Heavenly Raspberry Cream Angel Food Cake Dessert

 

INGREDIENTS

Raspberry Filling:

• 16 ounces (454 g) fresh or frozen raspberries, don't thaw if frozen
• ¼ cup (53 g) granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• ¼ cup cold water
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice, zest lemons before using juice – the zest is used in the cream layer

Cake and Cream:

• 12 cups cubed angel food cake (see note)
• 12 ounces (340 g) light or regular cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• ¾ to 1 cup half-and-half or evaporated milk (see note)
• ⅔ cup (141 g) granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract (optional – use for more lemon flavor)

Whipped Cream:

• 1 ½ cups heavy cream
• ¼ cup (29 g) powdered sugar

INSTRUCTIONS 

• For the raspberry filling, in a medium saucepan, combine the raspberries, sugar, cornstarch, water and lemon juice. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook until thickened, 5-7 minutes, stirring often. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature, or refrigerate until needed (can be made several days in advance).
• For the cake and cream layer, with an electric mixer (handheld or stand mixer), whip together the cream cheese, half-and-half or evaporated milk, sugar, lemon zest and lemon extract (if using) until smooth and creamy, 3-4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
• Place the angel food cake cubes in a large bowl and pour over the cream mixture (see note). Gently mix until the cake pieces are evenly coated.
• For the whipped cream, beat together the heavy cream and powdered sugar until soft peaks form (or use a blender to whip the cream and sugar together).
• To assemble, in a trifle dish, a large glass bowl or a 9X13-inch (or slightly smaller) dish, spread half of the angel food cake mixture. It's ok if it doesn't form a completely even layer.
• Dollop half of the raspberry mixture across the top (I don’t spread this layer). Then dollop half of the sweetened whipped cream on top and spread into a mostly even layer. Repeat the layers (angel food cake, raspberries, whipped cream). The layers don’t have to be perfect. It’s one of those beautiful messy desserts.
• Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours. Serve chilled.

NOTES

Raspberry Filling: the raspberry filling is intentionally tart to balance the sweetness of the cake and cream.

Angel Food Cake: you can use homemade, boxed mix, or storebought angel food cake for this recipe. The 12 cups called for in the recipe ends up being about 3/4 of a prepared box mix. Storebought and homemade cakes may vary in size.

You might want to start by adding only 9-10 cups of the cake cubes – and add more if there is a lot of extra cream mixture. The important thing is not adding TOO much cake or the dessert will be dry.

Half-and-Half: start with 3/4 cup half-and-half or evaporated milk and add more (up to 1/4 cup) if needed. Using light cream cheese will make the mixture thinner, so you may only need 3/4 cup of half-and-half or evap. milk; when I use full fat cream cheese, I use the full 1 cup.

Lemon Flavor: for extra lemon flavor, you could add dollops of lemon curd with the raspberry filling. I’ve also made a variation of this dessert using cubed lemon bread in place of angel food cake.