Blooming Spring Flower Cake

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Firecracker Red, White and Blue Cake

Steps

• 1

  Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom of 13×9-inch pan with cooking spray.
• 2

  In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan.
• 3

  Bake 28 to 33 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen cake. Place cooling rack upside down over cake. Turn upside down carefully so cake is on rack, and remove pan. Turn upside down onto another rack, and flip cake right side up. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
  

• 4

  In 2 medium bowls, place 3/4 cup each of frosting. To 1 bowl, add red food color to desired pink color; to other bowl, add blue food color to desired color. In 2 small bowls, place 1/3 cup each of frosting; add yellow and green food colors to desired colors.
• 5

  Place cake, top side up, on serving platter. Spread remaining 1 1/2 cups frosting on top and sides of cake.
  

• 7

  Fit another decorating bag with medium-size star piping tip; fill with yellow frosting. Pipe different size rosettes and stars around top of cake to fill in empty spaces. Fit another decorating bag with small round piping tip, and fill with green frosting. Pipe green leaves and vines to fill in spaces.
• 8

  Store loosely covered at room temperature.

  Expert Tips

  • There is no one way to decorate this cake. Have fun piping whatever combination of rosettes and stars to cover top of cake.
  • To create the pastel colors we used, squeeze a tiny bit of gel food color into the frosting, or use a toothpick to control the amount. Then, stir to blend. You can always add more food color if you are looking for a darker color, but it’s easier to start out using less and adding more as needed.
  • Adding the blue frosting to the same piping bag that held the pink frosting gives a two-tone color to the piping.
  • For a more polished decorating look, after piping green vines on cake with small round piping tip, switch to a leaf piping tip to add leaves with more detail.