Happy Birthday, America! I made you this cake.

The Fourth of July is sort of the anniversary of my love of cake making. Not to mention, and much more importantly, a great day to celebrate! I love America so much, I made it this cake.

I like to make cakes that look like other food, and what better than a cake that looks like a pie? The pie tier is chocolate cake with strawberries on top (more on that later) and buttercream icing. The picnic table tier is yellow cake with chocolate pudding filling.

View from the top.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I feel that it is my duty to let you all know how this story ended. Between the heat and a right hand turn in the car on the way to a party, my cake had some technical difficulties. Turns out, frosting is not enough to keep a bunch of strawberries in place. Which I should know, and yet...

This is your cake on drugs.

Happily, I didn't cry. And, in a stroke of luck this cake could have used, the entire top didn't spill all over my dress, as the cake was in my lap when the top fell off. Also, it still tasted delicious, and the party was really fun (as my hangover this morning proves). Anyway, happy birthday America. I love democracy EVEN more than I love sugar (which is really saying something).

And now a trip down memory lane to visit the cakes that made all of this possible...

To me now, this is pretty ugly. But way back in 2010, you wouldn't believe how proud this piece of cake made me. I saw a (much more professional looking) picture of a flag cake, and thought I have way too much time on my hands before we throw a party. I should really attempt this in an effort to clean less before. And so I did. The frosting tasted so amazing--white chocolate frosting. I'll have to dig out that old recipe now that I'm thinking about it. Anyway, a seed was planted.

2011. I saw a hamburger cake in Jewel and I thought, I'm going to make that, but way better for our 4th of July party. And so I did. On top those are actually sesame seeds. At the time I had no clue how to level a cake (and it still is very hard for me), but I think that sort of adds to the authenticity of the burger. After I finished this cake, I looked at my boyfriend and said: "I am pretty good at this. I want to take some classes." 

And the rest, dear reader, is history.