Coco in the Kitchen

Treats for the whole family!

American Flag Cake & 5-Minute Marshmallow Meringue Frosting

| cake, frosting, holidays, marshmallow, meringue, patriotic

This 4th of July, I wanted to do something special. Everything seems like a good idea (i.e., easy) until you are well into it. That is usually when you realize things are slipping into a downward spiral and you no longer have control. Ok, so baking isn’t that dramatic, but when you have already trashed several cakes and guests are coming in two hours, the pressure is definitely on. My sister’s voice fills my head, reminding me I should never test a recipe on dinner guests, but since she was the one coming for dinner, I felt unusually ambitious. After all, we were celebrating our freedom and all the little, but immensely important things that it affords us, like flag cake, an American flag cake dressed in my favorite 5-minute marshmallow meringue frosting!
How hard could it possibly be, anyway? I did have a backup plan if my cake didn’t happen to go the way I wanted it to though, I have been looking at flag poles for sale so we’re able to raise our American flag out in the yard ready for the 4th of July too!
Eh, well, it’s really not so easy, after all. First I couldn’t get the cake to work. The white layer baked beautifully, but the blue was a bit too dry and the red was just bitter, bitter, nasty bitter. The cakes were just so moist that they completely fell to pieces when I tried moving them. No amount of frosting could put that cake back together again. This was quite a feat of engineering.

The second try was better. The cake came together well. Everything baked just as I intended and assembled beautifully. My coffee cream cheese frosting was delicious and seemed to hold the layers together well, but since about half of it ended up in the bin along with the first cake, I quickly ran out of frosting and did not have enough to cover the outside of the cake. There was no way I was going to trash this one, nor leave it unfinished. It was time to test Paula Deen’s very famous 7-minute meringue frosting recipe. (Of course it was.) Everyone knows meringue takes time and patience to make. You just cannot cut corners, but Paula sure had and I wanted to see if I could, too.

The recipe called for continuously whipping egg whites over a hot water bath. This is not an unfair demand. Normal people have simple handheld mixers and can easily accomplish this. I don’t have a handheld mixer. I have a fancy stand mixer and immersion blender. An immersion blender is not a good substitute for a handheld mixer, but time was quickly running out and I figured a deep pot would minimize the mess. The lower setting on the immersion blender was so powerful that it splattered teeny dots of sticky white sap all over the walls of the pot, onto my hands, the stove, my t-shirt, neck, hair, eyelashes, all over the microwave overhead, as far as the chalkboard and knife stand near the kitchen light switch. There were sticky white dots everywhere, but I was determined to make this frosting work. I had a big mess to clean up, anyway. There really was no point in stopping. So I kept bzz bzz bzz splatter splatter splatter ALL OVER THE PLACE.

After all this effort (and mess), what I got was a white liquid. That’s when I lost it, pushed the hot water bath out of the way and put the pot directly over the fire. I tossed the immersion blender into the sink and grabbed a whisk. If technology couldn’t do this, good old fashioned elbow grease would. The frosting looked like it was doubling in size, but my arms were aching and my patience wore thin. I just turned the pot over the cake and let the meringue flow, hoping it would set like luscious ganache. (Ganache. Why didn’t that occur to me?)

But, it didn’t. It just dripped and dripped, down the cake, onto the cake stand. I rushed it into the fridge, hoping the chill would stop the frosting in its tracks. But, it didn’t. It crawled over the edge of the plate, all over the fridge shelf. Grinding teeth and mumbling mild obscenities wasn’t going to fix this and I really wasn’t ready to give up.
Then I went renegade. What was missing all along was Daisy, my lucky charm. While my li’l blue-eyed beauty whipped the whites, I heated the sugar with a bit of water. With the mixer running, we streamed the hot syrup slowly into the egg whites and within minutes we got shiny, fluffy, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous peaks of marshmallow meringue frosting. The whole thing took something like 5 minutes, including the torching which is my fav part. What I got was the quickest and most delicious meringue frosting the world had ever tasted, quite possibly spanning the entire history of Mankind’s efforts in baking. This one will make you a rockstar.

Perfect Meringue Frosting + US Flag Cake 
Notes:  This recipe uses 3 boxes of cake mix, red, white, blue each baked into 2 8-inch rounds. So there will be 2 cakes in each color. Use either 2 whites or 2 reds in the final assembly.   There will be extra blue and white cakes. The frosting makes good use of a stand mixer. Whip the egg whites while the simple syrup is cooking on the stove. Then carefully stream the hot syrup into the fluffy whites until shiny.
 
