The Cast of Characters: Unsalted Butter, Sugar, Eggs, Sour Cream, Vanilla, Flour, Cornstarch, Kosher Salt, Baking Soda, Cream Cheese, Powdered Sugar, Raspberries, and Blueberries.
Lots of ingredients, but nothing too crazy.
You don’t have to have a stand mixer. I wouldn’t have one myself, except an anonymous angel gave us one for a wedding gift. Actually, the donor didn’t mean to be anonymous; the gift card fell off and I never found out who gave it to us. Not that it matters because I never finished my thank you notes anyway. Another story for another time.
Place 2¼ sticks of unsalted butter in a mixing bowl.
Add 3 cups of sugar.
Mix together on high until light and fluffy. About a minute or so.
Now add SIX eggs, two at a time. Mix after each addition of two.
Now measure 1 cup sour cream…
Please, in the name of all that is flavorful and holy, do not use low-fat sour cream in this recipe.
Dump it into the mixing bowl.
Now measure 1½ teaspoons vanilla…
…And add it to the bowl.
Now. Sift together 3 cups flour, 1/3 cup cornstarch, 1 teaspoon kosher salt (use 3/4 teaspoon regular salt if you don’t have kosher), and 1 teaspoon baking soda.
I usually skip the sifting step as sifting makes me crazy…but I always do it for this recipe because Barefoot Contessa tells me to.
Now turn mixer to low and gradually add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture, one scoop at a time.
Mix after every addition.
Keep adding the flour mixture…
And mix until just combined. Do not over mix!
Barefoot Contessa says to butter and flour the pan, which I’ve done in years past…that is until I discovered the modern miracle of Baker’s Joy.
Spray large sheet cake pan generously. The measurements of this pan are 17 x 12½. Note: This recipe may be halved for a smaller pan, as this recipe feeds an army.
Pour the thick cake batter into the pan. It’s much thicker than regular cake batters.
With a knife or offset spatula, start spreadin’ the news…I mean, start spreadin’ the cake batter evenly over the pan.
Be sure to get some on your finger so you can have a lick or two.
I’m a real believer in offset spatulas. Offset spatulas and world peace.
Now pop the pan into a preheated 350˚ oven and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. I baked mine for exactly 20 minutes, so you probably want to start checking then.
Here’s the baked cake—mmmmm. Nice, golden perfection.
Time to make the absolutely-out-of-this-world cream cheese frosting.
Take 1½ pounds, or three 8-ounce packages cream cheese. No, you can’t use low-fat. We’re celebrating our independence here, folks.
And 1 pound—four whole sticks—unsalted butter.
Throw the butter and cream cheese in the mixing bowl…
Whip to combine.
Now add 1 pound of powdered sugar…
And 1½ teaspoons vanilla.
Mix until thoroughly combined, scraping the sides once during mixing.
Oh Lord, as Mike would say. Honestly, this frosting alone is almost a confection. Impossible to resist. The sooner you get it on the cake and fill the mixing bowl with hot, sudsy water, the better off you’ll be.
Plop about ½ the frosting on the cake…
And start spreadin’ the news.
There’s that offset spatula again. It’s my friend.
After the cake is frosted, mark off the area of the stars with a toothpick.
No need to be proportionately accurate; just guesstimate.
Do you have anything like this? It’s just a run-of-the-mill pastry bag with a large star tip. I got this one at Walmart in a pinch.
I usually use this one, but I think my garbage disposal ate my metal star tip that goes with it. Honestly, the Walmart version works just fine for this cake.
Fill the pastry bag 2/3 full with icing.
Then, this is how I keep the icing from splurging out the top. Fold down both corners…
Like you’re making a paper hat, only with a plastic pastry bag from Walmart.
Fold down the very tip, then keep folding down a couple of times.
This photo doesn’t show it, but I’m gripping the folded-down end tightly under my fingertips. Start by squeezing two lines of frosting at the bottom of the cake.
Now wash and pat dry approximately 4 half-pints raspberries.
Start making two rows of raspberries on the cake.
After you have two rows, add another two lines of frosting…
And just keep repeating: two lines of frosting, two lines of raspberries, two lines of frosting…etc.
Now fill the square in the corner with a nice layer of blueberries. High in antioxidants!
You can be much more precise than I was. Sometimes I can’t be bothered with making everything perfectly lined up. It might have something to do with the four marauding savages under the age of ten I had running through my kitchen.
With the star tip, squeeze little dollops of frosting all over the blueberries to represent the "stars."
No need to be historically accurate; you won’t fit fifty on there.
This cake is always a crowd pleaser, even if you don’t take the time to make neat, straight lines, which I clearly did not. The decoration is nice and splashy, but the real appeal of this cake is the cake itself. It's beyond rich, dense, and out of this world, and those dadgum berries actually fool you into believing you’re consuming a healthy dessert.
But Fourth of July only comes once a year, so don’t think about it.
Now go forth and make this cake! Barefoot Contessa will be proud.
