A fun patriotic recipe for any country flying the red, white and blue, this Red White and Blue Cake also works great for a Marvel theme party!

Red White and Blue Cake Recipe

Ella has settled on a British-themed birthday party so I’ve been playing around with some cake designs – and would you believe it never occured to me that red, white and blue work for so many different countries: Australia, France, Great Britain, and the United States, to name a few!

(For my fellow Canadians, just swap in more red food dye for that blue food dye, and extra red sprinkles.)

No matter what theme or occasion you are making this patriotic Red White and Blue cake for – it is sure to be a showstopper!

I love how much drama the simple sprinkles add to this simple cake design – and believe me when I saw they are incredibly easy to add! This cake ends up looking like something you picked up at the bakery or had custom made, but it’s so simple that the kids can even help make it!

And in the spirit of total honesty, I have to tell you: I used a boxed cake mix.

Honestly, I’m a frosting girl. As long as you have homemade frosting, I’m good.

Of course, you can substitute any from-scratch cake recipe you’d like, just ensure that it’s a white cake recipe to avoid the blue cake layer turning green and the red cake layer turning orange. 

While there are some “hacks” to create the triple color frosting dollops (those pretty multi-colored swirls on top of the cake), I highly recommend just grabbing a 3-Color Piping Bag Coupler. For just over $4, you can use it again and again to create pretty icing swirls and it’s soooo much easier than any of the crazy hacks out there.

Give yourself about 30 minutes to decorate this cake. It should take much less time, but if you plan for 30 minutes you won’t be rushing if you need to re-do a step.

Red White and Blue Layer Cake Ingredients

• 2 Boxes Vanilla Cake Mix
  • PLUS ingredients called for on the box
• Red and Sky Blue food dye <– this set of food coloring has lasted me forever and I love that it creates highly saturated colors with just a drop
  

Vanilla Frosting Ingredients:

• Unsalted butter, softened
• Powdered Icing Sugar
• Vanilla extract
• Heavy whipping cream (35%)
• Confetti Patriotic Sprinkles

Scroll down to the printable recipe card for full measurements.

Tip: always opt for the better substitutes when it comes to boxed cakes – milk instead of water, melted butter or good quality oil instead of vegetable, etc.

Kitchen Tools You May Find Helpful

• Three 9″ round cake pans
• 12″ round cake board
• Electric mixer – this is a great hand mixer if you don’t want to make the investment into a stand mixer
• Parchment Paper <– I like using these small baking squares of parchment paper to line my baking pans
• 1 large mixing bowl
• 3 medium size mixing bowl
• Cake leveler 
• Piping bag
• 3-color icing coupler

How to Make a Patriotic Layer Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray the cake pans with baking spray

In a large mixing bowl, prepare the cake mix according to package directions.

Split the batter evenly between the 3 mixing bowls

Add in a few drops of sky blue color into one of the bowls 

Add in a few drops of red into the second bowl and mix until combined

Leave the third bowl white

Pour the red batter into one cake pan

Pour the blue batter into the second cake pan

Pour the white batter into the third cake pan 

Bake the pans in the preheated oven for 21-25 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean 

Allow cakes to cool completely on the counters

Remove cakes from pans and place onto a cutting board 

Using the cake leveler, cut the domes off of the cakes to create even slices

How to Make Vanilla Frosting:

Using a standing mixer, beat together all ingredients until smooth and stiff peaks form, about 5-7 minutes

Scoop out two cups of frosting and place into another small bowl

Directions on putting the cake together 

Place the Red cake layer onto the cake board

Scoop about 1 1/2 C of frosting onto the cake layer and spread evenly 

Place the white cake layer on top of the frosting 

Scoop 1 1/2 C of frosting onto the blue layer and spread evenly 

Place the Blue cake layer on top of the second layer or frosting 

Once the layers have been stacked on top of each other, use the remaining frosting and frost the entire cake completely 

Place the cake onto a large cookie sheet

Open one container of patrioitc sprinkles and coat the sides of the cake completely 

Divide the frosting into three bowls, add a few drops of red food coloring into one bowl, blue food coloring into the second bowl and leave the third white

Using a large cup and the piping bag, scoop the red frosting onto one side of the piping bag

Scoop the blue frosting onto another side of the piping bag

Scoop the white frosting into the piping bag

Pipe dollops of frosting around the top edge of the cake

Sprinkle some more patriotic sprinkles onto the top of the cake

Remove cake from cookie sheet and place into the fridge for one hour before removing and cutting slices out. 

Pin this Patriotic Layer Cake for your next Red White and Blue celebration:

Grab your free printable for our red white and blue layer cake recipe:

This patriotic layer cake is super easy to make and makes a big impression on your guests! It’s perfect for a Memorial Day or 4th of July dessert – or even a Guy Fawkes dessert! (Or make it for a Captain Marvel family movie night!)

For more delicious patriotic recipes, check out our Red White and Blue Vodka Limeade or our Red White and Blue Slushy Cocktail.