Strawberry Shortcake Angel Food Cake is the dessert recipe you need in your baking queue right now. Pillowy soft, light-as-air sponge cake meets sweet coconut dulce de leche buttercream and a smattering of fresh fruits in this fun take on the springtime classic. One bite and I promise you’ll be smitten!
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⭐ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Strawberry shortcake is a perennial springtime favorite, and with good reason! The simple combination of strawberries and cream is sublime, especially when you throw a little cake goodness in the mix.
Despite biscuits being the norm for strawberry shortcakes, angel food cake has long been an excellent contender as a substitute. Its pillowy soft sponge, light texture and delicate vanilla flavor make it a perfect warm-weather dessert, especially when paired with juicy, fresh fruits and a generous dollop of my sweet coconut dulce de leche buttercream.
This Strawberry Shortcake Angel Food Cake is a far cry from the individual-sized cakes they start selling in the produce section this time of year. It is light and delicate without even a hint of oil, making it the ideal backdrop for richer-than-chantilly buttercream frosting.
Adding mandarin segments and raspberries not only improves the visual interest of the cake, but also gives a lovely bright pop of acidity to help cut through the unctuous caramel buttercream. In short, this is the dessert you should be bringing to your next cookout!
Looking for more cakes to try? Try my Rose Raspberry Pistachio Cake, My Ultimate Carrot Cake, or this Layered Lemon Cake with Lemony White Chocolate Frosting!
🍴Ingredients
You don’t need much to make this delicately alluring Strawberry Shortcake Angel Food Cake. Here’s some of what you’ll need to gather:
- All-Purpose Flour - Since there is so little flour used here, you should be able to use a cup-for-cup gluten-free AP flour replacement with no problem.
- Cornstarch - Angel food cake is high in both moisture and protein, and this pure starch does a magnificent job of soaking it all up.
- Egg Whites - While the pasteurized egg whites that come in a carton are popular for their convenience, I’m sorry to say they won’t do the job here. You’ll need fresh egg whites without even a speck of yolk to get the firm meringue you need to give angel food cake its structure.
- Cream Of Tartar - Found in the spice aisle, this acidic byproduct of wine-making is acts triple-time as an amazing stabilizer for egg whites, leavener for the cake, and helps prevent sugar from crystalizing!
- Unsalted Butter - Since this dulce de leche buttercream is made with just 2 ingredients, make sure you’re getting the best. Organic, grass-fed and/or cultured are all good qualifiers to look for.
- Coconut Dulce de Leche - Made with just a can of coconut milk, some brown sugar, and a pinch of salt, this dairy-free caramel recipe takes just 30 minutes to make. Feel free to swap in store-bought dulce de leche or cajeta to save time!
- Strawberries, Mandarin Oranges, & Raspberries - I love the color scheme and flavor of this fruit mix, but feel free to experiment!
- Demerara Sugar - With large, crunchy grains and a pleasant toffee undertone, demerara sugar is a delightful finishing sugar. Feel free to use turbinado (like Sugar in the Raw), light or dark brown sugar, or sanding sugar in its place.
⚒️ Equipment
There are a few pieces of equipment that you’ll need for this strawberry shortcake angel food cake:
- Small Tube Pan - This recipe will fit a 7"x4.5" bundt cake pan. It shouldn’t have any non-stick coating, or the batter won’t be able to climb the walls and achieve its full, lofty potential!
- Electric Hand or Stand Mixer with Whisk Attachment - Getting eggs to stiff peaks is no joke. Do your arms a favor and get a little electrical assistance.
- Metal or Glass Mixing Bowl - Glass or metal mixing bowls are much easier to keep clean, as plastic is porous and can hang onto oils. Oils are the death of meringue, so it’s best to stick to metal or glass here.
- Heavy-Bottomed Saucepan - Dulce de leche is a type of caramel, which has a tendency to scorch under less than ideal conditions. Heavy-bottomed pans help to distribute heat more evenly, which in turn helps to prevent scorching.
- Thermometer - My strawberry shortcake angel food cake gets the star treatment with a silky, dulce de leche-flavored Swiss meringue buttercream, which calls for cooked egg whites. A thermometer is key to getting this just right!
📖 Step by Step Instructions
When you look at it, this strawberry angel food cake looks daunting, but it’s not as difficult as it seems. You can also feel free to break this into more manageable chunks if you’re short on time!
Make Angel Food Cake
Step 1: Make meringue. Add the egg whites, vanilla, cream of tartar, and salt into the large bowl of your stand mixer. Attach the whisk attachment and whisk on medium speed until foamy, about 30 seconds. Very slowly, pour in the ½ cup of granulated sugar while the whisk of the electric mixer is running.
