Stawberry Angel Dream Cake

 

Wow! Isn't that just the prettiest thing you ever saw? Almost too pretty to eat...Almost.
This gorgeous creation started out as a recipe I found on the Kraft foods website. The main tweak I made was making my own angel food cake in a bundt pan instead of using a prepared (store bought) angel food cake. What caught my eye was not only the beauty of this dish, but the 140 calories per portion. This just seemed like a dessert I could serve my family without guilt.
Here's how I started...

The ingredients I gathered were a quart of strawberries, an angel food cake mix (and the 1 1/4 cup of water it called for), 1/2 package of cream cheese (the 1/3 less fat kind), an orange, sugar and Cool Whip Lite.



  The first thing I did was to make the angel food cake according to the package directions. I took pictures of that process, but as it turned out I didn't have a memory card in my camera...sooo...let's just pick it up here. I used a decorative bundt pan. I LOVE my bundt pan, but it was a bit of a challenge getting the cake out of the pan...just too many nooks and crannies. I held back three cups of the batter and put it in a loaf pan because my bundt pan doesn't hold as much as a tube pan. I even thought about buying a premade angel food cake (oh I know you sometimes cheat with store-bought too!), but my grocery store was out of them. As it turns out I like the look of this cake, and the extra loaf of angel food cake will work for a meal I'm taking to a young couple from church just home from the hospital with a new baby, so it's all good.

  After letting the cake cool I sliced the cake in half horizontally.

Just like so...a bit of a crumbly mess, but easy enough to clean up. I set the two halves aside while I made the filling.

I grated the orange peel, making sure to avoid the white membrane which is bitter.

Then I used that orange to squeeze for the 1 tablespoon of fresh orange juice I needed.

I put the orange zest, orange juice, sugar and cream cheese in my electric mixer's bowl and mixed on low for about 2 minutes until it was smooth.

Next I added the Cool Whip and beat again for about 1 minute, just to combine the ingredients.

At this point I took the bowl off the mixer and gently folded in the chopped strawberries...oh my goodness, this is smelling so yummy!

I used about 2/3 off the bowl of fluffy wonderment as filling between the two layers and the remaining 1/3 was used to frost the top. Then I decorated the cake with extra strawberries cut in halves and pieces. I immediately put the carrier cover on this and put it in my car (out in the cold February weather) so I wouldn't be tempted to have "just a taste" before taking it to my taste testers for dessert later that evening.

Here is the recipe:

Strawberry Angel Dream Cake
(called "Strawberry and Cream Angel Cake" On the Kraft Foods website)

1 quart strawberries (approx 3 cups), divided
4 oz Philadelphia Brand 1/3 less fat Cream Cheese
2 tbl sugar
1 1/2 tsp orange zest
1 tbl fresh squeezed orange juice
2 cups Cool Whip Lite
1 prepared angel food cake (10-inch), cut in half horizontally

Chop 2 cups of strawberries and set aside the remaining strawberries to use as decorations.
Beat cream cheese, sugar, orange zest and orange juice with a mixer until well blended. Add Cool Whip and beat for another 1 minute on low, just until blended.
Fold in chopped strawberries.
Spread 2/3 of the strawberry mixture on the bottom half of the cake. Cover with the top of the cake and the remaining 1/3 of the mixture.
Decorate the cake with the strawberries that were set aside.

What was the taste tester's bottom line?
This recipe looks so beautiful! The taste testers (three grandchildren) had a hard time waiting for dessert-time. All three gave this recipe an enthusiastic thumb's up! GoodMan wondered if it really needed the orange flavor ~ but I thought the orange flavor added a note of complexity to this simple cake.

There wasn't much left after everyone had seconds!

Bottom line: This one's a keeper.