A friend was having a few guests over for an Independence Day dinner and I lent her the three blue checked runners which she used across the width of the table. I loaned her some red chargers, the fireworks salad plates and the blue and red star napkins. She had red glasses and napkin rings and she bought some red and white flowers for her centerpiece. Her dessert was a cake I make every 4th of July, pictured above. Its is simple to make and everyone likes it when they see it. I just use a yellow cake mix, whipped cream, strawberries and blueberries. The cake bakes in a rectangular glass cake pan. After it cools, I spread whipped cream. The blueberries go in the upper left corner as the star field and the sliced strawberries form the stripes. The first time I made this cake I was a newlywed. We were invited to my in-laws for the 4th of July. I had seen this cake in a cook book with sparklers. I was so naive that I thought they were real sparklers instead of candles with sparkler effects. I bought real sparklers which when lit spread ashes all over the cake and created black smoke in the kitchen and dining room. Needless to say, the decorations on the cake were ruined. The flying ashes from the sparklers burned a hole in the in-laws' countertop and the windows throughout the house had to be opened to get rid of the smoke. My husband joked that the neighbors were going to call the fire department because of the smoke pouring out of the windows. It wasn't far from the truth. If I had seen that amount of smoke, I would have at least called the neighbors to see if they were okay. Moral of the story: Never light fireworks inside the house.
We hope you had a happy and safe Fourth of July holiday and we will be posting again soon.
Written by Reba
