Surprise Cake

I found instructions on the internet, on how to make a "flag cake". It looked so cool I decided I had to try it for our 4th of July celebration.

It required 2 boxes of white cake mix, divided and colored.
With the EXTRA batter, I made cupcakes.

As I started to assemble the cake, I read and re-read the instructions, but something wasn't turning out right. My blue layer was too tall, making a hole in the middle of the cake. My kids kept saying, "Mom, just fill the hole in with frosting and you wont' be able to tell the difference." I like frosting, but that didn't seem like the best solution to me. I finally decided I would cut the blue layer down, making it even with the inside layers. That's not what the instructions said, but I wasn't going with the "frosting solution".

Don't know if I messed up somewhere or if the instructions had some fault. I crossed my fingers and hoped that it would turn out.

On second thought, maybe there wasn't supposed to be EXTRA batter. Maybe I was supposed to have baked another layer to fill in my "hole". Oops.

I finished it off with vanilla frosting and made a cute little red, white and blue banner for the top.

I brought it to our 4th of July celebration and waited to reveal the surprise inside... please work out, please work out, please work out. :)

Gift Exchange

I'm doing another on-line gift exchange through "Craftaholics Anonymous".

My exchange partner mentioned (with the exception of Christmas), 4th of July was her favorite holiday.

I hope she meant it, because that's the direction I went. My idea was to create a "party pack"... everything you need for a successful 4th of July celebration.First thing I created was a red, white and blue banner for her mantle (or where ever she wants to put it). Next, I saw this awesome flag cake on-line, so printed off the picture and directions on how to make it, along with the cream cheese frosting recipe.Because I'm kinda banner-crazy, I made a flag cake banner to top the cake. I also made these firework cupcake toppers, just in case she wanted to go in the cupcake direction instead.

I gathered several yummy summer salad recipes that could go with her 4th of July BBQ dinner. And Tootsie Rolls, just because they were so festive and cute.

I hope she enjoys it.

Can't wait to see what's coming my way. :)