5 from 10 votes

Raspberry Rose Angel Food Dream Cake

Raspberry Rose Angel Food Dream Cake Recipe | Photo by Zoë François

For Mother’s Day (and Valentine’s Day) I always bake something I’d like my beloved children to bake for me, as a not-so-subtle hint to them. This website is basically a reference for my boys to use whenever they are looking for ideas of what to make me. (If only they ever read my blog!)

I think Angel Food is perfect. The name alone is fitting for us moms, considering what we do to keep our darling children alive, well fed and mostly happy. I received a lovely new cookbook yesterday and it fell open to the angel food cake recipe. Jessie Sheehan’s The Vintage Baker is a wonderful book, full of classic desserts with her twist on them. She made the perfect angel food cake, split it in half, then filled and topped it with a beautiful blueberry whipped cream. It really is a dream. I was completely smitten. I didn’t have any blueberries, but did have raspberries. Here in MN we’re just hitting spring and the very start of a growing season, so I rely on Driscoll’s to deliver perfect CA berries. I need the bright color and dose of summer.

The ethereal texture of this Raspberry Rose Angel Food Dream Cake is created by whipping a dozen egg whites to meringue perfection, then gently folding cake flour into it. I added some zest and rose water to make this beautiful cake even more festive. That’s the beauty of angel food cake, it is easy to play with different flavors. The secret to keeping the lightness of the cake is to cool it upside down. I have an old, super cheap, pan that I got at a garage sale in college, which doesn’t benefit from having feet on it, so I have to balance it over a wine bottle to cool. You can watch my instagram videos to see me bake this dream cake and many more. For more tips and tricks on baking the perfect Angel Food or any other cake, check out the Cake Academy in my book, Zoë Bakes Cakes!

Raspberry Rose Angel Food Dream Cake Recipe | Photo by Zoë François
Raspberry Rose Angel Food Dream Cake Recipe | Photo by Zoë François
Raspberry Rose Angel Food Dream Cake Recipe | Photo by Zoë François

Thank you Jessie for sending me your gorgeous book, The Vintage Baker: More Than 50 Recipes from Butterscotch Pecan Curls to Sour Cream Jumbles! My family and I absolutely LOVED this dream cake. It will be made again and again.

To find my Raspberry Studded Angel Food recipe, check out Zoë Bakes Cakes!

Raspberry Angel Food Dream Cake Recipe | ZoeBakes by Zoe Francois

Raspberry Rose Angel Food Dream Cake

5 from 10 votes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (120g) cake flour sifted
  • 1 1/4 cups (250g) granulated sugar
  • 1/4 tsp table salt
  • 12 egg whites at room temperature
  • 1 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract homemade vanilla extract
  • Zest of one lemon optional, not part of the original recipe
  • 2 teaspoons rose water optional, not part of the original recipe

Whipped Cream

  • 2 cups (250g) fresh or frozen blueberries, plus a handful for the garnish. I used the same amount of Driscoll's raspberries
  • 1/3 cup (65g) granulated sugar
  • 2 cups (480ml) heavy cream
  • 1/4 cup (50g) packed light brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (make your own)

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
  • Sift the flour, half the sugar and salt, set aside.
  • Whip the egg whites until foamy. Add 1 tablespoon water, the cream of tartar and vanilla, whip until it begins to form soft peaks. Add the remaining sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time until incorporated. Add the zest and rose water if using and continue whipping until it is medium stiff peaks. See instagram video to see what this looks like.
  • Sift 1/3 of the flour over the whites and gently fold it in using a rubber spatula. Continue with another 1/3 and then the final flour. Transfer the batter into a 10-cup tube pan. Run a knife around the batter to get out any large air pockets, then smooth the top. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or just until a tester comes out with moist crumbs.
  • Turn the pan upside down to cool. If your pan has feet, then you're all set, if not, you'll need a bottle of wine. See my instagram video to see how I do this. Once the cake is completely cool, run a paring knife around the outer edge and the middle. Invert the cake onto the serving plate.

