Pinterest Challenge: 2-Ingredient Cake

In July, I played with Angel Food Cake + Lemon Cake Filling. While I liked it, and our guests liked it, it wasn't 100% successful in my house. At the beginning of August, I found a pin for Angel Food Cake + Blueberry pie filling. My husband is a much bigger fan of blueberries than lemon, so I figured I'd give it a try.

Except he was shopping with me and picked up a can of raspberries instead.

Which sounds better by me...

Fortunately, the recipe at The Frugal Girls calls for any kind of canned berry pie filling.

Excellent.

Mix the two ingredients, then bake for 30 minutes at 350.

First - what is it about angel food cake mix that immediately takes me back to having an Easy Bake Oven?
Second - I find stirring this tricky. Unless of course I want to wear a good percentage of the cake mix.
Third - I think my favorite part is the cool, mousse-like texture it gets once the two ingredients are combined.

For a few moments, I thought my ungreased 9x13 pan wasn't going to be enough room. I wasn't expecting the cake to rise so much (the lemon version I tried didn't rise at all). It's hard to tell here, but the cake was standing beyond the edges when I pulled it out. It did immediately begin to fall, which was a little bit of a relief.

The directions say to serve it warm, so I cut right into it.

These big pieces are for sharing with the neighbors. Okay, I had a big piece too.

I know this picture is a little blurry, but you can see just how much the cake fell anywhere it wasn't touching the pan.

The flavor is a very strong raspberry, exactly what you'd expect. And the flavor got positive reviews from all my tasters.

The texture, on the other hand, was a little weird. Half the tasters didn't say anything about the texture, even when asked specifically. Half the tasters immediately mentioned a difficult to describe sticky/chewy texture - particularly to the most browned top/edge pieces. To me, these pieces were somewhat like taffy or gum, though not as long lasting. The inner bits, further from the browning, are really good - in both taste and texture. But I'm not sold on the outer bits.

I did let it cook 32 minutes, and I do have a gas oven, so I suppose either of those could play a role in the texture of the outside of the cake.

Overall, I'm still on the fence. It's easy enough, and the flavor is good, but this texture business is throwing me. I'd like to try it again in an electric oven to see if that makes a difference, and I'll try it again in the morning to see if the two textures have gelled into one a little better with some extra time. But based off first impressions? I'll stick with the lemon.

Which raises an interesting question. What happens if you do half lemon, half raspberry? Hmm... I think I'm going to have to try that soon.


I took a lemon version to the family picnic this weekend, this time using only 3/4 the can of lemon pie filling. This time the lemon version fluffed up a little big during baking (not like the raspberry though) and came out a better texture as well. Everyone who tried a piece liked it and asked for the recipe, but compared to french silk pie, wonderberry pie, and Texas sheet cake, not that many people went for lemon bars - and I can't blame them!