This Is The Most Searched For Fourth Of July Recipe In The South

It will come as a surprise to no one that our most searched for Fourth of July recipe is red, white, and blue. It also happens to be very easy to make (you just stir it together). You can bake it up to two days in advance, and it uses seasonal berries for bursts of fresh flavor. Have these clues given it away? No, it’s not a trifle or seasonal shortcake. It’s our classic Flag Cake, and while it’s far from a new concept, sometimes going back to basics is exactly what we need for holiday entertaining.

What Sets Our Flag Cake Apart

Our tender Flag Cake is not only extra easy to make (no stand-mixer required), but it’s also super moist and tender thanks to two key ingredients: buttermilk and oil. Buttermilk is more than just a Southern twist in this recipe, it helps activate the baking soda in the cake for a beautiful rise and adds a pleasant tang to balance the sweetness. 

The recipe also uses oil instead of butter, not only because it allows this cake to simply be stirred together, but because oil makes the sponge super tender. Although butter’s flavor is hard to match, oil-based cakes tend to be more moist (and stay that way longer). And don’t worry, you still get plenty of rich butter flavor from our easy to make vanilla buttercream that goes on top.

3 Fun Variations

Although gorgeous and tasty as is, you can always play around with the formula to suit your tastes. Here are a few ideas to get you started. 

Swap raspberries for strawberries

We love the sweet-tart flavor that raspberries lend to this cake, but strawberries can easily be substituted to form the red stripes on this cake. 

Add tang with cream cheese frosting

If you typically find American buttercreams a little too sweet for your tastes, try using our Cream Cheese Frosting instead. It will still give you the white canvas you need for this cake, but with a super creamy and slightly tangier flavor. You could also cut the sweetness and double up on the buttermilk with our fluffy Buttermilk Frosting, if you prefer.

Breakout the star tip

We designed this cake to be super easy to both bake and decorate, but if you want to go the extra mile, break out your star tip and get to piping. You can add little white stars in between each of the blueberries or pipe a gorgeous border around the cake for extra flair.