Red, White and Blue Cake - [Banana Split Cake]

The Fourth of July isn't just a national holiday, it's also the birthday of one of my closest friends. Because my birthday often falls on or near Memorial Day, we share the childhood memory of no one coming to our birthday parties because they were all out of town! (sniff, sniff)

So, I made this special patriotic birthday cake to serve double duty for our July Fourth celebration with her and her family.

I know from past discussions that she loves the Strawberry Buttercream Icing as much as I do, so I wanted to have that for the cake.

And with three colors, and three flavors, I thought why not go for a Banana Split Cake, and just color the icing to make it red, white and blue?

What You Need:
Banana Cake
Swiss Meringue Buttercream*
Red and Blue Icing Coloring
Piping Bag with large round tip (Tip #12 or 1A)
Icing Spatula or butter knife

*Note: You will need to divide the icing into thirds to flavor it (vanilla, chocolate and strawberry). I would recommend a double batch, even though you will end up with some leftovers. Too much icing is always better than too little! 

Bake the Cake

Click the link to see my complete Banana Cake Recipe & Tutorial. I love this cake. It is rich, tasty, and just awesome! You have to try it.
But for this, you could really use any cake. (Click the link for How to Make Cake Mix Taste Homemade.)

Make the Icing

This icing is my absolute favorite. It is SO tasty. It is so rich and smooth, and not too sweet. It is a little fussy. It takes a few more steps, and a little extra time, but it is so worth it. I made a double batch, but had plenty leftover. You want to make it all, then divide it and flavor one-third strawberry, one-third chocolate and one-third vanilla. (As I did in the original Banana Split Cake Recipe.)

Click these links to see the recipe step-by-step:
Vanilla Buttercream
Strawberry Buttercream
Chocolate Buttercream

When the icing is made and flavored, I colored the Strawberry Icing red, and the Chocolate Icing blue, and loaded it into piping bags fitted with Tip #12.

Assemble and Decorate the Cake

Cut the cake into three layers of equal height.

To fill the cake, and add a little flair on the inside, I alternated the red, white and blue icing on the inside. I put blue on the outside ring for the lowest layer, the middle layer was white, red, blue, then when I iced the top, I had red, white, then blue.

For the outside of the cake, I did the "petal technique" in three colors. This is where the slow, painstaking work comes in. I tried a few ways, and found that the best way to work it was to do two dots at a time. (Each color separately.) But, you can't really skip ahead and do all of the blue then all of the white, etc. because when you flatten the dot above your previous dot, you tend to overlap a little, and you would then smash the next line of petals.

I'm not going to lie, this takes time. You make a large dot, about the size of the end of your icing spatula, then about 1/3 the way into the dot, flatten and spread each dot away, creating a petal effect.

It took me about an hour to go around the entire 8" cake.

On the top, it goes a little quicker. You make a circle of dots, ringing the cake, then go through and flatten the entire ring. So much faster!!

And that's it. I like the way the rings on the inside look, and it helps to bring a little of each flavor of icing to every bite.

Happy birthday, America... and Happy Birthday, Amanda!

Click the Links Below to See:
Fourth of July Cake Pops
Banana Split Cupcakes
Banana Split Cake Pops
My Recipe Collection

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