Boy has this summer been busy, but we’re finally getting to posting this 4th of July star cake tutorial. We knew we wanted to make a 4th of July themed cake and had many different ideas going through our head for the décor. A stencil cake was something we haven’t tried yet and we thought that would be the perfect opportunity to do with stars. Obviously the cake had to be red, white and blue, so we chose to do a white base for the stars with a red and blue tie-dye affect.
We love incorporating fruit into our cakes and summer is the perfect season to do that. With this being a 4th of July cake, mixed berry was the obvious choice and by mixing the berries into a vanilla cake we were able to carry the red, white and blue throughout the whole cake. We have a lot of friends that are gluten free but have actually never made a gluten free cake. With one of our gluten free friends having their birthday on the 4th of July we finally decided to give it a go. For the icing we decided to keep it simple and sweet with a cream cheese buttercream.
Stencil Technique: Provide a thin crumb coat on the cake and then chill for 20-30 minutes. After the crumb coat has chilled provide a smooth thicker layer of the white butter cream and chill for another 20-30 minutes. You’ll want the cake to be chilled when you add the stencils.
While the cake is chilling this is a good time to color the icing and prepare the shapes for the stencils. You can chose just one shape or many different. The fun thing about this design is you have infinite options. Once you have decided on a shape or design, you’ll want to cut it out of parchment paper. We printed out the star and laid the parchment paper over it to trace. Since we were doing the same shape throughout the whole cake we just traced one star and then stacked up multiple pieces of parchment paper to cut them all out at once.
After the second layer of icing has chilled place the parchment stencils on the cake in your desired layout. Make sure to press down all the edges so that the frosting you apply over the top doesn’t seep through. With a small offset spatula carefully add the icing over the stencils going from the center of the stencil out over the edge of the stencil. Once all the stencils have been covered continue adding the icing around the cake. We chose to alternate the blue and red on each star around the cake. When adding the icing we made sure to not cover too much as to leave some of the white exposed.
Once you have completed adding the sections of colored icing around the sides and top of the cake, take an icing scrapper and slowly bring it around the cake to blend the colors. On our first go around the colors were a little more blotchy than what we were going for so we added more of the different colors to create largered sections of the different colors.
Continue smoothing out the icing and adding the different colors as needed until you get your desired look. Once complete take a knife with a sharp point and carefully peel back the edge of the stencil.
Mixed Berry Gluten-Free Vanilla Cake
Ingredients
- 3 1/4 cups Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Floug we used Bob's Red Mill
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 7 eggs white or 1 cup
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk room temperature
- 1/8 cup vegetable oil
- 3 cups frozen mixed berries
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease three 8 inch round cake pans.
- In a stand mixer fitter with a paddle attachment, mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
- With the mixer on low speed, mix in the butter small pieces at a time. Continue to mix until the mixture become crumbly. Continue mixing on low and add in the eggs white until just combined and then add in the butter milk, two parts at a time.
- Scape the sides of the bowl and then add in the vanilla and oil until fully incorporated.
- Remove the mixer from the stand and fold in the frozen berries.
- Divide the batter evenly between the three pans. tap the pans on the counter to get out any air bubble and to even out the batter.
- Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan before removing.
Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 3 pkg cream cheese at room temperature
- 1-1/2 cups butter at room temperature
- 3 cups confectioners sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat the cream cheese until soft. Start the mixer on low and gradually increase. Once smooth and creamy scrape the cream cheese out of the bowl and set aside.
- Cream the butter starting with the mixer and low and gradually increase the speed. The butter will become light in color and smooth.
- With the mixer on low, add the sugar 1 cup at a time letting it fully incorporate before adding the next cup. Once complete scape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the vanilla and heavy cream and beat at low until incorporated. Slowly increase the speed to high and whip for 5 minutes, stopping the mixer to scape the bowl if needed.
- Scape the side and bottom of the bowl and then add the whipped cream cheese. Beat at low for 30 seconds and then increase to medium and beat for another 30 seconds.
- Use right away or store in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
