When it comes to cake, I’m usually more into the frosting than the cake. Except for angel food cake. It’s sweet and airy and there’s no questioning its namesake. Straight from heaven.
The only thing better is angel food cake rolled up with a light and fluffy filling. Perfection.
An angel food cake roll is a beautiful presentation that can turn a boxed cake mix into an elegant dessert that looks like you slaved for hours. And a great option if you don’t have the real estate to commit to a gigantic angel food cake pan.
The first time I make a cake roll, my only confidence was that disaster was imminent. Turns out, it was super cinchy and even I couldn’t screw it up.
Here’s how it’s done.
Preheat the oven and prepare the angel food cake mix as directed on the box. Or if you feel like cracking and separating a dozen eggs and whipping the whites for 3 seconds short of an eternity to make the cake from scratch, well, you do you.
For this recipe, I added lime zest to the cake mix.
Prepare a 10×15 sheet pan with parchment paper, folding the paper up the sides. Pour mixture onto prepared pan.
Bake 15-20 minutes, or until it’s lightly golden brown and springs back when you touch it.
Rest pan on a rack and let it cool for about 5 minutes.
In the meantime, generously sprinkle powdered sugar onto a kitchen towel that is slightly larger than the cake. If this feels weird to you, you are doing it correctly.
In one confident swoop- you got this- invert pan, placing cake onto the towel.
Gently peel parchment paper off of the cake.
Fold the long end of towel over the cake and roll it up. Place it on a rack and let it cool completely.
When the cake has completely cooled, unroll the cake and it is ready for your filling.
This time, I used the filling ingredients in this delicious Key Lime Coconut Angel Food Cake from Betty Crocker:
- ⅓ cup lime juice
- 1 teaspoon lime zest
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 12 oz. tub whipped topping
Spread the filling within ½ inch of the edges.
Roll it up.
You will obviously put your cake on a platter that is larger than the cake itself, unlike what I did here.
Use remaining filling to frost the cake.
Top your cake with coconut, nuts, sprinkles, chocolate chips- whatever jibes with your flavors.
Chill for several hours or overnight. Unless you have some crazy other way to cover this, you will probably need to employ the toothpick-plastic wrap-tent tactic.
Slice, serve, enjoy, repeat.
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