Tropical Angel Food Cake

Hi sweet readers, I hope you are enjoying the summer.
This cake is an angel food cake that is baked in a 3 layers’ cake.

The filling in this cake is just magical, it is a tropical filling made with mascarpone, heavy cream, powdered sugar, vanilla, coconut flakes, pineapple, and strawberries, it is perfect for summertime.

I gave the cake a naked look and only dusted the top with powdered sugar, and one single strawberry. See the video below how to make the filling and fill the cake.

TROPICAL ANGEL CAKE

Angel Food Cake

• 1 1/4 cups ( 115 gram ) cake flour, sifted
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups ( 475 ml) egg whites, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar or freshly pressed lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups ( 340 gram) superfine sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste ( optional) 

Tropical filling

• 2 cups ( 500 ml heavy cream, cold
• 1 cup ( 240 gram) mascarpone, cold
• 1 cup confectionary sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 2 small cans of sliced pineapple
• 3/4 cup pineapple juice, from a can, cold
• 100-150 gram coconut flakes
• 1 cup (200 gram)  sliced strawberries

Directions for the Angel Food Cake Layers

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
• Grease the bottoms and side of three 8-inch round cake pans and line only the bottoms with parchment paper.
• Sift together the cake flour and salt, then set aside; see below how to make your own cake flour.
• Place the egg whites into the bowl and beat on low speed until foamy, about 30 seconds.
• Add cream of tartar or lemon juice; continue low-speed beat until soft peaks form, about 1 minute.
• Increasing the speed to medium adding the superfine sugar, one spoonful at a time. 
• Beat on medium speed until stiff peaks forms, this takes about 2 minutes, do not over-mix at this stage!
• All together from start to finish; the mixing should only take about 4 minutes’ total!
• Stop the mixer transfer the meringue mixture to a large, wide bowl.
• Add the vanilla bean paste, and then combine carefully with a silicon spatula.
• Sift ⅓ of the flour mixture into the egg whites and carefully fold in with a spatula. Repeat twice with the rest of the flour, folding very gently after each addition.
• Be careful not to deflate the batter too much by over mixing.
• Scoop the mixture into 3 x 8-inch round cake pans (I use an ice cream scoop for this),
• Then move a knife or spatula through the batter to remove any air pockets.
• Bake the cake in the middle of the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the cake is golden and springs back when lightly pressed.
• Remove the cakes from the oven and immediately turn upside down onto a cooling rack.
• Let cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes.
• Run a knife around the outer edges of cakes to remove it from the pan, remove the parchment paper.
• Transfer to a wire rack and flip the cakes over again to cool completely.

Directions for the tropical filling

• In a medium bowl add heavy cream, mascarpone, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla bean paste
• Whisk until fluffy, about 3-4 minutes
• Add pineapple juice and carefully blend it together.
• Add sliced pineapple and coconut flakes and carefully combine, if you like at this point you can add the strawberries as well or add them later as I do.
• Add the first layer of angel food cake on a cake stand.
• On each of the first two angel cake layers spread a large dollop of the tropical  filling, and spread evenly using a small offset palette spatula, (see video)
• Divide the sliced strawberries on top of each of these two layers, pressing it down slightly into the creams.
• Add some more tropical filling and add the next cake layer.
• When you come to the final layer just dust the top with some powdered sugar and finish it off with a single strawberry.
• Enjoy

Have a beautiful day you all, Love Manuela