Sunday, December 19, 2010

Grilled Angel Food Cake with Warm Wild Blueberry Sauce

Some desserts are just so incredibly rich and glorious that we know they must be oh so very bad for us, calorie laden as well as full of wonderful fat. Such desserts are Things We Crave and do our best to resist using self-righteous terms that speak of our supreme sacrifice, and ultimately the depth of our failure as we give in to temptation.

Grilled Angel Food Cake with Warm Wild Blueberry Sauce.

Words worthy of their own sentence in italics. Yes grilled cake, over coals. The grilling creates beautiful brown stripes of caramelized crispness on the outside while slightly softening the sugar spun insides of the cake. That alone would bring the simple cake to near perfection making it enough to swoon for, but topped with warm gently simmered blueberry sauce, Angel Food Cake is taken to a totally new level of beauty and deliciousness.
 
If I were a chef I would have found the perfect Angel Food Cake recipe and made it from scratch. However, I just like to prepare and eat good food, so I bought a grocery store made cake and make no apologies for it. Slice and grill 2-4 minutes on each side. How long depends upon how hot your coals are, do not put the cake slices too close to the coals and watch carefully so that the cake does not burn or flame on.

The sauce can be prepared ahead of time and then just reheated, or made fresh in about 10 minutes.

Warm Wild Blueberry Sauce

Ingredients -

2 10 oz packages of frozen wild blueberries
1/3 C orange juice
1/3 C sugar
2 T lemon juice
4 t cornstarch

Directions -

Combine blueberries, juice and sugar in a medium saucepan. Cover and gradually bring to a boil over medium high heat, stir every now and then. After it begins to boil, reduce heat and simmer for four minutes.

While it's simmering, combine the lemon juice and cornstarch in a small bowl. Add this to the berries after the four minute simmer concludes and return to a boil for a minute or two stirring often. Remove from heat and either use it right away, or cool and put in the fridge for reheating while the angel food cake is grilling. Can be made 3-4 days in advance.

I saved a surprise for the end. The calories in a typical slice of Angel Food Cake is 72. The calories in the sauce is a mere 67. Thus this beautiful impress the company dessert has only 139 calories. For a nutrition breakdown on the sauce, click here.

This sauce can be used on anything you want - pancakes, oatmeal, cakes, ice cream, cheesecake, or eat it out of hand with a spoon. Lovely and remember, blueberries are good for you. Don't use a wooden spoon that you love very much while stirring as it will turn very purple.

Enjoy this beautiful dessert in a mindful way.