5 Labor Day Cake Decorating Ideas That Are Fun And Patriotic

Labor Day can mean a lot of things to different people, whether they're celebrating workers, the start of a new school year, or a patriotic end to the summer season. Many folks take the long weekend formed by the first Monday in September to throw a cookout, potluck, or some other communal gathering with food. These celebrations often feature patriotic theming, which you can bring to your celebratory desserts as well.

There are plenty of fun, colorful ways to decorate a cake for Labor Day. For example, consider imbuing it with swirls of red, white, and blue. For more tangible theming, you can incorporate seasonal American produce, with or without the patriotic color scheme. Accent the cake further with red, white, and blue rosettes, which can be as simple or complex as you want.

Toothpick-mounted American flags can serve as both cute decorations and a hygienic way for guests to serve themselves. And even though red is likely already represented in your Labor Day cake, consider it as a focal point for your cake's color scheme. This hue symbolizes not only valor and bravery on the American flag, but also the sacrifices of the labor movement that inspired the holiday weekend — and gave us weekends in the first place.

Swirls of color inside a cake create a childlike whimsy that's perfect for an unofficial end-of-summer gathering. Thankfully, making colorful swirls in cake seems a lot more complicated than it is. This is an easy way to imbue your cake with patriotic theming, courtesy of a little food coloring.

Red and blue will show up best in lighter-colored mixes like yellow cake, though a white cake such as angel food will be the most on-theme. Prepare the batter as directed, but when you pour it into the cake pan, reserve two small bowls' worth on the side.

Add 1-2 drops of red food coloring in one bowl of reserved batter, and do the same with blue food coloring in the other bowl. Stir them separately until each color is smooth, then use a spoon to dollop the dyed batter in random spots on the cake pan. Use the same spoon or a butter knife to swirl the batter together before baking as instructed. Just be careful to not swirl it too much, or you might turn your cake purple.

Fruit is a common addition to delicious cake recipes and is also useful for expressing patriotism in a number of ways. For instance, try covering a simple yellow sponge cake in white icing and topping it with American-grown blueberries, strawberries, and bananas (one of the best underrated fruits for cakes) for an edible American flag that was grown in the USA.

Although most consumer blueberries are imported from Peru or Mexico, American blueberry production is also significant and peaks in late summer. The domestic industry does, however, dominate the strawberry market, and very few berries are imported in August. Unfortunately, American-grown bananas are rare outside of tropical climates like Florida or Hawaii, but if you can't get your hands on any that are locally grown, you can also have the icing underneath serve as the white in your flag design.

For a more subtly patriotic take, consider a peach-pineapple upside down cake made with American-grown fruit. Plenty of states grow peaches, so even though Georgia's growing season ends in mid-August, fresh domestic peaches are available through September. Peak Hawaiian pineapple season also ends in September, keeping this fruit freshly available for Labor Day.

Rosettes are small, flower-shaped decorations usually made of icing, and they're a classic way to add a touch of class to a simple cake. These, too, can be incorporated into a patriotic Labor Day cake design, and while they can be easy to make, you can make them more complex if you prefer.

To make rosettes by hand, try either dyeing a white buttercream icing yourself, using commercial buttercream icings that are already red or blue, or combining multiple icings into a patriotic swirl. Regardless, with a piping bag, an star-shaped piping tip, and some practice squeezing the icing out from a central point into a spiral, handmade rosettes can be yours to enjoy. Embrace the colors as they are or dust them with on-theme confectionery, like red, white, and blue sprinkles.

Hand-piping can be challenging for some, though, which is where the retail industry comes in. For those who can't make (or just don't want to bother with) DIY rosettes, you can either get them premade, buy floral designs made of wafer paper, or get actual edible flowers.

Small flags mounted on toothpicks are a cute garnish for food, and the same can be true of tiny American flags sticking out of your Labor Day cake. However, as weekend shoppers who peruse free samples at Sam's Club know, toothpicks can also be a handy and relatively hygienic way for people to enjoy small bites.

If guests are expected to serve themselves from one large cake using the same knife and spatula, this can introduce unsanitary bacteria to the dessert. You could also slice and serve the cake yourself, though this leaves you working the party when you should be enjoying it.

Assuming the cake is dense enough to cut into small, freestanding squares, American flag toothpicks allow guests to pick up and eat little bites without cross-contaminating the rest. If you go this route, however, you might want to avoid the unpatriotic image of American flags in the trash, so designate a plate or bowl where guests can deposit their used flag toothpicks instead.

Red is more than just a third of the American flag — it's also the color of the labor movement, representing workers' sacrifices both on the clock and in tragedies like the Haymarket Affair. On May 4, 1886, a bomb exploded at a Chicago labor protest, and after the resulting chaos and police gunfire, several laborers and officers were dead. Eight workers were prosecuted and four executed in what is now seen as a miscarriage of justice. The surviving convicts were pardoned, and the bomber was never identified.

In 1889, the international labor movement recognized the Haymarket anniversary as a global day of worker solidarity, now known as May Day. Although the American observance of Labor Day traces back to an 1882 workers' parade in New York City, four years before the Haymarket Affair, both holidays celebrate workers, and neither one would exist without American organized labor.

Red is likely already featured on any patriotic cake, but for Labor Day, try centering the color's dual meaning. For instance, a red velvet cake with white icing and fresh blueberry garnishes will center that beautiful crimson tone in a velvety smooth cake that tastefully shows both solidarity and patriotism.