This American Flag Cake is made with an easy homemade vanilla cake then topped with a simple whipped cream frosting and finished with fresh strawberries and blueberries. A great holiday dessert that will be a masterpiece on the dessert table.
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Why We Love this Flag Cake Recipe
- It's the perfect patriotic dessert for Memorial Day or Fourth of July!
- This cake has a super simple vanilla cake base.
- The frosting is just as simple with only 3 ingredients!
- The fresh fruit is the perfect pairing with the whipped cream frosting.
- It's made in a sheet pan, so it feeds a crowd.
- This cake can be made ahead of time.
American Flag Cake Ingredients
- Salted Butter
- Warm Water
- Sugar
- Unbleached All Purpose Flour
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Plain Greek Yogurt
- Eggs
- Pure Vanilla Extract
- Heavy Whipping Cream
- Powdered Sugar
- Blueberries
- Sliced Strawberries
Substitution Suggestions:
- Salted Butter: You can use unsalted butter, I would recommend adding an additional ½ teaspoon of salt to the cake batter.
- Plain Greek Yogurt: Sour cream will work too, as well as vanilla Greek yogurt.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: Use pure extracts. The imitation extracts leave a fake and unwanted after taste in baked goods. If you like you can also add ¼ teaspoon of almond extract to make the cake taste a bit more like cake batter.
- Fresh Fruit: Feel free top the cake with whatever fruit you like and make into any design you want. Halved cherries, raspberries, blackberries, mango slices, star fruit, or kiwi are some really yummy options.
- Easier Variation: To make this cake even easier, you can use a white cake mix or boxed cake mix and whipped topping or cool whip for the frosting.
This American flag cake recipe is a crowd pleaser and the perfect dessert for any July 4th party. This fun and festive flag cake is a great way to wow your family and friends!
How to Make American Flag Cake with Fruit
- First heat oven to 375°F and grease a rimmed 15x10 baking sheet.
- Then in a large sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter.
- Once melted, whisk in the warm water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, remove from heat.
- To the butter mixture add the dry ingredients: sugar, all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt and whisk just until combined.
- Next, whisk in the plain Greek yogurt.
- Lastly, add the beaten eggs and pure vanilla extract and whisk until fully incorporated.
- Pour batter into the prepared baking pan.
- Bake the cake in center of the oven for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If needed, rotate the pan half way through baking for an even cake top.
- Let cake cool completely before frosting.
- In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or with hand mixer, beat the heavy cream on medium speed until soft peaks form about 1-2 minutes.
- Then add the powdered sugar and pure vanilla extract and beat until stiff peaks have formed. This doesn't take any longer than a minute.
- Remove about half of the frosting (around 1-½ cups) and set it aside.
- Place the rest of the frosting in the center of the cake and evenly spread it out to the edges of the cake to cover the entire cake. An offset spatula works great for this.
- To make the flag design, take your fruit and place your fresh blueberries in the top left corner (horizontally) in 7 rows across by 7 columns.
- Place the sliced strawberries in rows horizontally, layering the ends if wanted and leaving 2 inches between each row.
- Finally, add the frosting that was set aside to a large pastry bag with a large star tip (or a zip top bag with the corner cut works too) and pipe the white stripes between the strawberries.
- Slice, serve and enjoy!
Make Ahead Instructions
- Make the vanilla cake a day or two ahead of time, let it cool completely and keep it tightly covered until the day you want to serve it.
- Day of serving: make the frosting and decorate the cake.
Storing and Freezing American Flag Cake
Storing: Since the cake has a whipped cream frosting, it needs to be stored in the fridge after being at room temperature for a few hours.
Freezing: This cake is freezer friendly. It freezes best as individual slices. Wrap each slice of cake with plastic wrap and then place the pieces of cake in a freezer safe airtight container.
Thawing: Thaw the cake slices in the fridge for a few hours.
Tips for Easy American Flag Cake
- Use room temperature ingredients for the cake. It helps with even baking along with creating a smooth batter.
- Chill the mixing bowl for the frosting in the fridge and use cold whipping cream.
- Always fluff your flour, then spoon and level to measure. Do this when baking anything. It will help eliminate any extra flour from being added to the recipe. Too much flour in this cake will make it dry.
- This recipe is for a jelly roll size sheet pan (15x10 inches). If you use a half sheet pan the cake will be very thin and bake a lot faster-I don't recommend it. You could use a 9x13 inch pan and add 5-10 minutes to the baking time. The cake will be taller, but still super yummy and it can still be decorated like a flag.
- For clean slices, use a sharp chef's knife and do NOT use a sawing motion. Wipe the knife clean between each slice.
More Delicious Sheet Cake Recipes:
- German Chocolate Sheet Cake
- Easy Carrot Cake
- Chocolate Zucchini Cake
- Chocolate Peppermint Sheet Cake
- Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Almond Cake with Condensed Milk Frosting
American Flag Cake
This American Flag Cake is made with an easy homemade vanilla cake then topped with a simple whipped cream frosting and finished with fresh strawberries and blueberries. A great holiday dessert that will be a masterpiece on the dessert table.
Servings: 24 slices
Ingredients
Vanilla Cake
- 1 cup salted butter
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Frosting
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup blueberries
- 16 ounces strawberries, hulled and sliced
Instructions
Vanilla Cake
- Preheat oven to 375°F and grease a rimmed 15x10 baking sheet.
- In a large sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter.
- Once melted, whisk in warm water and bring to a boil. Once it starts to boil, remove from heat.
- Whisk in sugar, all purpose flour, baking powder and salt just until combined.
- Whisk in plain Greek yogurt.
- Add the beaten eggs and vanilla extract and whisk until fully incorporated.
- Pour batter into prepared sheet pan.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Rotate cake half way through baking if needed for even baking.
- Let cake cool completely before frosting.
Frosting
- In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or with hand beaters, beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add the powdered sugar and vanilla extract and beat until stiff peaks form, takes only a minute.
- Remove 1½ cups (about half) of the frosting and set it aside.
- Place the remaining frosting in the center of the cooled cake and evenly spread it out to the edges of the cake.
- Working on the cake horizontally, place the blueberries in the upper left corner in 7 rows by 7 columns.
- Place the sliced strawberries in rows, overlapping the ends. Leave about 2 inches in between each row.
- Take the frosting that was set aside and add it to a piping bag with a large tip (or a zip top bag with the corner cut works too) and pipe the white stripes between the strawberries.
- Slice, serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice | Calories: 276kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 59mg | Sodium: 177mg | Potassium: 71mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 24g | Vitamin A: 557IU | Vitamin C: 12mg | Calcium: 58mg | Iron: 1mg
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Marianne DeSilva says
I made this American Flag Cake for July 4, 2023. Everything about the recipe and the instructions were perfectly clear, precise and easy to follow. I read through the entire recipe on your website before doing anything. I did as you suggested, and made the cake one day, and the frosting, cleaning and cutting fruit, and decorating the cake the following day. It took no time at all to decorate the cake. It was so easy! I especially liked the method you used to make the cake.
I brought it to the July 4th BBQ, and it looked magnificent, the cake received rave reviews. It looked as though I bought it at a bakery, so very professional...
On top of that, it tasted even better than it looked!
It was truly, Easy, Beautiful and Scrumptious!
Thanks for a great recipe, it's a keeper! It's hard to believe this is it's first review.
Heather Warburton says
Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm so glad it was a big hit!!!