A sweet Fourth of July

This week's recipe isn't a recipe at all, but it is fun.

What you see in the photo is actually a birthday cake my daughter made, but the star and the red, silver and blue sanding sugar made me think it would be perfect for a July Fourth celebration.

You can use any size or shape cake, and any flavor. This was a chocolate cake with white icing in the center (a few spoonfuls of red and blue sanding sugar was mixed in to keep it festive). The icing is Chocolate Mocha.

For the top, Amanda found an image of a star online and then printed it in the size she wanted. She traced it onto paper, cut it out, and then laminated it to create a stencil. She did the same thing for the circles.

Laminating makes handling the paper easier, but if you were to use stiffer paper, such as a manila file folder, that should work just as well.

This image was from a popular comic strip, but you could do just about anything; such as three stars in graduated sizes, one red, one blue, and one white or silver.

To make this as easy as possible, make sure your cake top is flat by trimming off the rounded top.

Also, decorate with the sugar as soon as you finish frosting your cake. The sugar will stick to fresh icing.

As it sits and "dries," the sugar will just roll off.

Colored sanding sugar is available with cake decorating supplies and at craft stores like Michaels and A.C. Moore.

Remember, it doesn't have to be perfect; it just has to be fun.