Highlights: July 4th Desserts and More

I generally don’t get excited about Independence Day. Certainly, I’m proud to be an American and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.  I enjoy fireworks and Fourth of July parades and pausing for a moment to appreciate the history of our nation and the freedoms we have here, but I’ve never been one to make a big deal out of the day.  But then Kelly tweeted me while I was on vacation last week:

https://twitter.com/kellynigl/status/216293335772565504

https://twitter.com/kellynigl/status/216335946231193601

And so, in an uncharacteristic move, I started looking into the ways some people celebrate the 4th.  There’s some really great recipe ideas out there and the more I searched for dessert recipes and other ideas and planned an imaginary party in my head, the more I thought about how important July 4th really is.

One place that I did a lot of  looking for dessert ideas was Pinterest.  I’ve never used Pinterest as a source for Highlights before and it was really fun.  I’ve also never made a red, white and blue dish before, but now I just might have to.  I’m not going to re-share all the recipes from Pinterest here, but check out my board for some festive ideas.

I also discovered a few other dessert ideas for the holiday:

I think this Fruited-Cheesecake Flag from Martha Stewart is really cute and a nice twist on the usual flag cake.  Is it strange to anyone else that flag cake is a thing?  (via The Kitchn)

If you or your guests are gluten free and/or lovers of chocolate (or even if they’re not), Evan’s gluten-free chocolate flag cake may be the way to go.

As always, Bakerella has some very cute cupcakes filled with festive red, white and blue, along with some ideas for layering cupcake wrappers.

I have never made pavlova, but my mother-in-law has been kind enough to bake it several times when I was visiting.  It’s amazing, so naturally this Red White and Blue Pavlova on If You Can Make That You Can Make This caught my eye. I really should make pavlova some time…

There are a lot of flag cake recipes out there, but I’m not sure you could get simpler than this CHOrific Flag Cake on Little Bitty Bakes, which uses boxed cake mix, Chobani Greek Yogurt and Cool Whip, among other things.

Also on Little Bitty Bakes, Liz has 4 cookie recipes for the Fourth of July, including Blueberry Coconut Cookies and Berry White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. Her e-book, Sweet with Greek, is also on sale for just $4 until July 4th.

Serious Eats collected 57 recipes for your Fourth of July party, including 15 desserts.  Categories include meats and seafood;  chips, dips, and Mexican favorites; starters and party food and more.

If desserts aren’t your thing, check out the patriotic salad or the cheese wheel featured on The Kitchn.

Serious Eats has beer suggestions to pair with traditional Independence Day barbecue foods, as well as general cookout beverage suggestions.  If you’d rather something else to drink, check out Food & Wine’s list of the best July 4th drinks.

It’s probably a bit late for this year, but Apartment Therapy has a collection of BBQ Goods with Style for use at your July 4th celebration, as well as some red, white and blue items you might want to use year round.

2 closing notes:

1. I am ALWAYS open to suggestions for Highlights.  Or guest Highlights posts!
2. Kelly, I need to know what you ended up deciding to make!