries and Blueberrys for decoration.

Sprinkle pineapple chunks all over cake, then cover with frosting. Blend  milk with pudding until thickened.  When cheese is soft blend it with pudding mixture. then add the cool whip (still frozen) and mix well.  Spread on cake and decorate with fresh strawberries and blueberries to look like a flag.