~ This easy Angel Food Cake recipe is refreshingly light and sweet, and so very simple (with just 5 ingredients)! Drizzle blueberry cream over warm angel food cake, toss on a handful of fresh berries, and sprinkle it all with a little lemon zest. Mmmmm … it’s truly special. We love to grill the cake in summer, but we’ve got directions for broiling and toasting it (year-round), too. ~

This Recipe Is:   •  Ready in 30 Minutes or Less  •  Includes Make-Ahead Steps   •  Vegetarian  •

So simple, but startlingly fantastic.

It’s the perfect way to transform plain angel food cake into something really memorable!

Why We Love This Angel Food Cake Recipe So Much

1) It’s Delicious!

Well, yes. Of course we love it because it’s just so darn goooood. That’s a given. Otherwise we wouldn’t have bothered to make it again (and again and again), or to share it with all of you!

2) That whole easy-peasy thing.

We’re talkin’ 5 ingredients and 15 minutes, tops.

3) Versatility.

If it’s summer and you’ve already got the grill fired up, it’s fun (and kinda impressive) to toss angel food cake on the grill until it’s toasty-warm with some of those pretty grill marks. A showy way to end a backyard summer dinner party!

But no worries if you don’t have the grill going, or if you want to make this in the dead of winter. (Which you probably will. We do!)

You don’t need the grill at all, actually – read on for deets about how to slip the cake under the broiler or even toast it.

In fact, the very first time I ever made this, I toasted it in our little countertop toaster oven. Works great! (Although you don’t get the flashy seared grill marks.)

4) It’s a Lighter Dessert Option (Perfect for Swimsuit Season!)

Angel food cake is naturally fat free and lower in calories than lots of other cakes and desserts. 

Plus, this particular Angel Food Cake recipe features protein-loaded Greek yogurt and all those beautiful fresh berries. 

Ok, ok … it is still dessert. But for sure, it’s a lighter, leaner, more swimsuit-friendly choice!

Oh, and while we’re having this big love fest for angel food cake in all its swimsuit-worthy glory, let me throw a couple more lighter dessert ideas at ya, that both start with angel food cake. I’ve also got terrific recipes for:

Quick and Healthy Angel Food Cake Dessert with Vanilla-Honey Oranges

Fabulous for holiday entertaining!

Get the Recipe!

Easy Tropical Angel Food Cake with Pineapple and Toasted Coconut

This creatively uses a 9x13 cake pan and some tropical accents (like pineapple and toasted coconut) to make a lighter, summer-y sheet cake that's great for picnics and potlucks!

Get the Recipe!

5) Make-Ahead Steps (Make an EASY Recipe Even EASIER!)

There are so very few steps in this recipe to begin with, but what little work you have to do can be almost entirely prepped ahead.

• You can mix up the blueberry cream sauce a day or two ahead and stash it in the fridge.

• You can also zest your lemon a couple hours before. Store it in the fridge, tightly sealed in a zipper baggie, so it doesn’t dry out.

• And we always start with a purchased angel food cake from the grocery store’s bakery (kind of the ultimate make-ahed step!), although you could bake your own if you really want to.

There’s nothing left to do at go-time but slice and warm your cake … and serve!

It’s great as a finale to a quick family dinner. But it’s also a hostess’ dream, because it’s really impressive but so low-maintenance!

How to Slice Angel Food Cake (Without Smashing It)

If angel food cake has one big problem, it’s gotta be that it’s such a smoosh-able dessert. But don’t worry! We’ve got tips to avoid that.

I’ve actually got an entire post detailing How to Cut Angel Food Cake, but here are the basic strategies:

With a Serrated Knife

My preferred technique for perfectly cutting un-smashed angel food cake is to use a long, sharp, serrated knife. (My father-in-law gave me this one, which you see in my photo below, and I adore it for breads, as well as for angel food cake.)

Using your serrated knife, saw back-and-forth slowly, without much downward pressure that could smash the cake. Just saw and saw, letting your knife do all the work with its back-and-forth motion. You’ll get a pretty, clean cut without any smooshing!

