happy birthday, independent america.

The 4th of July flag cake was a hit! 

It worked!

 There's a flag inside!

 I feel proud.  It looks way more challenging than it is, though. All you do is make 4 8-inch cakes (1 blue, 1 white, and 2 red), flavor of your choice but make sure it's white to begin with.  Since you'll be spending time on the layering later, I recommend using a cake mix.  Cut a 4-inch circle out of the blue and set aside - you use the outer ring as the top left square of the flag.  The other 3 layers get sliced in half horizontally and layered - red, white, red.  Then cut out 4-inch circles out of one of the red remaining layers and one of the white.  Those get layered inside the blue ring.  Each layer should be sealed with a thin layer of frosting (mine was the joy of baking's cream cheese frosting).

I messed my cake up because I started with 2 white cakes and 1 red cake instead of the reverse, but no one noticed.  It's one of those pow moments where the pow is all that matters.  Flavor also doesn't matter that much, as long as it's white and moist and yummy (I recommend using an egg white-only batter/cake mix so that the yolks don't taint the white stripes darker).  Because I used a classic crowd-pleaser white cake mix, it was a hit with kids and my sweet tooth-graced grandmother.  It was like a birthday cake for America.

When you are done making your cake, you will have lots of cake pieces left over from being cut in half/cut out of.  Put your leftover cake to use by making cake balls and/or cake pops! 

Happy birthday, Independent America.  Love, S&L.

scenes from the studio

Reminiscing about what I spend a ton of time on when I'm in Ann Arbor - my a cappella group. Being in Minneapolis this summer has been great, but I've also been nostalgic for my on-campus life in Ann Arbor.

Some pics from my most recent visit to the recording studio.

And a live performance of my group who was recording, if you're curious (The Compulsive Lyres).

Starting an SLR Long Weekend - sister weekends are the best! Up north for the annual family 4th of July celebration. I'll be making this this 4th of July cake for our family picnic! Recap next week.