Angel Cake

Hello all!
Tonight I'm going to share with you a lovely recipe that was requested by a labmate. As a treat for her last week rotating in the lab I offered to bake her something yummy and she suggested this cake. I am so glad she suggested it because it was fast, easy and there are a bunch of ways to cheat! For one, if you don't like Angel Food cake, you can just make the "icing" and put in on a pound cake. If you don't feel like fighting with baking an Angel Food cake, you can just buy one from your local grocery store or bakery, but if you don't mind its super easy and quick. This is also what I'd like to call a "messy cake" it isn't a beautiful masterpiece like my Black Forrest Truffle cake,  rather it is crumbly, messy and globby but is is DELICIOUS and and there is a certain charm in its messiness. The only thing my cake was missing was berries and that was because someone who will remain nameless ate them and I forgot, so I didn't buy more.

Angel Cake

Ingredients:

1 box Angel Food cake

1 1/4 c. water

1 box instant vanilla pudding

1 can of crushed pineapple (20 oz)

1 8 oz tub of cool whip

Yep! This is all you need (well and some water and berries if you don't want a nekked cake)

Make the cake according to manufactures directions

Hey! Its cake mix!

Add water

All water added? Check!

Beat on low for 30 seconds... Notice where the cake is in the bowl

Beat on medium for 1 minute cake is higher up in the bowl

Place batter in fluted Angel Food cake pan. Mine is 2 parts and came with Matt when I married him. Not sure what I was most excited about when we got married, him or the cake pan I was getting...

Look at how big it got!  Puff!!!

If you pan is rockin' like mine, flip it over and let it set on its feet until it has cooled. If your pan does not have feet or the cake is taller than the feet then put the cake upside down on a wine bottle so that your cake doesn't deflate after cooking

While you're waiting for the cake to cool, make the icing. Alternatively if you're letting the cake cool over night, hold off until the next day to make the icing so its fresh and light. Also, don't leave the cool-whip out overnight or else it gets watery. Trust me...

Add the Jello mix to a bowl

Add the can of pineapple to the mix, DO NOT DRAIN, add the whole thing and mix well

Looks like chunky egg yolks, but tastes much better!

Fold the Cool-Whip into the mix

Cool-whip! I used a fork to mix this in instead of an electric mixer so that I could be gentle with it and keep it from deflating

All mixed and fluffy!

After the cake has cooled (can allow to cool over night), run a knife around the edge and free it from the pan. Now if you are lucky enough to have a 2 piece pan like me, then you can leave it on the base while you cut the cake. If not, then you will have a little harder time cutting it, but it is do-able. Just remember its OK if this cake looks like a blind man with a butcher knife cut it! Its supposed to be messy.  Slice the cake into 3 layers and put "icing" between each layer and then on top.

Be sure to use a serrated knife to cut the cake and saw it apart otherwise you'll just smush it

Cuttin' the cake

First layer on the cake carrier

First layer with fluffy icing on it

Close up to show you that I just globbed some on with the fork and pushed it around until it covered the cake

2nd layer with globby icing

Close up so you can see the globs coming out the bottom of the 2nd layer and see the icing on top of the second layer

Top layer on!

And the last layer of icing!!! Now all you need are some berries to make it less naked looking!

This was absolutely delectable! It was light enough to be perfect for a summer afternoon, but also could be served any time of the year. I brought this particular cake to work with me today to celebrate a co-worker getting her Green Card! I was so happy for her I wanted to bake a lovely light and lively cake to reflect her light and lively personality. Since she's from Denmark I probably should have made danishes, but this was so nice the first time around (and I didn't photograph it because it came out so UGLY) that I wanted to do it again. The caveat to this was all the comments and looks I got on my way to work. If I haven't mentioned this before I work in downtown Baltimore which is not the nicest area of the country. I work near the Shock-trauma unit downtown and as my friend put it, "They only put those units in areas where you see lots of traumas like gun shot wounds, etc." So it can be a rough area. But no one can be upset with a person carrying a cake! So today EVERYONE stared or smiled at me on the way in. A couple of guys, smiled real big and told me I shouldn't have! But they'd be glad to take the cake anyways. There wasn't anything menacing about this exchange just 2 guys who wanted some cake. Maybe I should make cupcakes one day and hand them out as I go... 

And with that food for thought, Happy Eating!