With an Electric Knife

Have an electric knife? You’ve probably got it stashed away, to be brought out just once a year for carving up the Thanksgiving turkey.

Well, here’s another reason to bust it out once in a while. Some people swear by electric knives for cutting angel food cake (although I usually don’t want to waste the time foraging around in the basement).

With a Cake Breaker

One last idea. Some people recommend using a cake breaker (like this one). I don’t like the rustic, messy edges that these create, but it’s another option to keep in mind. 

How to Grill Angel Food Cake (or Broil or Toast It)

So, as I mentioned before, you’ve got a few options for how to get your angel food cake all toasty and warm for this recipe.

Option #1)  Grill It!

The perfect choice in summer, when the grill’s already on, anyway. All you have to do is lay your cake slices directly on the grill grates for about 2-5 minutes per side.

What’s important here is that you don’t grill the cake over a high flame – it’s likely to burn, rather than toasting. We recommend grilling over a very low flame or on one side of a preheated grill where the flame has been turned off.

Option #2)  Broiling

This is the technique we use in our recipe for Angel Food Cake Dessert with Oranges.

Broil the cake wedges for just a couple of minutes per side, depending on how close your rack is to the heating element. Be sure, though, to keep the cake far enough away from the broiler’s flame or heating element that it doesn’t burn, which can happen if it’s too close.

And be sure to watch vigilantly, because once the toasting finally begins, it tends to progress pretty quickly. You want your cake to be warm and kissed with a little golden-brown on both sides. Yum!

Option #3)  Toasting

As I mentioned earlier, the first time I ever made this recipe, I used my little toaster oven. It’s another easy option if you don’t want to fire up your grill. Like with broiling, you only need to toast the slices of cake for a couple of minutes per side. Keep an eye on them, so they reach the perfectly toasted stage without getting too browned.

Ingredient Tips

Lemon Zest

A sprinkle of lemon zest is a refreshing, tart counterpoint to the sweet cake and berries.

But, there are two caveats here.

First, don’t go overboard and use too much zest, or it can taste a bit overbearing. You want just a pop of brightness without the lemon being really prominent.

Also, it’s important that you zest the lemon properly. You want to get just the very top, yellow layer of lemon skin. Don’t go too deeply into the underlying white pith (which is very bitter). My microplane zester (pictured above) has been doing a fantastic job for me for years and years now – I highly recommend it for this task!

Pssssst … and don’t sweat it if you’re a zesting newbie. Just take a peek at our post on How to Zest a Lemon (and Grate Other Stuff, Too!).

Vanilla Greek Yogurt

If you’re like me, you’re wondering if you can use a little shortcut here. Why bother mixing together vanilla Greek yogurt with blueberry jelly, when you could just buy blueberry Greek yogurt?!?!

Well friends, through all our testing, that was one shortcut we tried, and I can 100% tell you that substituting blueberry yogurt is nowhere near as flavorful and delicious as using our concoction! Not even close!

Blueberry Jelly

And speaking of blueberry jelly …

We always recommend choosing naturally sweetened, pure-fruit jellies.

The specific blueberry variety we found at our local grocery store to use for this recipe was Fiordifrutta Organic Fruit Spread Wild Blueberry, which is sweetened with apple juice. (This is what it looks like, if you want to try to track down this brand when you’re out shopping.)

Adjusting the Recipe Yield

Summer’s all about easy entertaining. And luckily, this angel food cake recipe can easily be doubled or even tripled for parties.

The recipe is written to use four 1 – 1 1/2 inch cake slices, which equals about 1/3 of an entire angel food cake. That’s the perfect amount for a family of four. (And hey hey – you can enjoy this angel food cake recipe THREE times before you’ve used up the entire cake. Looks like a yummy week at your house!)

But, you can also simply double the recipe to 8 servings by using 2/3 of the cake … or triple it to yield 12 servings by using up the entire cake. Just increase the toppings proportionately. Great for when you’re hosting a summertime cookout! 

We’re talking red, white and blue! A totally All-American way to serve this angel food cake dessert for all of summertime’s patriotic holidays!

Just add some red strawberries and raspberries in with the blueberries. Boom! Prettier than a firework … and way easier, too!