![Flag Cake](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/05/29/dining/em-icebox-cake-copy/em-icebox-cake-mediumThreeByTwo440.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
Flag Cake
Erin Jeanne McDowell
1285 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
1,285
45 minutes, plus overnight chilling
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Heat oven to 375 degrees and butter a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Line the bottom with a round of parchment, and butter that as well.
In a large bowl, whisk together almond, all-purpose, whole wheat and buckwheat flours, baking powder and salt.
Using an electric mixer, beat together butter, sugar and vanilla extract until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. Beat in buttermilk. (The mixture will look curdled, and that’s O.K.) Stir in flour mixture until just combined.
Scrape batter into prepared pan, smoothing and leveling the top. Place berries on top of batter and sprinkle with turbinado or granulated sugar.
Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack and unmold. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar and serve, with whipped cream if you like.
My 10 year old son made this today. He baked it for 25 minutes and the toothpick came out clean. It looks wet on top, but is cooked through.
Hi Melissa,
My husband has celiac disease, so we maintain a gluten-free household. I often make silver dollar pancakes with 100% buckwheat flour, topping the silver dollars with fresh blueberries, and a drizzle of honey.
My question re: this cake recipe, to you and other readers: any suggestions for the best gluten-free flour(s) to replace the all-purpose and wheat flours?
In the meantime, I will try making the cake by doubling up the buckwheat and almond flours.
Thanks!
I whipped this up this afternoon. For the wet ingredients, I opted for the yogurt. I did not change anything. At 30 minutes, the cake was still wet in the middle. Put it in another 10 minutes and it's still not done. I used a 10" pan. The actual batter was thick. My oven has been baking everything else with normal bake times. Curious why my bake time is so different from the recipe. Any thoughts from other bakers?
My daughter is allergic to buckwheat. What would you substitute?
This works well adapted to be gluten-free. Swap out the AP and WW flours, replace with 0.5 cups rice flour and 3 tbsp of tapioca starch.
I haven't made this cake, but I make other cakes from Melissa's catalog of amazing cake recipes with "Bob's Red Mill 1to1" and it works perfectly well as a wheat substitute and is true to its name.
Experienced cook and baker here, with a French bent. Made this cake today and was bowled over with the result. 25 mins at 375 in an 11 inch tart pan, prepared as indicated, and it was perfect. Not too sweet, perfect crumb, moist but holds together, delicate but meaningful texture, and flavorful because of the buckwheat flour. Will be making it often with other fruits. [I used buttermilk.]
My daughter and I baked the cake this afternoon. It's ridiculously good. The crumb is surprisingly light, given that the cake includes whole wheat and buckwheat flours. We'll be making this all summer with different fruits.
I don't have a tart pan with a removable bottom. I have a springform pan that I use for cheesecake, as well as a tart pan without a removable bottom. Which would you suggest I use? Thanks.
My mom is gluten free due to celiac/intolerance as well. She likes the King Arthur Flour mix, I think it's a blend that comes pretty close to regular flour. When she makes a cobbler, she follows a regular recipe and subs in the gluten free King Arthur mix for the regular flour.
I bake a lot, and I find that it does a pretty good job. It doesn't work for all recipes, but I think it would work for this one, since there are other flours in the cake, and you are only subbing the one item.
Easy, beautiful, delicious. 2 mistakes I would repeat: 1) used frozen butter, chopped into tiny pieces, added to the food processor w the sugar/vanilla for a few minutes prior to blending (prevented the batter from becoming greasy on a very hot day); 2) mistakenly used 1/3 cup of buckwheat and then corrected the white flour to 1/4 cup to keep the total flour volume correct. The extra buckwheat was delicious, and I like keeping the level of white flour lower. (I used whole yogurt.) Fabulous!!!