Step 2: Fold in flour mixture. Gently fold in ½ of the dry ingredients, attempting not to deflate the egg white mixture too much, while also taking time to properly mix the dry ingredients into the wets. Add the remaining half of the ingredients and continue folding until you do not see any more flour bits - make sure to check the base of your bowl!
Step 3: Bake. Add your angel food cake batter into your pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until the top of your angel food cake is no longer sticky.
Step 4: Flip to cool. As soon as you’ve removed the cake from the oven, immediately turn it upside down and invert it. Allow the cake to cool for about an hour on the cooling rack before continuing!
Assemble & Enjoy
Step 1: Run a knife gently around the edge of the pan and gently remove the cake. Use a serrated knife, gently slice the cake in half, and pipe coconut buttercream onto the bottom half.
Step 2: Add fruit and top with the second half of angel food fluffy cake. Pipe on another layer of buttercream, garnish with sliced strawberries, fresh berries and a bit of demerara sugar on the top of the cake before enjoying!
Looking to create delicious and homemade garnishes to elevate your creations? Next time try adding Sugared Flowers, Candied Rose Petals, Dried Orange Slices or Sugared berries!
⏲️ Substitutions & Variations
My strawberry shortcake-style angel food cake is a warm-weather dessert masterpiece just the way it is, but there’s always room for customization. Here are a few ideas to get you started when making this airy cake easy dessert recipe:
- Switch up the fruit. Strawberry shortcake gets all the press every year, but just about any berry or summer fruit would be delectable here! I used a mixture of strawberries, mandarin orange segments, and raspberries. Feel free to experiment with blueberries, blackberries, pineapple, or any other fruit that strikes your fancy.
- Use regular dulce de leche. While I love the slight tropical undertones of my coconut dulce de leche, the regular kind will work just as well. Feel free to grab a jar at the store, or make your own with a can of sweetened condensed milk and a pot of water.
- Swap in another flavor of buttercream. Mascarpone buttercream would be closest to traditional whipped cream, brown butter or almond buttercream would bring some salty-sweet-nutty vibes, or raspberry, mixed berry, or lemon white chocolate buttercream would all bring a touch of fruity freshness. YUM!
- Flavor your shortcake with almond or lemon extract instead of vanilla. That would be a lovely addition to juicy strawberries at a summer barbecue!
👩🏻🍳 Expert Tips
- Use egg whites from real eggs (not a carton). Unfortunately, the way carton egg whites are processed makes it impossible to whip into meringues.
- Separate the eggs while they’re still cold (the yolks are less likely to break), but let them come to room temperature before whipping. Warmer egg whites have a thinner viscosity, which allows them to whip much faster!
- Use a 3-bowl system to separate your eggs. One is for catching the white, one is for your leftover yolks, and one is for dumping the untainted whites into. If you get even the smallest bit of yolk in your egg whites, they’ll have too much fat to whip into the firm peaks we need. Accidents are bound to happen, but don’t ruin your entire batch! Dump each successfully separated egg white into your mixing bowl after you separate it. Then, if a yolk breaks, you can just set that egg to the side without having to start from scratch!
- Use very clean kitchen equipment to whip the whites. I go the extra mile and wipe my whisk and bowl down with a bit of lemon juice if I’m unsure about the possibility of any leftover oil lingering about.
- Use a thermometer to make the frosting. Make sure the egg whites for your Swiss meringue buttercream hit 170F. Invert your homemade angel food cake for a full hour to yield the lightest, dreamiest texture possible.
💭 Recipe FAQs
The OG southern way of making strawberry shortcakes actually uses lightly sweetened biscuits, because Shortcakes = Biscuits. (“Short” doesn’t mean stature in baking, rather refers to the high proportion of fat to flour. In a similar vein, think about buttery, crumbly shortbread.) It's the perfect summer dessert to celebrate strawberry season!
In this particular recipe, I’m using a popular swap by using angel food cake, an exceptionally light and springy type of sponge cake, which is the exact opposite of a real shortcake!
Angel food cake gets its name from both its ethereally white color and its airy texture. Some would also argue that it’s angelic because there’s no fat added.
The great dessert, Pound cake, on the other hand, is much denser as the name implies. The name originated because the original recipe called for a pound of each of its ingredients: flour, butter, sugar, and eggs.
