Festive Fourth Cake

I hope you all are having a wonderful 4th of July weekend.  Mine has been spectacular and hopefully will continue to be.  I am a little busy spending my time here

And eating some of this
                                                     
And watching some of these
                                              
It really has been a great weekend.  And actually, a pretty productive one...yep, I actually made that delicious cake in the middle picture.  Well, I made my version of it...that picture is from the brilliance that is Glorious Treats.  She provides a really good, detailed tutorial on how to make the cake.  I'm going to give you my basic instructions, but if you need more info (or other delicious delectables), head to her site and check it out.

To make the cake, you will need:

• 2 boxes white cake mix
• 2 cans vanilla frosting (or make your own if you're so inclined)
• red, blue food coloring
• essentials to make cakes (eggs, oil usually)
• 2 8 inch round pans

It's actually a lot easier than it looks...like so easy you could whip it up this today and have it ready by this evening's fun if you wanted!  To make the cake:

1.  Make the first box of white cake mix according to the box's directions.  Add red food coloring (I did 50 drops) to the bowl as you mix it.  Divide the batter into the 2 round pans and bake according to box's directions.

2.  After those cakes have cooled, remove them from pans.  Cut each red cake horizontally into 2 halves.  Keep 2 8 inch round halves.  Throw one away (or eat it now...you won't need it for the cake!).  Cut a four inch circle out of the last piece of red cake; you can discard the rest!

3.  Prepare the second box of white cake mix.  Divide the batter into the 2 cake pans.  Once divided, add blue food coloring to one of the cake pans (I used 25 drops this time).  Once again, bake according to the box's directions.

4.  Once cooled, cut the white cake horizontally into 2 pieces.  In one of the white cakes, cut out a four inch circle to keep (discard the rest).  

5.  Cut a 4 inch circle out of the middle of the blue cake.  This time, keep the outer rim of the blue, but you can discard the 4 inch circle!

Confused?  When you are done, you should have the following pieces (for these purposes, thin means it was sliced in half horizontally first, while thick means it was the original cake size):

• 1 8 inch thick blue cake, with a four inch circle removed from middle
• 2 8 inch thin red cakes
• 1 4 inch thin red cake
• 1 8 inch white thin cake
• 1 4 inch thin white cake

Now, it's time for assembly.  Start with an 8 inch red circle, Put a little frosting on top, and add the 8 inch white circle.  Then, add a little more frosting and the next 8 inch red circle.  Next, add some more frosting and the blue portion of the cake.  In the cutout portion, put the white 4 inch cake, add some frosting, and finish the cake with the 4 inch red cake.  Like this:

And unfortunately, this is where my brilliant tutorial ends because I ran out of frosting (I only bought one can originally), so I am going to have to run out today and get another can to frost my creation before our festivities begin tonight.  But other than that minor glitch, it was a super easy cake to make and can't wait to dig into it at our little cookout this evening.

I hope you all have a fantastic Fourth!