Over the years, this cake has been my absolute go-to in terms of dessert. It's Sie's favorite dessert I make (I admittedly don't make very many), and it's been a real hit each time I make it.
The history behind this cake is that my grandpa, grandma and aunt all have birthdays near or ON July 4th, so it's typically a pretty big family holiday for us. As a result, my mom and I are always on the lookout for great Independence day recipes. Years back, my mom went with this festive (red,white & blue) cake for Papa's birthday and sent me a clipping of the recipe she used (believe it or not, from the funny pages!)
That was probably sophomore year of college, fast forward to now; I've made this recipe over a dozen times and it always turns out delicious. In our house, it rarely survives more than 3 days! I've tried several different substitutions, like adding pudding to the filling and Kahlua to the icing among others. I never look at the recipe, and when I went to write this blog- I wondered if I still had the original recipe from mom. Sure enough, with nerdy notes to myself included:
The best thing about this recipe is that once you learn the basic method, you can alter it so many ways and change up the ingredients to accommodate your favorite fruits/etc. At the bottom I've listed some ideas I have (and now must try!) for different variations of this stuffed angel food cake.
For the basic recipe, you'll need FOUR ingredients:
- 1 store bought angel food cake (I noticed these now come in sugar free, which would be a great option for those watching their sugar)
- 16 oz. tub of whipped topping
- 1 lb. container of strawberries
- 1 pint of blueberries
Since tonight I wanted to kick it up a notch, I also bought coconut - what can I say I had a craving!
First, slice the top quarter off of your angel food cake. Do not worry if it's not a perfectly straight cut, you will eventually cover the entire cake in whipped cream and no one will be the wiser. :)
Cut 2 circular lines an inch a part on the bottom piece, so that you are then able to remove the cake between the lines (not quite all the way to the bottom, leave a thin layer on bottom)
Tear up the removed cake into bite size pieces and put in a bowl. To the bowl, add roughly 3/4 to 1 cup of chopped strawberries, 1/2 cup of blueberries, and 3/4 cup of of whipped cream. All of these ingredients are perfectly ok to eyeball! Since tonight I was spicing it up with coconut, I threw in a handful of coconut to this mix as well. Stir all ingredients together.
*Note: the original recipe says to add 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract to the mix as well- but it's definitely not make or break because I rarely remember this step. The cake has plenty of vanilla flavor on its own. :)
Place the bottom portion of cake (now hollowed out) on your serving plate. If you want to go all Martha (I did for the sake of the blog), lay several pieces of wax paper around the edges of the plate first so that when you are finished icing you can simply pull out the wax paper and "voila" = clean serving plate.
Now spoon your whipped cream-berry-cake mixture into the cavity of the cake. This step is exactly why its completely fine to eyeball this recipe: if you end up with more than you need of the delicious filling, I'm sure you'll find SOMETHING to do with it (aka get after it with a spoon!)
Place the top quarter back on top, try to match it up as best you can- but the whole thing will now be covered in whipped cream, so all mistakes will be forgiven. :)
"Ice" your cake with whipped cream, I usually use a plastic spatula, start from the top and work my way downwards. When the cake is well covered, I go around to make it even one last time.
Last, decorate with berries and strawberries. Since tonight I decided to add coconut, I basically "threw" handfuls of coconut all around the edges. Place cake in the fridge for about 2 hours (if you can hold your husband off for that long). Remove your wax paper, slice up, serve & enjoy!
This cake is great because it's light & relatively healthy as desserts go, but tastes delicious and has a pretty presentation. Also, it's just about as easy as can be and involves no actual baking! :) When I served Sie his first slice, he referred to it as his "warm-up" piece. Haha, I'm guessing the cake will be gone by Friday at the latest!
ideas for variations on this cake:
- use the strawberry angel food cakes that they have in the bakery now (yum!)
- mix up the fruit: add bananas to the mix. go tropical with pineapple and coconut. Raspberries and lemon zest would also make a great combo.
- add fruit preserves to the filling or make it an additional layer above and below the stuffing
- if you're a chocoholic- you could do chocolate whipped cream and add chocolate chips to the filling
Hope you enjoy this one as much as I do :)
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