Angel Food Cake with Strawberries

Angel food cake recipes always go down well. They are light, fluffy and make a fabulous dessert. In this recipe you can either make or buy an angel food cake and then add strawberries and cream for a perfect finish. If you’re into strawberries and cream type desserts, such as strawberry shortcake or cheesecake, you’ll love this.

Along with the angel food cake, you will need sugar, cream cheese, whipped topping, strawberries, and strawberry jam or glaze. The cake is crumbled and then you can combine the sugar and cream cheese with the whipped topping. Spread this over the cake and finish with the strawberries and jam or glaze. All that’s left to do is wait a few hours until it’s nicely chilled, then serve.

This strawberry angel cake recipe is a great make-ahead dish if you are making food for guests. Once it’s assembled you can simply leave it in the refrigerator while you work on the other courses for the meal.

It also means it’s a great recipe to make if you’re going to a potluck meal or you’ve been asked to bring dessert to some kind of gathering or event.

What is Angel Food Cake Anyway?

So what is angel food cake and why is it called that? Well, it’s a low-fat cake which is made with cake flour, egg whites and sugar. It is beautiful, pristine white inside and lightly golden on the outside.

It’s sweet without being over-sweet and offers a really light texture. A bite of angel food cake is like a cloud melting on your tongue! That’s probably how it got the name.

Angel food cake isn’t hard to make but you do need to cool it upside down. This is important. When it’s cooling the spongy texture is still setting. Not flipping it upside down ensures it isn’t going to collapse.

Assuming you’re using a store-bought angel food cake here, you can expect to make this dessert in just 15 minutes or so.

Strawberry Angel Food Cake Variations

You can make this with another kind of cake if you’d rather. Angel food cake does work especially well because it’s light and fluffy in contrast with the berries and cream. It also works nicely because it has a neutral flavor and won’t overpower the other flavors in the dessert.

However you can use any kind of cake. A boxed yellow or white cake mix would work fine here. If you’re using angel food cake, bear in mind it will be fine for a few days at room temperature or up to a week in the refrigerator. To make sure it doesn’t dry out, cover it. Oh, and it freezes nicely too!

The whipped topping can be subbed for whipped cream. You will need an electric whisk (or a manual one if you don’t mind investing some elbow grease!) and then simply whip it up. Once it forms soft peaks it’s done. Over-mixing cream is never a good idea because it kind of clumps together.

Fresh strawberries are a must-have for this recipe. A lot of dessert recipes use strawberry pie filling or thawed strawberries, but it’s well worth using fresh ones here.

As for the jam or glaze, either is an option. You might prefer to sub another kind of jam or glaze for the strawberry one, to change things up. What about raspberry or apricot preserves? If you aren’t into strawberries, any berry would work in this easy angel food cake recipe.

What’s the History of Angel Food Cake?

Angel food cake makes a wonderful treat for any occasion, especially October 10^th which is National Angel Food Cake Day! It dates back to the middle of the 19^th century and is thought to hail from the South of the United States.

The invention of rotary beaters certainly made this cake easier to prepare and now of course we have electric whisks to make things simpler still! So if you’re in the mood for a light-as-air dessert with juicy, fresh berries and delicious cream, make this. You will love this strawberry angel food cake recipe – I guarantee it!

What do you need to make Angel Food Cake with Strawberries

10-inch diameter angel food cake

1 cup white sugar

1 pound softened cream cheese

8 ounces thawed whipped topping

18 ounces strawberry jam or glaze

1 quart sliced fresh strawberries

How to make Angel Food Cake with Strawberries

FIRST STEP:

Crumble the cake into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish.

SECOND STEP:

Beat the cream cheese and sugar together with an electric whisk.

Beat in the whipped topping.

a)

b)

THIRD STEP:

Spoon this mixture over the angel food cake.

Combine the strawberries and strawberry jam or glaze.

a)

b)

FOURTH STEP:

Spread this on top.

Chill for 3 hours before serving.

Enjoy!

How to Serve Strawberry Angel Food Cake

A slice of this cake is perfect for pretty much any occasion. What about as a late afternoon pick-me-up with a glass of iced tea? Or a special treat after dinner served with espresso?

You don’t need to add anything to the dessert, such as ice cream or whipped cream, because it’s just perfect as it is. Well, if you want an extra-indulgent dessert go ahead and add that scoop of ice cream!