A holiday always presents a fun challenge when trying to find a way to decorate a dessert to represent it somehow. I made this cake a couple of years ago for the Fourth of July. The first time I made a flag cake I didn’t even use a star tip to pipe out the “stars”. Sadly, due to running out of room, I eliminated about 22 states. None of those eliminated were the original colonies, I assure you.

The next time making this, I decided to do it right. There are several fruit options for the red portion of the design and I opted for raspberry sauce. The sauce is a great flavor contrast to the lime curd. The dessert also has a layer to mimic a trifle with cake cubes and fruit.

This dessert is very refreshing for the summer, even when not decorated as a flag. For other occasions, simply omit the blueberry sauce portion of this dessert and spread the raspberry sauce out as the top layer, decorating as you like with extra whipped cream.

Lime Berry Trifle Flag Cake

A light and refreshing cake made with layers of cream filling, lime curd and fruit, then decorated in honor of the Fourth of July!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 2 30

Cook Time 1 15

Chilling Time 4

Course Dessert, Holiday Dessert

Servings 30

Ingredients

Cake Layer

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (18.75 oz. as weighed)
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar (packed)
1 tsp. sea salt
1 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
12 Tbsp. softened, salted butter (cut into small chunks)
1 Tbsp. lime oil or extract (or use vanilla extract)
1 Tbsp. lime zest (about 2 limes' worth, see Recipe Notes)
3 large eggs (room temperature)
2 large egg yolks (room temperature)
2 1/4 cups half and half light cream

Raspberry Sauce (See Recipe Notes about substitutions for this component)

2 lbs. frozen raspberries (unsweetened)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (to taste)
1/8 tsp. sea salt
1/4 cup raspberry-cranberry juice (or water)
2 tsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. water (for the cornstarch)

Blueberry Sauce (See Recipe Notes about substitutions for this component)

1 lb. frozen blueberries (unsweetened)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (to taste)
1/8 tsp. sea salt
1/2 cup water (or the juice you used for the raspberry sauce)
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. water (for the cornstarch)

Lime Curd

12 Tbsp. softened, salted butter
2 Tbsp. lime zest (about 5 limes' worth, see Recipe Notes)
2 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs
3/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 7 limes' worth)
1/8 tsp. sea salt (to taste)

Stabilized Whipped Cream

1 1/2 lbs. cream cheese (room temperature)
2 cups granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1/16 tsp. sea salt (dash)
6 cups heavy whipping cream

Getting It Together

12 oz. fresh blackberries (sliced in half, lengthwise)
6 oz. fresh blueberries
16 oz. fresh strawberries (cut up)

Instructions

Cake Layer

Combine the flours, sugars, salt and baking powder together into a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs and yolks to a small bowl and beat them, then add the half and half and vanilla or other extract and set the mixture aside.
Turn stand or hand mixer onto Low and blend powders together, then add butter in chunks on Low to Medium to blend until crumbly and flour is coated with butter. Add the liquids in 2 stages and blend well; this is called a reverse creaming method because usually when you make a standard butter cake you cream butter with sugars, first.
Add batter to a 10" x 15" aluminum pan, lined with parchment and then lightly greased and floured. Bake at 350F for about 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick test indicates it's done. Cool the cake about 30 minutes, then invert it onto a foil-lined sheet pan. Then flip it again, with the parchment still attached, onto a cutting mat or board. This is because you're splitting the layers and you don't want the lip from the sheet pan getting in the way. You can choose to divide the batter and bake 2 different layers, instead. If doing so, you would divide the batter so that 2/3 of it is baked up as the cake base and 1/3 is baked up as the trifle cake squares.
Wash the original cake pan as you'll be putting the cake layer back into it. In keeping with the spirit of a trifle, I like to use a cake cutting wire to cut off only the top third of the cake layer and cut that top into one-inch squares, stacking them into a covered container and setting them aside. Cover the cake with the sheet pan again and invert the trimmed cake layer again, this time removing the parchment from the bottom, and then put the cake pan back over the cake, flipping it over for the last time to return the cake inside the cake pan. Wrap the pan in plastic wrap and set it aside while making the other components.

