American Flag Cake

Happy 4th of July everybody! I have many fond memories of Independence Days growing up. Every year my neighborhood (actually, to be fair, it was actually the neighborhood next to mine but we "crashed" it every year) would hold a parade. One of my neighbors had a flatbed trailer that we would decorate the night before. The day of the parade we would climb into the flatbed, decked out in as much red, white and blue as possible and throw candy and sing and shout to the parade watchers. After, we would gather at my godmother's house for a swim and a BBQ with all our neighbors. We'd then head home to change and regrouped to walk to the mall where would would set up our towels on a hill to watch the fireworks display. After the trek home we'd stop at my next door neighbors for ice cream sundaes. We'd top off the night with some night swimming with the pool lights on at my best friend's house. So yes, I totally love the 4th of July!

This flag cake became a yearly tradition for me. It is super easy and I admit I made it even easier by cheating and using a box cake mix (oh the horror!).

I decided this year I wouldn't cheat and I found a white cake recipe on this website. It wasn't complicated and was pretty simple to follow.



American Flag Cake

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoon shortening (room temperature)
1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup + 3 tablespoons milk (refrigerator temperature)
5 egg whites (refrigerator temperature)
1 container of whipped topping
1 container blueberries
1 container strawberries

 Preheat oven to 375.

Mix and sift flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into mixer bowl. Add shortening, vanilla, milk and egg whites. Beat 30 seconds on low speed, scraping frequently. Beat 7 1/2 minutes on high speed. Scrape twice during this beating.

Bake for 30-35 minutes (until toothpick inserted comes out clean).

Once completely cooled completely, cover cake with whipped topping. Place blueberries in the top left corner to make the blue square of the American flag. Halve the strawberries and place end to end in rows. Leave an equal amount of space between the next row to make the stripes of the flag.

S'more Brownies

The weather is getting warmer, which means lots of cook-outs and outdoor get-togethers, and more importantly, delicious, delicious s'mores. I love s'mores, but I think we can all agree they can get more than a little messy. I decided I wanted to bring something to a girls' night (Magic Mike Night ;)) and thought maybe S'more Brownies would be something cool to try.

I did some research online and found quite a few recipes for them, but they all had graham cracker crusts and frankly,

Instead, I decided to mix the graham crackers into the brownie mix. And, in case you were wondering, graham cracker crushing is a seriously awesome way to relieve some stress.

While making these, I was in the middle of doing half a billion other things at the same time, so when I took these out of the oven I just assumed they were cooked and didn't test them as I should have. Turns out that was NOT a good idea. I didn't get back to them until they had cooled and it was time to cook them...and what a mess. BUT the good news is that all was not lost and the edges were thoroughly cooked and tasted ah-mazing (seriously, they were goddamn amazing).

I made them again and played around with the temperature (I didn't drop it down to 325 degrees like for the Bacon Chocolate Chip Brownies and the Cadbury Creme Egg Brownies).

S'more Brownies

4 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cups vegetable shortening  
2 1/4 cups sugar  
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt   
2 tablespoons 2% milk
6 graham crackers
Small marshmallows 
 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt chocolate with shortening in a large bowl in the microwave on high for 2 minutes. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. 
Add sugar into the mix and stir until completely mixed. Add in eggs and vanilla until those are completely mixed. Mix in flour, baking powder, salt and milk until all is thoroughly blended.

Break up the graham crackers and add to the mix. Spread in a greased and floured 9x13 inch pan (glass works best). Top with small marshmallows to preference (I like the brownies to be completely covered).

Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. If not cooked completely, return to oven in 5-10 minute increments until completely cooked.

Cool completely before cutting.