Pan-Fried Angel's Food Cake

Okay, lets talk about Aunt Sandy as she is known. The Food Networks Sandra Lee.  A lot of people HATE her. They say she is not a cook because she uses, oh the horror, pre-packaged food. And OMG, she makes a cocktail with every show. The nerve of the woman.

Ina Garten on one of her recent shows makes a quick version of her Sticky Buns using, oh the horror, pre-packaged frozen puff pastry. No she did not make the dough from scratch. Did I mention the horror? And I seem to recall quite a few alcoholic drinks Giada's been making lately (she put alcohol in her morning coffee, the horror!). Don't get me started on how un-30-minute-like I find Rachel's meals. I also don't see folks who use pre-made sauces and such from Trader Joe's vilified like poor Sandra. I think she gets a lot more flack than is warranted.

Is Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade my favorite show? No. Do I want to make everything semi-homemade? No. Do I get ideas on how to make things maybe a bit faster when needed by watching this show. Sometimes. Do I mind her tablescapes? Actually that's my favorite part of the show. I get a heck of a lot more useful (and doable) table ideas from Aunt Sandy than I get from Martha Stewart (who, truth be told, I adore). I still have episodes of Sandra Lee's halloween show's on my DVR for reference next year.

The whole point is I, and a lot of folks in this country, don't always have the time to cook everything from scratch. And unless you do lots of product prep and meal planning on the weekends, getting a good quick meal on the table when you get home at 7PM at night and are dead tired isn't always an option. So yes, I, like many other folks in this country, rely on semi-homemade meals every now and then.

After all that, no, this is not a Sandra Lee recipe. In fact, the original dish came with a recipe for making angel food cake from scratch. But I'm still leery about those "beating till stiff" egg whites not to mention dealing with the leftover egg yolks (please no e-mails about all the things I can make with egg yolks, trust me, I have a file full). So, I cheated. I went to my local gourmet grocery store and bought one of their angel food cakes from the bakery. Wait. No, I cheated even more. They had packages of already sliced angel food cake for sale. So I bought  a package of those and used them in this recipe. Since the recipe was pretty dang good without baking the cake from scratch, if you have the time and confidence to make this using a scratch backed angel food cake, I think it would be awesome. But for a quick dessert on a Sunday night after spending all day shopping and cooking, this was dang tasty, even if it was semi-homemade.

This came from the December 2008 issue of Better Homes and Gardens. I altered the recipe to fit my needs. Originally we had only planned on eating two slices of cake each. We are really bad people cuz we ate more than that.

PAN-FRIED ANGEL'S FOOD CAKE

1 Angel Food Cake, or slices of Angels Food Cake
melted butter
Homemade or purchased jam or honey

Cut cake into slices (unless you buy the presliced kind :). Lightly spread cut sides of each cake slice with melted butter. In a non-stick pan, add buttered slices of angel food cake and cook over medium-high heat. Cook until golden brown (original recipe said 3 minutes but it was more around 2 for me). Turn slices over and cook the other side until golden brown (watch as the second side cooks faster). Transfer slices to serving plate.

While slices are cooking, heat some jam or honey.  After putting slices of cake on the serving plate, drizzle some of the jam or honey over the slices. If you really want to be decadent, sprinkle on some powdered sugar.

Note: I used pre-bought angel food cake slices. They were a bit heavier than what a normal angel food cake is like. I used Trader Joe's Organic Blueberry Preserves.

Note:  I melted the butter in the microwave and applied it with a pastry brush. I just melted the jam in the same dish.

My grocery store had a lemon angel food cake that I'm thinking would work great with some lemon curd drizzled over. Ummm...how about some melted chocolate? Yeah, this was good, quick, and easy to make and I'm sure I'll make variations of it many times over the coming years. Maybe I'll even make the cake from scratch sometime. 

This is going to be my entry into the last Weekend Cookbook Challenge. I'm disapointed that the Challenges are ending. I only recently became a participant and have had a great time going through all my cookbooks finding something that fits. This months challenge was leftover from February and had the theme of "Love". I'm entering this because I love to cook for Mr. L. I also love to eat. It's not from a cookbook but I thought it would work. Do check the I Like To Cook's Weekend Cookbook Challenge site for the round up after the 15th.

