Today is the fourth and final day in our new cake series, The 4 Cakes of July! Four talented bakers were asked to create new designs inspired by the 4th of July holiday. To bring the beauty and colors of the American flag to life in a modern cake design like none we have seen before. And today’s cake is red, white and beautifully bold!
This fourth American beauty comes to us from Rachel Skvaril, owner of Fondant Flinger in Kodiak, Alaska. You may remember Rachel from previous features on our site (like her blue poppy flowers and this snow owl birthday). Rachel has a serious flair for ruffles and I was thrilled to hear she was going big and going bold with her design! Vertical ruffles, alternating from red to white, mimic the stripes of the flag dancing in the wind. An entire bottom tier of tightly woven ruffles creates the perfect block of blue and is nothing less than spectacular! This is definitely not your grandma’s flag cake… but I think Betsy Ross would be proud! It’s the grand finale! And it’s The 4th Cake of July!
Rachel Skvaril shares the inspiration for her design:
“When Carrie first mentioned cakes designed after the flag, my first thought was of my biggest supporter and inspiration – my Mom, also known as the “Queen of Fling”. She was born on June 14 (Flag Day), and she’s from the Heartland of America; New London Iowa, the self-proclaimed “biggest small town” in Iowa. She has memories of the town completely decked out in its patriotic pride and as a child, always thought they had decorated just for her birthday.
There’s something about the patriotism of New London that has always held a soft spot for me. On any given day of the year, rustic old red barns are set off by large metal blue stars and front doors decorated with wreaths made of flag motifs. It’s all very Norman Rockwellish – Americana at its best. So that’s where I went to get my inspiration for this cake. Vintage Americana art with its simple, rustic appeal.
Ruffles are kind of my thing, and I feel they translate so well on this cake, and portray so well the furling of our nation’s flag. The overall cake design, including the flower, mimics Americana fabrics that I found. The inspiration even flowed into the cake itself, which is vibrant red velvet, offset with cream cheese swiss meringue buttercream.
I muted the colors a bit, to give the impression of an earlier time in our history and to give the cake a vintage feel.”
Just like any great fireworks display, we’re going out with a big finish. Talk about a grand finale! This cake is bold, daring and incredibly striking! Yet somehow the ruffles have a soft romantic quality to them as well. Put it all together and you have one dazzling display!
A huge thank you to Rachel of Fondant Flinger for inspiring us with her fantastic red, white and blue ruffles! And to Sylwia Ok Photography for the gorgeous images!
What a way to wrap up a wonderful week of new and very patriotic cakes! I hope you’ve enjoyed The 4 Cakes of July as much as I have! It is remarkable to see how each of these incredible designers transformed our red, white and blue theme into a cake. Each design was different yet totally amazing!! Thank you to the talented ladies who created these beauties for us! If you missed any of the spectacular designs in this series, you can find all four cakes HERE!
VENDORS & CREDITS:
Cake: Fondant Flinger
Photography: Sylwia Ok Photography
This is amazing! I know how time-consuming those ruffles are, and Rachel’s work shows both immense patience AND creative genius. I loved the whole 4 Cakes of July spread — such a fantastic idea for a series.
Forgive me for this one small nitpick: I think Rachel is referring to NormaN (and not “Normal”) Rockwell. 🙂
Typo updated – thanks Carla!
This is incredibly creative! Love it!
what tip did you use
Beautiful!!!
Yes, what a great series. By the 2nd day I couldn’t wait to get the next email!
This fourth cake is another gorgeous piece of art! Love the muted colors, I knew right away what they portraid. Also love the texture change w the blue ruffles. May I ask, are they also fondant or was this a piping technique?
Thanks again, I hope you will do another serious like this soon!
Beth 🙂
Thank you all for your kind words! The ruffles on the lowest tier are fondant. I used about 4-inch (about 1/2″ wide) strips of fondant, ruffled one edge with a ball tool, folded and rolled it into a carnationish looking piece and then set it in place on the cake. Repeat for roughly 7 hours for an 8″ round! 🙂 I have done a similar style with buttercream and using a petal tip but I really wanted a more delicate look for this cake.
7 hours! Oi, what a labor of love!! …and then you see it all come together and the time was worth it!
Thanks for the answer and thanks again for the beautiful inspiration!!
Seriously beautiful, as all the cakes in this series have been. I have to say, this one’s my favorite!
Absolutely gorgeous Rachel!! I’ve been through this ruffle mania so I understand the time and patience it take! LOL!
How did you manage to keep the ruffles so cornstarch/icing sugar free? Or did you clean up at the end with something?
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