Angel Food Cake with Strawberries (and Mint)

Ohhh, so we were both thinking dessert this week, Shan! Of course we were. ;-)

And you think yours was easy - well wait `til ya' see this. This is so easy that it may not even qualify for "What's Cooking Wednesday" because there was no actual cooking involved! The recipe is from Sandra Lee's "Semi-Homemade Desserts, 2nd ed.". I bought this book after getting her first Semi-Homemade Dessert book from the library. From that I made the most impressive looking Black Forest Cake for my mother-in-law's birthday - that was really one of the easiest desserts I had ever whipped off in my life! From this book I made Sandra Lee's "Angel Food Cake with Strawberries and Mint".

Here is the ingredients list:

1 purchased (12 oz) angel food cake {ya, you don't even have to bake a cake!}

1 bag (16 oz) frozen strawberries, thawed and drained

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint

1 tablespoon orange-flavoured liqueur [ex. Cointreau or Grand Marnier]

1 container (8 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed [ex. Cool Whip]

1/4 teaspoon orange extract, [ex. McCormick]

fresh mint leaves.

Here are the incredibly simple directions:

1. Remove angel food cake from container and invert onto plate; bottom is now the top of cake. With a serrated knife, carefully remove top of cake by slicing horizontally 1/2 inch down from top. Set aside.


2. Gently hollow out center of cake. Be careful not to tear inside or outside "walls" of cake. Tear removed cake into small pieces and place in medium bowl.


3. Pick out best looking strawberry to use as garnish; set aside. To bowl containing cake pieces, add strawberries, mint, orange-flavoured liqueur, and 1/2 cup of the frozen whipped topping. Fold until combined.


4. Fill cake, both well and center with strawberry mixture. Replace reserved top of cake.


5. Stir orange extract into remaining frozen whipped topping; frost cake. Garnish with fresh mint leaves and top with reserved strawberry. Chill cake for 4 hours before serving.

Okay, so I didn't bother with the mint because while it looks really pretty in the cake I just know Maddie would have hated that. Also, I had no orange flavoured liqueur hanging around and even though it's such a small amount...probably shouldn't be giving booze to the kiddos. I did have orange extract, though...so I used that in the Cool Whip. The brand of mine is "Frontier" but I don't remember now where I got it...probably from "Goodness Me".

Verdict: yummo.

So simple and easy and really impressive looking. Well, mine is a bit messy (Sandra Lee swirled her Cool Whip and I just spiked it. The swirls are prettier. Plus, Sandra had all the little hits of green from the mint in hers - which also makes it look prettier). This would be great if you needed to bring a dessert to someone's house but you really had no time. They'd think you slaved over it all day! Dave thought it would be even better with fresh strawberries and that would probably be true but only if you added sugar and water to them and let them sit for a bit to get all nice and squishy. You need there to be some sugary syrup around them to seep into the cake.

Easy-Peasy!

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