Serves 8
Ingredients
Cakes                                                                                   
1 box white cake mix
1 box red velvet cake mix
1 box blue velvet cake mix
3 free range eggs per cake mix
1/3 cup vegetable oil per cake mix
1 1/4 cups water per cake mix
Frosting
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
3 free-range egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
Instructions
Cakes
Line 2 8″ round cake pans with parchment paper.
Make cake batter per instructions on back of the box.
Bake 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Wash the cake pans and repeat for the other 2 boxes.
Set cakes to cool completely.
Frosting
Measure sugar, water, vanilla and salt into a small sauce pan.
Place over medium heat and stir to combine.
Cook just until sugar has melted, about 1-2 minutes.
Meanwhile, separate the eggs and collect the whites in the bowl of a stand mixer.
Reserve the yolks for another recipe. (The hen worked very hard to make it.)
Whip egg whites with cream of tartar.
Lower the mixer speed and very slowly stream the hot
syrup into the egg whites until shiny, soft peaks form.
 
Assembly
American Flag Cake

Use 2 red cakes with 1 white or vice versa. As long as you alternate the red and white properly, it really doesn’t matter.

Place one whole white cake onto a cake plate. Apply a thin layer of frosting on top.

Slice 1 white cake in half and place over the red cake.
Slice the remaining red cake into 2 half-thick cakes.
Spread a thin amount of frosting over the white cake and place a layer of red cake over the frosting.

Apply another thin layer of frosting on top.

Place a 4-inch dessert plate over the center of one of the blue cakes. Using a sharp paring knife, cut along the edge of the plate and remove the center. Gently place over the cake.
Use the same dessert plate to cut small 4-inch circles out of the 1/2-thickness red and white cake slices. Fit the small white cake into the center of the blue ring, then top with the small red cake.
Frost the entire cake with the remaining meringue frosting, then pull wavy swirly with the back of the spoon/knife/spatula. (Some people use their fingers to “pull” the frosting, but I’d rather not get my hands dirty, if I can help it.)
Chill the cake at least 1 hour.
Torch the cake, if you like. I highly recommend this, because the roasted marshmallow gives the cake a vintage flare and the frosting takes on the irresistible smell of caramel.
Chill the cake well before cutting so that the pattern stays intact.
Weekends often start with a dilemma: There are always chores, but also a long list of fun stuff to do. Then there’s the overwhelming desire to to do absolutely nothing at all. Holiday weekends are extra-special and busy. My sister came over and we bbq’d ribs. Then the next day, we relaxed with my parents. After a great lunch, I went shopping with Mom while Dad napped and Shawn took Daisy swimming. She earned a day at the pool by eating her dinner every night this week. It’s a great bribe!
American Flag Cake
This past July 4th fell on a Saturday which gave me plenty of time to get that flag cake done. The blue cake ring seemed to collapse, which I’m told is happens because of the moist cake. So, I’m willing to turn a blind eye to it if you are. All in all, the weekend was a success. I learned a big lesson (an immersion blender doesn’t take the place of a proper hand mixer), amp’d up my beauty routine (egg whites make a great conditioning mask treatment for dry hair) and found the perfect meringue frosting. Who likes slaving over a hot stove? Time is precious, especially if you have little ones. So, I’ve ordered a sexy new hand mixer with a foreign-sounding name (probably made in China) and burned that frosting recipe into my memory forever.

Comments

  1. Well the end result is beautiful. I don't know if this will help but I find that the bottom of a springform pan is useful in moving cake layers around in one piece. GREG

  2. G, I'm actually embarrassed to admit my mom got me a very nice cake lifter.
    Did I remember to use it? Um, no!

    Hope you're planning a great w/end. xo

  3. What a saga! But it was all worth it in the end, right? A cake lifter? I have never heard of that… and now I need one! 🙂 I use the bottom of my quiche pan! Beautiful cake – love it! xo

  5. Dear Colette, you are such a talented person, so very creative and you really come up with the most amazing cakes ever! This cake looks stunning, my dear! Love the American theme, love your fun post!
    Give hugs to the little cutie pie – how is she doing? How is summer coming along for you? All well?
    Andrea

  6. David, my mom got me the cake lifter. At first I thought, “Oh, no, one more thing to store.”
    Now I realize how useful it really is. Sometimes I just leave the cake on it. It's pretty cute, a flat stainless disk with a wooden handle.

  7. Hi, Andrea dear. So nice to “see” you here. I love your comments.
    The summer is going well with us spoiled Californians whining all day about the hot & humid weather.
    What's it like in Germany this time of year? Ah, the German flag would be fairly easy to do as a cake, wouldn't it? Except, I'm not sure about the black food colouring. It might taste ok. I'll have to give it a try for you. xo

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