Raspberry Sauce

Cook all except the cornstarch and water for the cornstarch on Medium-Low until thawed and softened, then hold a sieve over the pan and scoop raspberries into it, mashing them through the sieve back so the juice goes back into the pan so as to remove most, if not all, of the seeds. (Removing the seeds is optional but makes for a prettier sauce.)
Heat it to Medium or Medium-High and when the flavors are to your taste and it starts bubbling, mix cornstarch with cold water in a separate container until smooth and then add it to the sauce in a thin stream, stirring and cooking another minute as it bubbles. Continue to cook until it coats your spoon well. It will thicken as it cools, too. Place it in the refrigerator to chill down. You can make the fruit sauces the day before, if you like.

Blueberry Sauce

Frozen blueberries have more color saturation than fresh so they're better to use for this component. Cook all except the cornstarch and the water for the cornstarch on Medium-low until thawed and softened, mashing the blueberries. Heat it to Medium or Medium-High and when the flavors are to your taste and it starts bubbling, mix cornstarch with cold water and add in a thin stream, stirring and cooking another minute as it bubbles. Continue to cook until it coats your spoon well. It will thicken as it cools, too. Place it in the refrigerator to chill down.

Lime Curd

Using an electric hand mixer, cream the butter, zest and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then add the lime juice and salt. Mix until combined.
Pour the mixture into a saucepan and cook over Medium-Low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes). The curd will thicken just below simmering. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of the lime curd and refrigerate the rest, making sure plastic wrap is placed against the surface of the curd so that it prevents a skin from forming.
Unwrap the cake and use a skewer to poke holes all over, maybe one inch apart. Pour the lime curd over the layer and spread it out in an even layer to ensure it's completely covered. Cover with plastic wrap again and refrigerate the cake.

Stabilized Whipped Cream

Beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and salt with electric hand mixer or stand mixer until completely smooth. If the cream cheese is too cold, it won't be smooth enough. Sometimes I put it in the microwave on Defrost mode to warm it up a bit.
While mixing, slowly add half of the heavy cream, incorporating it well. Add the rest of the cream and beat on Medium-High until thickened. You'll need about 1/4 to 1/3 of this filling just for decorating the top.

Getting It Together

Remove the cake from the refrigerator. Cut the blackberries in half and lay them cut side down in an evenly spaced layer on top of the lime curd layer. Measure out about 1/2 cup of lime curd and warm it up slightly in the microwave until you can drizzle it over the top of the blackberries.
Top with about 1/3 of the whipped cream and spread it out to another even layer. Place the cake cubes over this layer with just enough space around each one for the blueberries to share the space. Sprinkle the blueberries over this layer and move them into the channels between the cake cubes.
To another 1/3 of the whipped cream filling, add the last of the lime curd and the cut up strawberries. Fold them all together and spread this carefully over the cake cubes and blueberries.
With the last of the whipped cream filling, spread a thin layer on top of the strawberry layer as your flag base. I used a #47 "basket weave" tip to make the channels of white stripes and border for the blue portion of the flag. Carefully pour the blueberry sauce into the square you've created, then use a small star tip to pipe the stars. Put the raspberry sauce into a gallon bag and cut the corner about 1/2" and carefully pour the sauce into the channels. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before cutting into it.

Notes

Instead of making the two fruit sauces for the top, you could just use the appropriately colored jams or jellies and thin them with some hot water. It’s one way to cut down some prep and cooling time with this dessert.

I used cornstarch here in place of using half all-purpose and half cake flour for this recipe. That’s because it’s sometimes harder for people to find cake flour, but you can omit the corn starch and use equal measures of all-purpose and cake flour, if you prefer.

The lime zest does not have to be measured, really. I just zest all of the limes that it takes to create 3/4 cup of juice for the lime curd, which is around 7 large limes. From that zest, I divide it and use 1/3 of it for the cake and the rest for the curd.

Keyword Summer