We hope you had a happy Fourth of July! We had a wonderful holiday with family and friends and were lucky enough to celebrate multiple times over the long weekend. We are currently hosting a foreign exchange student from Spain for the month and we are trying to fit in as much "American" culture as possible. She came just at the right time!
We've eaten hot dogs, burgers, fries, potato salad, marshmallows, watermelon and more. We've also attended a birthday party, 2 t-ball games, played beach volleyball, watched fireworks, went to a carnival, sprayed each other with the hose, went to Target, picked raspberries, went to a farm, went fishing, and made a big batch of chocolate chip cookies...all in 6 days. That is a lot of "America." 
Last week we made this flag cake to take to the exchange student "Welcome Party." I thought this was the perfect occasion for this American-style cake. It is definitely a cake you want to make when serving a crowd since it is about the size of a football field! This is also a project to do with the kids. The 3 kids, ages 3, 5, and 14, loved helping me decorate this monster cake. I thought it turned out pretty good for having so much "help!"Flag Cakeadapted from Barefoot Contessa Family Style by Ina Garten
18 Tablespoons butter at room temperature
2 1/2 cups sugar (I reduced this from the 3 she listed)
6 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 t vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a full sheet pan with cooking spray. Cream the butter and sugar in your mixer with a paddle attachment on high speed. On medium speed, add the eggs one at a time and then the sour cream. Sift the dry ingedients together and add them on low speed. Mix until just incorporated. Spread into prepared pan and bake 20-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out of center clean.
Frosting
4 sticks butter, room temperature
1 1/2 lbs. cream cheese
1 lb confectioners' sugar, plus more
1 1/2 t vanilla
Mix all ingredients with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add additional powdered sugar if frosting seems too thin.
Spread a thin layer of frosting over the entire cake. Then use a toothpick to draw a flag design on the cake. Place blueberries in the top corner and then place two rows of raspberries near the top. Pipe two rows of icing, using a large star tip. Repeat for remaining cake. Pipe stars on top of blueberries to finish off the cake.
