Festive and fruity American Flag Cake is a delicious way to celebrate. It’s patriotic, light, and refreshing!
This American Flag design idea can be added to the top of other cake recipes such as Jello Poke Cake, Cherry Sheet Cake, Lemon Sheet Cake, and Red Velvet Poke Cake.
American Flag Cake with fruit
We love our patriotic holidays, and we love to celebrate with food! It’s always fun to create festive food to enjoy on Independence Day and Memorial Day in particular.
Some of our favorite dessert recipes to whip up for these holidays are Patriotic Poke Cake, Fourth of July Rice Krispie Treats, and now this flag cake! The kids especially love these patriotic treats.
This American Flag Cake is not only tasty, but light and fresh. Whip up a flag cake for your next celebration or gathering!
Flag Cake for 4th of July
PREP. Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease an 11×15 baking pan and set aside.
BATTER. Bring 1 cup of butter and 1 cup of water to a boil in a saucepan.
Remove from heat and whisk in flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, eggs, sour cream, and almond extract until smooth.
BAKE. Pour into prepared baking pan. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes.
FROSTING. While the cake is cooling, make the frosting. In a medium bowl, cream together cream cheese, softened butter, powdered sugar, and pineapple juice with the hand mixer. Spread frosting over the cooled cake.
BERRIES. Add blueberries and sliced strawberries to look like a flag. Chill for 1 hour before serving.
Decorating Tips
Different fruit designs. This idea can be adjusted to create different designs. Find different colored fruits and arrange them to resemble your country’s flag.
- Red: cherries, strawberries, and raspberries
- Yellow/Orange: banana slices, peaches, apricots, pineapple, and oranges
- Green: grapes and kiwi
- Blue/Purple: blueberries, grapes, blackberries, and plums
Piping on frosting stripes. The layer of white frosting acts as the white stripes between the red strawberry stripes.
To enhance the white, use a piping bag and star tips. Use a small star tip to add dollops between the blueberry stars and a large star tip to dollop stripes between the red stripes. (You may need to make extra frosting).
Double-layer cake. Once the sheet cake cools, cut it in half widthwise. Add a layer of frosting on top of one side of the cake. Place the other half of the cake on the frosting. Frost the top of the cake and decorate it to look like a flag.
Recipe Tips
Here are some of our best tips and tricks for getting the best results, and getting them more easily!
- Room temperature ingredients. Use room temperature ingredients so that the cake batter and frosting ingredients come together more easily.
- Easy clean up. Lining the baking pan with parchment paper can help keep the cake from sticking to the pan.
- Colored cake. Make a red cake or blue cake by adding food coloring to the cake batter.
- Fruit alternative. This recipe uses strawberry slices, but strawberry halves or even rows of raspberries will work.
Storing Info
Make ahead of time. Fully prepare and top the Flag Cake Recipe one day in advance. Keep it covered and put it in the fridge until ready to serve.
To prepare it sooner, leave the fruit topping off and keep it in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Freeze ahead of time. Another way to prepare this cake in advance is to freeze the cake and the frosting separately. Allow the cake to cool completely, and wrap it with plastic wrap and again with foil. Freeze for 2-3 months.
Place the cream cheese frosting in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw the frosting before spreading it on the cake.
STORE. Cover and store American Flag Fruit Cake in the fridge for 2-3 days, or wrap tightly with plastic and foil and freeze for up to 2 months.
Since the berries will become mushy fairly quickly, be sure to remove the berries when storing for longer than a couple of days.
Recipe FAQ
For a shortcut, use a boxed cake mix and canned frosting. Decorate the top with fresh berries.
You can substitute part of the butter with vegetable oil, so ½ cup butter and ½ cup vegetable oil. Additionally, you could use brown sugar instead of granulated sugar, but keep in mind that it will darken the cake.
For more Patriotic Treats, try:
- 4th of July Cookies
- Candy Firework Cupcake Toppers
- Patriotic Trail Mix
- Patriotic Drink
- Fourth of July Rice Krispies
American Flag Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup water
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs beaten
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ tsp almond extract
Frosting
- 2 (8-ounce) blocks cream cheese
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter softened
- 2 – 3 cups powdered sugar
- ⅓ cup pineapple juice
- 2 – 3 cups (about 1 pound) strawberries sliced
- 1 cup blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease an 11×15 baking pan and set aside.
- Bring 1 cup of butter and 1 cup of water to a boil in a saucepan.
- Remove from heat and whisk in flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, eggs, sour cream, and almond extract until smooth.
- Pour into a greased baking pan. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes.
- While the cake is cooling, make the frosting. In a medium bowl, cream together cream cheese, softened butter, powdered sugar, and pineapple juice with the hand mixer. Spread frosting over the cooled cake.
- Add blueberries and sliced strawberries to look like a flag. Chill for 1 hour before serving.
Can this be made in a 9×13 pan? (Single layer?)
Yes, but baking time might need to be adjusted slightly. You’ll know the cake is done when you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean. Also, make sure not to overfill the 9×13 pan, since the cake will rise when baking. So you may or may not use all the batter. I’d say fill the pan to 2/3 full, no more.
The cake didn’t rise up like a usual cake.