Piedmont Grocery wishes our entire community a Happy Independence Day 2023 — Our store is closed today so our staff can celebrate the holiday with friends, family, and loved ones. We will open again tomorrow for regular business hours.

And a special thanks to all those working this holiday to keep our community safe.

And, if you are inspired to do a holiday baking project, here is a recipe for an Independence Flag Cake from our archives. We always use Ina Garten’s recipe for flag cake. But, as long as you have white frosting and red and blue fruit for the decorations, you can use any cake recipe you want. You can use your favorite boxed cake mix and make your life that much easier.

Independence Flag Cake Recipe
Adapted from the Food Network and Ina Garten
Yields about 20 servings

Ingredients
For the cake
2-1/4 sticks (18 tablespoons) unsalted butter at room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 extra-large eggs at room temperature
1 cup sour cream at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

For the frosting
4 sticks (1 pound) unsalted butter at room temperature
1-1/2 pounds cream cheese at room temperature
1 pound confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1-1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the decoration
1 pint blueberries
1-12 pints strawberries sliced into wedges (or whole raspberries)

Directions
Make the cake
Heat the oven to 350 ºF and butter and flour an 18 x 13 x 1 1/2-inch sheet pan. Note: if you choose to serve this cake on a platter rather than directly from the baking pan, line the pan with greased parchment paper so it releases easily. You can skip this step if you are serving from the pan.

Set up your electric mixer with the paddle attachment and cream the butter and sugar on high speed, until it is light and fluffy.

Reduce the speed to medium and add the eggs, 2 at a time. Next, add the sour cream and vanilla. Scrape down the sides and stir until the batter is smooth.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda. Turn the mixer on low speed and gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake the cake in the center of the oven until a toothpick comes out clean (about 20 to 30 minutes).

Cool the cake to room temperature.

Make the icing
Fit your electric mixer with the paddle attachment and combine the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla mixing it just until smooth.

Assemble the cake
At this point, you can frost the cake directly in the pan or turn it out onto a platter before frosting.

Spread three-fourths of the icing on the top of the cooled sheet cake. Draw the outline of the flag on the top of the cake with a toothpick. Fill the upper left corner with blueberries.

Place 2 rows of strawberry slices across the top of the cake like a red stripe. Put the remaining icing in a pastry bag fitted with a star tip and pipe two rows of white stripes below the raspberries. Alternate rows of strawberries and icing until the flag is completed. Pipe little stars on top of the blueberries.