Fourth of July Stars & Stripes Toast

This Stars and Stripes toast is such a fun cooking activity to make with your kids on the Fourth of July. Multigrain toast is covered in cream cheese, jam, and tons and tons of fresh fruit.

Set out dishes of raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, and bananas so that your kids can turn regular toast into a festive 4th of July breakfast.

These fruity toasts are cute, fun, and fresh. I would recommend serving them with a blueberry strawberry smoothie or strawberry milk for an extra hit of berry flavors. Since you’ll already have cut up a lot of fruit for this recipe, just serve whatever doesn’t make it onto the toast as a side. 

If you use the broiler, be careful not to burn your bread. I like using the broiler because I can toast many more slices of bread at one time. Even on the lowest heat setting the broiler can easily burn your toast, so watch it carefully!

Also, the cream cheese should be at room temperature when you use it—it makes whipping it for spreading a lot easier. 

What You Need To Make Stars and Stripes Toast

This recipe requires strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, bananas, cream cheese, jam, and multigrain bread. You can use any jam or jelly you want, but it needs to be red in color—a strawberry, raspberry, or cherry jam is perfect. 

Also, I like multigrain bread because it has a little extra flavor and crunch. Whole wheat bread would be a good substitution, but if your kids only eat white bread (I’ve known a few kids like that), just use the bread they like. This is supposed to be fun! 

Ingredients: 

• Multi-grain bread
• Jam or jelly, red color
• Fresh strawberries
• Fresh blueberries
• Fresh raspberries
• Cream cheese
• Banana

Equipment: 

To make Stars and Stripes toast, you need a toaster or a sheet pan and broiler (my preferred method). You also will need a small knife, and cutting board to prepare the fruit, and a small bowl, fork, and butter knife to prepare the cream cheese.

Some of the slices of bread will be cut into stars. I used a large star-shaped cookie cutter that I use at Christmas to help me trace the outline of a star, but you can also use a piece of paper or even eyeball it. 

If you use the cookie cutter, do not try to cut out the toast because the bread will be smashed down. Instead, use your small knife to cut around the star. Think of it as a creative way to take off the crusts of bread for your picky eaters!

How To Make Stars and Stripes Toast

Prepare the cream cheese: Put the cream cheese in a bowl. Using a fork, mash the cream cheese, first breaking it up and then whipping it to incorporate a little air and make it smooth and spreadable. You don’t need to fully whip it like you would for a cream cheese frosting, but taking a little extra time to make it a little softer and lighter makes it easier to spread.

Prepare the fruit: Wash and dry the berries. Cut the tops off of the strawberries and then slice them into little pieces. Slice the banana into half-moon rounds. Set aside. 

Make the Toasts: Toast 6 pieces of bread in a toaster or using a broiler. If using a broiler, preheat it using the lowest heat setting. Put the toast under the broiler for 1-2 minutes per side, but watch them closely to make sure the toast doesn’t burn.

Cut out the stars: With 2-3 of your pieces of bread, use a stencil (cookie cutter or piece of paper in the shape of a star) to cut out stars from the bread. You may be able to cut more than one star from each slice, depending on how big your bread slices are. 

Assemble the toasts: Spread cream cheese on each toast, including the star toasts. Add jam to the toasts for those who want it. Add the fruit to your toasts. For your full slices of bread, I recommend arranging the fruit in stripes.

For the stars, I like to put one kind of fruit on each (blueberry star, banana star, etc.). This is also a great step to get the kids involved in, so let them decorate with the fruit, too. 

Serve: Enjoy!

Recipe FAQs

Can I make any of this ahead of time?

You can lightly whip the cream cheese and cut the fruit in advance. Allow the cream cheese to warm up slightly before you spread it. Bananas can get a little slimy if you cut them up too far in advance, so I would cut the fruit up no more than a few hours before you plan to use them. Once assembled, these toasts need to be eaten shortly after. The fresh fruit can make them soggy if left out too long.

What other fruits can I use?

I would recommend using cherries in place of raspberries. If you want to sub out more of the fruit, you could also use thinly sliced apple wedges (just make sure the apple is red).

Can I use frozen fruit?

I do not recommend using frozen fruit in this dish. Frozen fruit will be mushy and runny, and will bleed all over the toasts.

Here are a few other recipes you might enjoy!

• Cottage Cheese Toast
• Hashbrown Avocado Toast
• Healthy Egg White French Toast
• Avocado Cream Cheese Toast