With July Fourth just around the corner, many of us are scrambling to plan the perfect summer party or are trying desperately to come up with the one perfect thing to bring to our friends’ upcoming backyard barbecues. Just when we were starting to lose confidence that we would figure out our plans in time, we remembered an Ina Garten suggestion for a dish she swears by every single year, her American Flag cake. According to FoodNetwork.com, the Barefoot Contessa originally introduced the world to her favorite flag cake way back in 2003 on the first episode of the second season of her cooking show. Fourteen years later, Garten is still showing off her flag cake-making skills with a video on Instagram.
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Ina has a video of herself decorating the sponge sheet cake with buttercream frosting, raspberries, and blueberries on Instagram. In her 2003 episode "All American," the Barefoot Contessa explained that she loves this recipe because it uses simple ingredients but the result is always impressive. Watching her decorate the cake in this recent Instagram video proves that point. Accompanying the video, she wrote, “It's a 4th of July tradition! I've made so many flag cakes over the years and I've gotten really fast at decorating them!!” Though the video is sped up for Instagram convenience, she does seem to really know her way around that cake. Take a look:
Not only are we wow-ed by the end result, we're also impressed by her decorating skills — although by now we should know she is the queen of cake decor. Ina isn't the only celeb who holds this flag cake up as their favorite July 4th tradition. In 2015, Taylor Swift and her squad, which at the time included Gigi Hadid, HAIM, Martha Hunt, and Serayah McNeill, made the cake for an epic Independence Day party.
In her Instagram video's caption, the Barefoot Contessa also wrote, "Post a picture of your flag cake using #BCflagcake !!" and it looks like people are already sharing. If you want to try your hand at making Ina Garten's favorite Forth of July tradition, you can find the full recipe for the flag cake on her website. We can all stop stressing about the upcoming holiday because now, we've got just the right recipe.