More Frosted Cake Recipes
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Strawberry Shortcake Angel Food Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Small Angel Food Cake
- 50 g (¼ cup) Granulated Sugar
- 60 g (½ cup) All-Purpose Flour
- 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 7 Fresh Egg Whites
- 1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
- ¼ teaspoon Sea Salt
- 100 g (½ Cup ) Granulated Sugar
- Strawberries, Mandarins, Raspberries and Demerarra Sugar , for garnish
Coconut Dulche de Leche
- 1 13.5 oz can (1 ⅔ Cup) Coconut Milk
- 150 g (¾ Cup) Brown Sugar, packed
- Pinch of Salt
Coconut Dulce de Leche Buttercream
- 75 g (⅓ Cup) Egg Whites
- 150 g (¾ Cup ) Granulated Sugar
- 225 g (1 Cup) Unsalted Butter, room temperature
- 100 g (½ Cup) Coconut Dulce de Leche
Instructions
Small Angel Food Cake
- Preheat the oven to 325°F and sift together ¼ cup granulated sugar, flour, and cornstarch.50 g Granulated Sugar, 60 g All-Purpose Flour, 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
- Add the egg whites, vanilla, cream of tartar and salt into the bowl of your stand mixer. Attach the whisk attachment and whisk on medium speed until foamy, about 30 seconds. Very slowly, pour in the ½ cup of granulated sugar while the whisk is running. Continue whisking on high speed until you’ve reached soft, delicate glossy peaks.1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract, 7 Fresh Egg Whites, 1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar, ¼ teaspoon Sea Salt, 100 g Granulated Sugar
- Gently fold in ½ of the dry ingredients, attempting not to deflate the egg white mixture too much, while also taking time to properly mix the dry ingredients into the wets. Add the remaining half of the ingredients and continue folding until you do not see any more flour bits - make sure to check the base of your bowl!
- Add your angel food cake batter into your pan - make sure that you do not grease it! Greasing the tin makes it so the cake batter can’t grip onto the sides of the pan, which is imperative to it becoming a lofty tower of pillowy sweet goodness. Bake for 36- 40 minutes or until the top of your angel food cake is no longer sticky and it has lightly browned.
- As soon as you’ve removed the cake from the oven, immediately turn it upside down and invert it. If your cake pan does not have a lip that it can sit on, you can use cans to support the edges of the pan once it is inverted. Allow the cake to cool for about an hour before continuing!
- Run a knife gently around the edge of the pan and gently remove the cake from the pan using leverage from the disconnected base of the pan.
Coconut Dulce de Leche
- Place all ingredients into a saucepan, whisking to combine and heat on medium until the brown sugar has completely dissolved.1 13.5 oz can Coconut Milk, 150 g Brown Sugar, Pinch of Salt
- Once the mixture has been reduced to ¾ cup, you know that the dulce de leche is complete - this should take 25-30 minutes at medium high heat. Pour into a small container and allow to cool before using in the recipe, then store leftovers in the fridge.
Coconut Dulce de Leche Buttercream
- Add your sugar and egg whites to the bowl of a stand mixer and place over a saucepan of boiling water. Make sure that your bowl is not touching the hot water! Your goal is to simply whisk the egg whites and sugar together over a gentle heat until the sugar has completely dissolved, then attach your bowl back to the standing mixer. The temperature of your egg whites and sugar should reach 170°F75 g Egg Whites, 150 g Granulated Sugar
- Whisk the mixture starting at a low speed and gradually increase until soft peaks form and the mixture has cooled. Switch to using your paddle attachment, then start adding your butter bit by bit.225 g Unsalted Butter
- When you’ve reached the point where the buttercream is glossy and smooth, turn the mixer speed back to low.
- Add coconut dulche de leche, and mix on low until combined to complete.100 g Coconut Dulce de Leche
Assembly
- Use a serrated knife, gently slice the angel food cake in half and pipe coconut buttercream onto the bottom half. Add fruit and top with the second half of angel food cake. Pipe on another layer of buttercream, garnish with fruit and a bit of demerara sugar before enjoying!Strawberries, Mandarins, Raspberries and Demerarra Sugar
Video
Notes
- Use egg whites from real eggs (not a carton) to make the angel food cake. Unfortunately, the way carton egg whites are processed makes it impossible to whip into meringues.
- Separate the eggs while they’re still cold (the yolks are less likely to break), but let them come to room temperature before whipping. Warmer egg whites have a thinner viscosity, which allows them to whip much faster!
- Use a 3-bowl system to separate your eggs. One is for catching the white, one is for your leftover yolks, and one is for dumping the untainted whites into. If you get even the smallest bit of yolk in your egg whites, they’ll have too much fat to whip into the firm peaks we need. Accidents are bound to happen, but don’t ruin your entire batch! Dump each successfully separated egg white into your mixing bowl after you separate it. Then, if a yolk breaks, you can just set that egg to the side without having to start from scratch!
- Use very clean kitchen equipment to whip the whites. I go the extra mile and wipe my whisk and bowl down with a bit of lemon juice if I’m unsure about the possibility of any leftover oil lingering about.
- Use a thermometer to make the frosting. Make sure the egg whites for your Swiss meringue buttercream hit 170F. Invert your angel food cake for a full hour to yield the lightest, dreamiest texture possible.
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