Comments

[Jeanette]

Oh the horror! What would I do without prepackaged food? I perish the thought. Sandra Lee is one of my favorites. And the Pan-Fried Angel's Food Cake is something I'd love to try.

[Veron]

I think the issue with sandra lee is how she uses the packaged foods. I personally don't care for sandra lee or rachael ray. I'm done with food network really. Their shows are great for those that are wanting to learn how to cook quick and lead busy lives, but I want to learn more about ethnic dishes and different cooking techniques. Food network doesn't have a good mix of shows anymore.

That being said, the pan fried angel food cake sounds great. Drizzled with chocolate and it would be so sinful. ;)

[Mrs. L]

Jeanette - This is a great little dessert when you've spent hours on the main meal and just want something quick to make.

Veron - I'm so with you on the Food Network. These days it's all challenges and such. I want to learn to cook, I want information about french food or Indian food or Japanese. Any kind of "teaching" show is on really early in the morning when I'm at work. I miss the old days of the food network :(. I try to catch the PBS cooking shows if I can because I learn so much more.

[chef barbie]

oh my god, this looks good.

while i find aunt sandy a tad annoying, i like what she does with most of the stuff. and just what the hell is wrong with teaching us a cocktail for every meal? right, nothing!

sometimes i feel less like a cook when i use prepackaged stuff. but you know what... we don't all have stay at home time, and limitless pantries.

btw, i tried making ina gartens short-cut sticky buns with the puff pastry. it was terrible. they all burned because there was too much butter. :(

[Nazarina A]

Everybody would love a little pan fried every so now and again and thanks for such an entertaining article. I love your quick snack!!!

I tend to agree with Veron about Food network! In order for this network to be able to compete in an international arena, they need to feature more cooks of a diverse culinary spectrum.
On the other hand, I do love Sandra for those whimsical table scapes

[Carolyn Jung]

I bet this is fab. My favorite parts of angel food cake anyway are the ones nearest the crust, which get that nice caramelization from baking. I bet pan-frying slices just ups the caramel-like goodness even more.

[Louise]

Ooo, this sounds a lot like an adult version of deep fried Twinkies. Yum!

[Mom]

Oh, I can have angel food cake with whipped cream but I can try this with my jams and jellies. I would love to have melted chocolate over it best though!

[grace]

i have to say, i can't tolerate sandra lee. some of her dishes, meh, but the woman herself? nope. and this is a fabulous thing to do to angel food cake. :)

[noble pig]

I agree and the reason Food Network has those shows is becuase most people cook that way! It's okay. People who cook from scratch would not watch. And I would take their jobs anyday of the week.

This sounds like an awesome dessert.

[Kevin]

Fried angel cake sounds great!

[Sara]

very good argument for sandra lee! we don't get her show here, but i have made a few dishes of hers and they have all been fabulous. thanks for taking part in wcc this month, i am sad it's ending too...

[peabody]

Angel food cake is one of the few things I buy from the store...it just takes too many darn egg whites to make at home. But I am one of those Sandra Lee haters...big time. Someone gave me her cookbook once and I lined the rabbits cage with it. :)
I am loving the idea of frying it in butter takes all the healthy part of it away.

[Jude]

This actually makes a lot of sense even if I went "huh?" when I first read the title. Should add a nice crisp texture. Interesting.

[Jan]

Mmmmmm....looks heavenly!

[foodhoe]

mmm that does sound awesome. but I need some more fat in there, maybe some ice cream or whipped cream...

[burgundywine]

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[HealthyJuices]

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[Term Papers]

They had packages of already sliced angel food cake for sale. So I bought a package of those and used them in this recipe.

[Amanda]

This is awesome! I just made it with leftover angel food cake and blackberry jam! Yummy!!

[Mrs. L]

Amanda - So glad you tried it and blackberry jam does sound yummy!

[viagra for women]

Great job. I'd never seen him before, so I went to YouTube after reading your article. The pulled-apart woman and the walking on water was enough for me. That sort of stuff doesn't freak me out per se, but it really bothers me that I can't figure out how they do it ...

[RamonGustav]

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[Music_master]

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[Antivirus_man]

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