I substituted 30 grams blue corn flour for the buckwheat (living in New Mexico, that was in my cupboard, not buckwheat). Added the grated zest of 1/2 a lemon and topped with stripes of fresh blueberries, blackberries, and a few frozen raspberries as the center stripe. Cooked 25 minutes in a 10" springform pan. It was perfect, but next time I'll up the quantity of zest.
Made it again this morning using hazelnut flour instead of almond (53 grams; cut back on the all-purpose), and whole-milk yogurt for the dairy. I made concentric circles alternating strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries so everyone would get all the different fruits. Sprinkled a little piloncillo on top before baking for 30 minutes exactly. Light and fluffy. Even better than before! No need for additional sugar topping or whipped cream. Four people ate almost the whole cake.
This is fabulous. I make this cake all the time, using a 9 inch springform pan. We often avoid dairy so I use plain ripple with a bit of vinegar to make buttermilk and it works fine. It has always been a huge hit with guests. I store leftovers in the refrigerator and my husband and I have enjoyed it for up to a week. I have a big crowd coming and am thinking of doubling the recipe. Has anyone tried, and what size pan might I use?
This is flavorful, moist, easy and pretty. The buckwheat flavor is a bit strong for me, but I am still enjoying it. I used gluten free 1:1 flour in place of the white and whole wheat flours and it worked well.
Is the butter to be used salted or unsalted?
I made this in a 14 x 5 tart pan (same temp and time) and added a little bit of ground cardamom. It is ridiculously easy to make, and also so very good. I can’t wait to try this with other fruits. Also, I’m not sure why it says it Hass to be served within six hours. Mine held up just fine the next day.
Really good! I made this in a 9" springform pan and it worked great, exactly 25 minutes. This fed 9 people but everyone asked for seconds, so I might make another one!! Used raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries. I tossed the fruit in a tbsp of flour to make sure they wouldn't sink, but I don't think they would have bc the cake layer is thin. Delicious!!
I substituted 30 grams blue corn flour for the buckwheat (living in New Mexico, that was in my cupboard, not buckwheat). Added the grated zest of 1/2 a lemon and topped with stripes of fresh blueberries, blackberries, and a few frozen raspberries as the center stripe. Cooked 25 minutes in a 10" springform pan. It was perfect, but next time I'll up the quantity of zest.
Swap out the AP and WW flours, replace with 0.5 cups rice flour and 3 tbsp of tapioca starch.
Made this today, the result is delicious. I would try with some other fruit though, perhaps mandarins. Thanks for this delicious treat, goes really well with some chai :)
We added lemon zest and lemon juice to the batter, and it turned out great! We also whipped the egg before we added it to the batter, and it made the cake really airy and delicious! We're making this again with plums on top.
It is particularly nice served with a good strawberry ice cream.
Made it again this morning using hazelnut flour instead of almond (53 grams; cut back on the all-purpose), and whole-milk yogurt for the dairy. I made concentric circles alternating strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries so everyone would get all the different fruits. Sprinkled a little piloncillo on top before baking for 30 minutes exactly. Light and fluffy. Even better than before! No need for additional sugar topping or whipped cream. Four people ate almost the whole cake.
The cake was easy to make and looked pretty. I brought it to a July 4th dinner. Everyone ate it in silence. I liked the subtle flavors, but I think it was too subtle for everyone else. I'd like to experiment since I have a lot of ingredients left over. Maybe cardamom? Lemon zest? Brown sugar? Anyone have success in adding more flavor?
Made this on the Fourth of July lt year for a dear friend who has July 5th as her birthday. Much appreciated. Will make it again.
Have cooked this twice for guests. It's scrumptious. I cooked it and served it from a 10" ceramic tart dish (after cooking with parchment and cooling on rack. It worked just fine and looked lovely in the dish.
Made this when the recipe first came out. We could only eat half, so I froze the other half. Microwaved two wedges tonight to thaw them. And it was fabulous! Seemed even more buttery in flavor, moist. Husband said it reminded him of financière--yes!
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