This year was the first time I hosted Easter dinner for my family. Sure, I've cooked big meals for my family before, but I've never hosted a holiday, so I was a little nervous. Since we had church in the morning I knew I had to come up with some meal options that I could prepare ahead of time and then finish before dinner. The dinner menu was easy. We had twice-baked potatoes and salmon because they are favorites of my fiancee and I knew my family would love them too. But it wasn't until I was wandering aimlessly around the grocery store that I figured out what to serve for dessert: angel food cake with an orange-mango filling and strawberry sauce. I was worried that my relatives would poke fun at me for taking the easy way out, but it could not have been a more perfect springtime dessert and I only received compliments.
Ingredients:
1 store-bought angel food cake
2 mangoes
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
splash of orange juice
4 cups of strawberries, hulled and sliced
sugar to taste (I used 1/4 cup)
For the orange-mango filling:
If you're lucky enough to live in a warm climate you might have actual ripe mangoes in your grocery store so you can get away with using your blender for this. If you're like me and live in the northeast you may have some under-ripe mangoes on your hands and you'll probably need a food processor. Peel the mangoes and remove as much of the flesh as you can from the seeds. Blend/process the mango, orange marmalade, and orange juice. I recommend not adding all of the mango at once so you have a better control over the consistency. You're looking for the filling to be like a pudding.
For the strawberry sauce:
Cook the strawberries and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until they break down and you have a nice runny sauce on your hands. Allow this to cool before serving.
Assembly:
Slice the cake twice horizontally to give you three layers of cake. As you can see I'm not so great at cutting in a straight line, but it still tastes the same. Spread the orange mango filling between the layers. When you're ready to eat cut the cake into individual servings and top them with the strawberry sauce. Yum!
So what's your favorite way to dress up an angel food cake?
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