Just wondering if anyone had a South Beach friendly angel food cake recipe. I like to make this dessert on the Fourth that has angel food cake layered with pudding mixed with Cool Whip and topped with strawberries and blueberries. The rest of it could be fine, as long as I can make the cake diet-OK. I don't know if angel food cake would work with whole wheat flour or not.

Any suggestions? I've made the dessert in the past with pound cake, but that clearly has too much butter to make it acceptable on any diet!

Thanks!

Kara

Found this on the forum somewhere...thought I'd answer my own question!

Angel Food Cake (A Heavenly Holiday Cake)

From South Beach Diet Online's The Daily Dish 12/20/03: What could be more fitting for Christmas than a South Beach Diet-friendly Angel Food Cake? This delicious, Phase 2 recipe was contributed by online member Kathy from Sequim, Washington.

1 3/4 cups egg whites (about 12-14 large eggs), divided
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups Splenda, divided
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Carefully separate eggs, making certain there is no yolk in the egg whites (otherwise the whites will not beat into peaks). In a large bowl, let egg whites warm to room temperature, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Sift whole wheat flour and re-measure 1 cup. Then re-sift this flour along with 3/4 cup Splenda, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Repeat re-sifting two more times and set aside.

Beat egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar at high speed until soft peaks form. Add remaining 3/4 cup Splenda to egg white mixture a tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.

Either sift or gently sprinkle one-quarter of the flour mixture over the egg whites. Gently fold in with 15 under-and-over strokes. Repeat, turning bowl so that everything gets blended well. After last addition, scrape and double check that all the flour mixture is well blended into egg whites. You want to keep the egg white mixture as fluffy as possible, so be sure not to beat it down.

Spread batter into a clean, ungreased, 9- or 10-inch tube pan (angel food cake pan). Do your best to make certain there are no air pockets. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the edges of the cake just start to pull away from the pan. Invert the pan over the neck of a wine-type bottle; let it cool completely. Carefully remove from pan.
Angel Food Trifle

I'll be interested to hear how this turns out. I've made many an angel food cake in my life and thought the sugar was required to stabilize the egg whites when you beat them until stiff.
Let us know if it's fantastic or a flop.

Yes, Kara, let us know! I almost bought a pre-made sugar-free angel food cake to make a similar dessert for tomorrow, but if this is good, I'll make it instead.

I'm trying it out tonight if the kids get to bed on time, so I should be posting in plenty of time for you guys, since we're so far ahead on time!

Kara

Kara What do you use as the filling between the layers? I am "in charge" of dessert for tomorrow, so I am going to make this. You said Cool Whip and pudding?

I am not partaking in dessert, so I am just going to buy a premade cake.

If I remember correctly (I'll have to call my sister tomorrow), you make the pudding with just a portion of the milk and then stir in the Cool Whip. The angel food cake gets cut up in chunks and put on the bottom of the pan and then the pudding/Cool Whip mixture is put on that, and then cut up strawberries and blueberries on top of that with a little plain Cool Whip on top. I think I've made it with two layers as well.

I believe that's how it goes...

Kara

OK, status report. Cake is in the oven so I can't make a full report, but this is how things have gone so far...

*Used the egg whites in a box instead of separating out the eggs
*My collander is currently doubling as my sifter since we have limited kitchen supplies here, so I only sifted the flour once, and then I energetically whisked the flour, sugar, and spices instead of sifting them again. (It was a pain to sift through the collander!)
*Didn't have nutmeg so substituted allspice
*Used Equal instead of Splenda as I don't like the aftertaste of Splenda
*Wasn't sure when to add the vanilla since the recipe didn't specify, so I put it in after the sugar was incorporated into the egg whites, before they were at stiff peaks
*Had to bake in a disposable lasagna pan as my angel food cake pan is in storage in Cali and I wasn't going to buy a new one for just one cake

I'll update when the cake comes out of the oven.

Kara

This is the recipe I'm going to use once the cake is done (found it on-line but it's the same one my sister uses):

Old-Glorified Trifle
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup cold skim milk
4-serve pkg cheesecake-flavor fat-free instant pudding mix
8 oz fat-free cool whip, thawed
16 oz angel food cake
2 cups sliced strawberries (alt: 2 cups raspberries)
1 cup blueberries
1 cup sliced bananas ***(I'm not using bananas.)***
Instructions
Cut angel food cake into 1/2-inch cubes. Beat milk and pudding mix together 1-2 minutes with wire whisk, stir in thawed cool whip. In large glass or trifle bowl, layer half of the cake cubes, half of the fruit, and half of the pudding mixture. Repeat, ending with pudding mixture. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.

OK, this did not turn out to be the fluffy angel food cake of white flour and superfine sugar. It's not awful, but you can definitely taste the whole wheat flour in it and it is a bit denser than regular angel food cake (although this could be because I didn't sift the flour as much or bake it in the proper pan).

If I were to do it all again, I think I might just make the pudding/Cool Whip part and put the fruit over it, forgetting the cake entirely.

You might love it, though. Like I said, it's not awful. It's just not the same.

Kara

Kara, that's a shame the cake didn't turn out as good as you thought. I was having my doubts about it, and thinking I'd probably just make the filling and forget about the cake. You know, though, this might be good using our Black Bean Brownies recipes, or substituting white beans for the black in the recipe.
Thanks for letting us know how it turned out, though! I hope you had a nice July 4th picnic!

Thanks for posting the filling Kara. I am going to slice the cake into 3 layers and layer the filling inbetween each layer. Then I am going to try and make some pretty design on the top layer with the strawberries and blueberries.

Like I said, I am going to be lazy and get a store bought cake..... sugar and all since I don't plan to indulge. If it comes out at all Martha Stewart-ish, I will post a picture.

Tom says he likes the cake, so all is not lost!

Kara

Kara, I decided to make one this morning and it turned out pretty much like yours...definately not light and fluffy...it is "straight" on the top instead of domed and not "cracked" like other angel food cake and it only rose up about 3/4 of the pan instead of "overflowing" as the other ones do. It is cooling right now, so not sure how it tastes, but the batter was "grainy" when I tasted that, but had a good flavor to it. I added the zest of one lemon to it also. I think one of the problems is that ww flour is not as "soft" to mix in as the cake flour and you have to do more folding which "breaks" the fluffiness...
I sifted it about 4 times.

I think I might mix a little lemon zest in the cool whip when I serve it.

All this talk of cake is making me drool. I've been slipping quite a bit lately given all the pre-holiday partying that's been going on since the weekend, and today I'm hanging out with my two best friends (one of whom is the Martini Queen of the USA and the other has had gastric bypass and eats whatever she wants, just in teacup amounts). I'm going to TRY to be good. I really am. But I think I'll be going back to Phase I after this....

L

I bet whole wheat pastry flour would work better with a cake like this. I use it with the muffin recipe I used to make (before I realized that I would eat too many muffins and stopped making them).