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

[JOBS_frend]

Hi, I congratulate you on Merry Christmas!

[school_dubl]

Interesting site, always a new topic .. good luck in the new 2011. Happy New Year!

[Realestate]

Hi Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

[Rental]

Interesting site, always a new topic .. good luck in the new 2011. Happy New Year!

[Karen]

I was just searching the web for something different to do with leftover angelfood cake. What a great idea. Thanks for the ingo.

[quail hill homes for sale]

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.

[Denver Public Transportation]

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