For the Whipped Cream

  • Combine the berries, granulated sugar and a few tablespoons water in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until the fruit breaks down and thickens and is jammy. You can see the consistency in my instagram video. Put it in a container and chill. I threw it in the freezer to speed things up a bit. I wanted cake.
  • Whip the cream and brown sugar on medium speed until it just starts to thicken, add the vanilla and continue to whip until medium/soft peaks. Fold in the cooled, cooked berries.
  • Jessie sliced the cake in half and filled it with some of the berry cream, then spread the rest on top. This adds the creamy, dreaminess of the whipped cream throughout. I love the look of a tall angel food cake, so I just put all the berry cream on the outside of the cake.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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28 thoughts to “Raspberry Rose Angel Food Dream Cake”

    1. Hi Dana,

      That’s why you don’t butter the pan, you want the cake to cling to the sides as it rises and bakes. It won’t come out until your cut it out.

      Cheers, Zoë

  1. Angel food cake is my absolute favorite. It reminds me of my mom who always presented me with one if I was challenged by life in any way and just screams comfort to me. Problem is Im the only one in the house who enjoys it. This creative idea is beautiful and so tasty looking. Being in CA I always have berries whether fresh or frozen. Thank you for such a lovely looking treat!

  2. Hi Zoe!

    A quick idea for the frosting: I put the pan of hot raspberries directly on top of a big bowl of ice and that cooled them in a minute or 2! Very fast because I also wanted cake

  3. Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe! I never attempted to bake Angel Food Cake because I don’t know what to do with all the leftover egg yolks. I would be very happy about any suggestions because I really would like to bake this cake. Yum!

    1. Hi! Zoë’s Key Lime Pie calls for 5 yolks in the filling and 6 for the curd. Her lavender crème brûlée calls for 10 yolks, butterscotch pot de crèmes call for 10 and I know a few of her ice creams call for several yolks. I hope this helps!

    1. Hi Georgia! Zoe has not tested this recipe as gluten free, but she does have a suggestion if you’d like to experiment with it. She suggests using a combination of a 1:1 gluten free baking flour and some corn starch to try and replicate cake flour. Depending on what brand you use you may need more corn starch than others, so it will be somewhat of an experiment.

    1. Hi Melissa,

      This is an excellent question and I am trying to recall if I have ever tried to freeze it before. Most cakes can, but just be careful when defrosting it, you don’t want the texture to get soggy from condensation. I would try freezing a piece and see what you think of the results. If you get to it before I do, let me know what you find.

      Thanks, Zoë

      1. My mother-in-law would freeze her angel food cakes. She would take it out of the freezer and thaw it for an hour or so, cut it in half (easier when it is semi-thawed), and add her strawberry whipped topping to the middle and top of the cake and put it in the fridge. She would make a batch of homemade egg noodles, using the egg yolks, then make her angel food cake with the whites!

  4. 5 stars
    Followed the recipe. It is delicious! Only change I made was to add some vanilla bean paste to the whipped cream and lessen the sugar in the raspberry jam to make it less sweet. Loved the results! Thank you!

  5. Hi, Zoe,
    My son has requested your fluffy Swiss meringue topping for his angel food birthday cake. Would this pair well? And do you think it would work to mix the raspberry jam into that?
    Thanks!
    Zoe

    1. Hi Zoe! Zoë would not recommend this pairing for a couple of reasons, but she does have some ideas, in case you would like to try it. Meringue is very sweet and angel food is also pretty sweet, so the pair may be too cloying. If you try it, you may want to add lemon zest or lemon extract to the meringue to counteract the sweetness. It is also not recommended to add jam to the meringue, but you could try a layer of raspberry jam underneath the meringueu’d like to incorporate that flavor. Another fun idea could be to fill the center of the cake with fresh raspberries so when you cut into it they spill out. Happy birthday to your son and happy baking!

  6. 5 stars
    Just made this last minute for the 4th! It was the best textured Angel Food cake I have made. This will be my new go to! Thanks Zoe!

    1. Hi Hollie, Jessie’s original recipe calls for blueberries, but when Zoe made the recipe, she only had raspberries, so that’s what she used. The recipe in this blog post calls just for blueberries, but you’ll see Zoe noted that she used the same amount of raspberries for hers instead. I hope this helps!

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