Last year right after I started this blog my second post was about the 4th of July. Last year it felt like a million degrees out, while this year is was gray and rainy. Sad, but we had a blast and all ate way too much! This year I made a dip, which really I felt more like I had made crack, I ate ½ the dip before the party, no joke.
Bacon Cheddar Dip (aka Crack)
originally found here
Ingredients:
16 oz sour cream
1 packet ranch dressing mix
3 oz bacon bits
1 cup shredded cheese
Directions:
1. Mix together and refrigerate 24 hours.
My tip for this is get a sturdy chip! I had some Lays, while they were fine before the dip went into the fridge, they promptly broke when I tried to eat the dip once it had chilled.
This second recipe I debated about putting up, honestly I’m still not sure about it. It’s less of a recipe and more of a how to make a fun 4th of July cake. I used Betty Crocker yellow cake mix (the pudding in the mix makes a HUGE difference!) The original recipe was on the Betty Crocker website
Red, White, and Blue Cake
Ingredients:
1 box Betty Crocker cake mix
water, vegetable and egg whites called for on the cake mix box
red and blue food coloring
1 container (12 oz) Betty Crocker whipped fluffy white frosting.
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 325 degrees, also check the box, the type of pan you use will determine the cook time. I used 4 mini loaf pans. Make the cake batter as directed on the box, Divide the batter into 3 separate bowls. One will stay the same color, the second add red food coloring, and to the third add blue food coloring, mix and add more food coloring if desired.
2. Pour red batter into the pan first, then white batter, and lastly the blue batter.
3. Bake as directed on the box, again cook time will depend on what kind of pan you are using. I forgot to use any kind of grease on the pan, so the first one really there was no saving it. The rest I used a rubber spatula and worked my way around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake and they came out fine. Although for some reason the blue batter sunk to the middle of the cake, honestly of you look at the first picture of the cake it kind of looks like a little whale!
4. The last step before enjoying this wonderful treat! The original recipe calls to do this in a microwave, since I don’t have one, I just used the stove top. I divided the frosting into 3 equal parts and started with the uncolored frosting. Put it on the stove for a couple of minutes until it had somewhat melted and became smooth. Below is me mixing red dye into the softened frosting.
Then I put the warmed frosting into a plastic bag.
and cut off a corner and drizzled it over the cakes. I repeated the process with the other two batches of frosting adding red and blue food coloring.
A book, coffee, and the park 