[1] It’s a beauty, and you can assemble it in 15 minutes (both photos © The Baker Chick).

[2] Even the slices are beautiful! You can serve it with riesling, champagne or other sparkling wine.

Need a last-minute dessert solution for July 4th (or any summer day)?

You can’t do better than this red-white-and-blue-tiful layered pound cake from The Baker Chick.

All you need do is buy the pound cake and berries, plus the ingredients to mix up the cream cheese filling (below).

It can be ready in 15 minutes!

If you want to bake a pound cake, we highly recommend The Baker Chick’s recipe for Cream Cheese Pound Cake.
 
 
RECIPE: RED, WHITE & BLUE LAYERED POUND CAKE

Ingredients

 
For The Filling & Frosting

 
Preparation

The instructions may be obvious: slice the cake, cream together the filling, top the layers of filling and frosting with a layer of berries.

That’s how easy it is to make this beautiful cake.

The complete instructions are here.
 
 
FLAG TRIVIA

The U.S. flag is not the only “red, white and blue.”

There are some 120 flags worldwide with red, white and blue stripes.

These include countries like France, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Russia, Serbia and Slovakia; plus cities and other political entities.

Here’s the list.

July 1st is National Creative Ice Cream Day.

It’s also National Gingersnap Day.

How about combining the two with an easy gingerbread or gingersnap ice cream?

Just combine the ingredients below. For a super-Creative Ice Cream Day, use them all:

Ginger & Gingersnap Caramel Swirl Toasted Pecan Chocolate Chip Ice Cream!
 
 
RECIPE: GINGERBREAD/GINGERSNAP ICE CREAM

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. SOFTEN the ice cream on the counter.

2. MIX in the crumbled cookies or gingerbread and the optional ingredients, to taste (a few, a lot, or in-between).

3. RETURN to the freezer until ready to serve.
 
 
> Gingerbread Recipe
 
> Gingersnap Recipe

[1] Salted Caramel Gingersnap Ice Cream. Here’s the recipe (photo © The Beach House Kitchen).

[2] This is a from-scratch gingersnap ice cream recipe. It contains no cookies, but uses the spices in them. Here’s the recipe from Momtastic (photo © Momtastic).

[1] A better-for-you July 4th dessert: berries with a bit of cake (photo © Driscoll’s).

[2] Buy enough berries for breakfast yogurt or red, white and blue ice cream (photo © Green Giant Fresh).

[3] Angel food cake. Here are a recipe and video to bake one from scratch, from Martha Stewart (photo © Martha Stewart).

We’ve made American flag cakes for July 4th before, including:

 
This year, we’re cutting back the calories with this flag cake (photo #1) made of fruit skewers and squares of angel food cake: little bits of cake and lots of berries.

There’s an optional white chocolate dip.

If you skip the dip and buy the angel food cake and berries, this is a super-easy recipe.

Angel food cake, or angel cake (photo #3), is a type of sponge cake made from egg whites, flour, sugar, and a whipping agent, such as cream of tartar. There is no butter or other fat.

The airy texture comes from whipped egg whites.

Angel food cake originated in the U.S. and became popular in the late 19th century. The first known recipe for a “white sponge cake” is in Lettice Bryan’s The Kentucky Housewife, published in 1839.

Thanks to Driscoll’s Berries for the recipe.
 
 
RECIPE: AMERICAN FLAG FRUIT SKEWERS

If you prefer, you can substitute mozzarella cheese for the angel food cake. If so, serve a balsamic glaze instead of the chocolate dip.
 
Ingredients For 9 Skewers

 
For The White Chocolate Dipping Sauce

 
Preparation

1. CUT 10 slices of the angel food cake in ½-inch thickness. Toast in a large skillet or grill pan until grill marks appear. Let the slices cool.

2. CUT 26 squares in ½ x ½ inch pieces and 8 stars in approximately ¾-inch pieces. You can hand cut these or use a mini star cookie cutter. Then, place a blueberry in the middle of the star.

3. ASSEMBLE the skewers, in three different combinations.

5. MAKE the White Chocolate Dipping Sauce. In a small saucepan, combine the butter and cream. Place the saucepan over low heat, stirring until the butter and cream come to a low simmer. Watch this carefully as mixture will burn easily.

6. PLACE the chopped chocolate in a bowl and pour the hot cream over the chocolate, stirring until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in the vanilla and serve at room temperature.

Our favorite drink holder for beer and soda is the new Zak Hydration 12 Ounce Double Wall Stainless Steel Can and Bottle Cooler with Vacuum.

That’s a long way to say that this handy cooler holds a standard can of beer of soft drink, a slim can, or a bottle of beer.

The vacuum insulated device has a stainless steel outer wall and a stainless inner wall, topped by a silicone collar.

And if you’re pouring iced tea or iced water, just remove the collar and use it as a thermos tumbler to keep your beverage cold.

The materials are break-resistant, durable, BPA-free and condensation free.

And they work! Our can of soda, taken from the fridge, would normally be warm in 90 minutes.

Four hours later, when we finally finished the can, the soda was as cold as when it left the fridge.

Get them for patio and pool, computer table or TV table. Your beverage will stay at the temperature you placed in there.

Available in four colors (raspberry color not shown), this insulated holder keeps cans and bottles as cold as when they came from the fridge (photo © Zak Designs).

[1] The easiest July 4th waffles (photo © Amoretti).

[2] The easiest July 4th charcuterie plate (photo © Di Bruno Bros).

If you didn’t get enough July 4th recipes from our post last week, here are two more.

Both couldn’t be easier.
 
 
Breakfast Waffles

Just drop blueberries and raspberries into the honeycomb wells on waffles.

Add a bit of crème fraîche, ricotta or whipped cream.

You can do the same with a waffle dessert, first adding a zigzag or pool of chocolate sauce to the plate.
 
 
Charcuterie Board

It doesn’t get simpler than this: sliced sausage stars and prosciutto stripes.

You could slice some mozzarella or provolone to add a white strip between the prosciutto.

Serve with: