Strawberry Angel Food Dessert

    The first thing I did in this recipe was make the angel food cake.  It needed an hour to bake, so I made it in STORM lunch so I could have enough time to make everything else.

    I started my cake by separating the egg whites from the yolks.  I put the whites in the Kitchen Aid and beat them until they were at stiff peaks.  I then added the cream of tartar, vanilla extract, and almond extract.  In a separate bowl, I combined the flour, sugar, and salt.  I sifted this mixture about 5 times using a flour sifter.  I then folded the egg whites into the bowl with the dry ingredients.  After everything was combined, I poured it into an ungreased 10 inch tube pan.  I put the pan into the cold oven and then turned it on to
325 degrees.  I let it bake for an hour or until the cake was golden brown.  This was the first time I have ever not preheated the oven to bake something.  I thought it was very odd.

    Once the cake was done, we were supposed to take it out and invert it.  But my partner did not know that and just set it out normally.  This caused our cake to fall some.  Fortunately, this didn't affect the flavor and it tasted just the same.  I then crumbled the cake into little pieces and placed it in a dish.

    Next, I began to beat the cream cheese.  I had to beat it for several minutes until it was nice and smooth.  Once it was lump free, I folded the whipped topping into it.  I spread this mixture on top of the crumbled up cake.

    For the topping, I used strawberries and a strawberry glaze.  I hulled the strawberries and cut them into quarters.  I then combined the strawberries with the glaze and added it on top of the cream cheese.

    I absolutely LOVED this dessert!  The angel food cake tasted delicious, it was fluffy and tasted sweet.  The cream cheese mixture added some creaminess to the dessert and helped balance the textures.  I liked the strawberries because they went well with the cake and the cream cheese.  I also really loved how my dessert looked.  I liked how you could see every layer of the dessert.  Putting it in the glass bowl was the right decision because it made it look very professional.