Chocolate Angel Food Cake

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So simple. This delicious recipe for chocolate angel food cake, chocolate frosting, and chocolate shavings comes together with just 7 ingredients.

Naturally healthy-ish. Chocolate angel food cake certainly isn't “health food,” but it is a great recipe if you're looking for a lighter dessert that's still insanely chocolatey.

So chocolatey. Chocolate lovers will love this chocolate angel food cake. It has cocoa powder, chocolate almond milk, chocolate ganache, AND chocolate shavings. So. Much. Chocolate.

Dairy-free. As far as I can tell, Betty Crocker angel food cake mix is dairy-free, so I used almond milk and dairy-free chocolate to keep the entire recipe dairy-free.

Really easy dessert. Chocolate angel food cake is pretty much a dump-and-mix kind of recipe. Even the chocolate ganache is really easy -- you can make it in the microwave!

Dark cocoa powder. Dark cocoa powder makes this cake intensely chocolatey. But you can use regular unsweetened cocoa powder instead.

Instant espresso powder. Espresso powder adds intensity to the chocolate flavor in the angel food cake — and doesn’t taste like coffee. As a substitution, you can use instant coffee crystals or coffee in place of all or some of the chocolate milk.

Chocolate almond milk. Chocolate almond milk, instead of the water called for on the cake mix box, amplifies the chocolatiness in this chocolate angel food cake. You can use any kind of chocolate milk.

Ganache

Almond milk. You can substitute the unsweetened vanilla almond milk with chocolate almond milk.

You can also make the ganache with dairy milk, but you will likely need to add more chocolate, use less milk, or both. When I tried this substitution with 2% milk, I ended up using ⅓ cup milk and 1 ½ cups of chocolate chips.

Chocolate chips. I use Nestle allergen-free dark chocolate chips.

Step 1

Heat oven to 350 and move the bottom oven rack to the lowest position so you have room for your angel food cake pan.

Step 2

Add the angel food cake mix, cocoa powder, and espresso powder to a large bowl. If the cocoa powder has lumps in it, sift it in or whisk all the dry ingredients together. Add the chocolate almond milk.

Mix with an electric mixer on low speed for one minute, or until the dry ingredients have been moistened, then on high speed for a couple of minutes.

The batter may not look as light and fluffy as you are used to with typical angel food cake batter. That’s okay.

Step 3

Place the batter into an ungreased angel food cake pan, then run a knife through the batter to remove any air bubbles. This step will prevent air pockets in your baked cake.

Place the cake pan on the lowest oven rack and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the cracks on the top of the cake are dry and the top springs back when you lightly press on it. The internal temperature should be around 205.

Step 4

Immediately invert pan to keep the cake from collapsing. If your angel food cake pan doesn't have feet, you can balance it on a glass bottle, funnel, or something that’s raised. It needs to stay upside down while it cools.

Let the cake cool completely in the pan, about two hours. Once the cake has cooled, remove it from the pan.

Don’t worry if you think the cake is stuck in the pan -- it's not. To remove the cake from the pan, start by running a thin knife around the sides of the pan, then separate the two pieces of the pan.

Run your knife around the bottom of the cake and around the center hole to loosen the cake from the removable bottom. Catch the cake in your hand as it releases from the pan, flip it over, and set it on a wire rack or serving plate.

Step 5

Make the dairy-free ganache. Place 1 cup chocolate chips and ½ cup unsweetened almond milk in a microwave-safe dish. Warm in the microwave on high for one minute.

Step 6

Let the milk and chocolate sit for about a minute, then stir vigorously until the chocolate and almond milk have incorporated into a smooth and creamy ganache.

When the ganache is warm, it will be too thin to drizzle, but it shouldn't be runny. If it's too watery, add more chocolate to thicken it. It will continue to thicken as it cools.

Step 7

Once you have achieved your desired drizzling consistency, let the ganache cool to room temperature.

Step 8

Make the chocolate shavings. Prepare a pan or plate with wax paper or parchment paper so you can catch and move the chocolate shavings.

Hold a bar of room temperature chocolate in one hand and a vegetable peeler in the other, then use the vegetable peeler to shave along the bar of chocolate.

If the chocolate is warm, you can achieve longer ribbons or curls. If the chocolate is cool or room temperature, you'll have small, splintered shavings.

Set the chocolate shavings in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them.

Step 9

Once the ganache has cooled to room temperature, drizzle the chocolate ganache all over the top of your chocolate angel food cake, letting it drip down the sides.

This recipe makes a generous amount of ganache. You can use any leftovers on ice cream or fruit :).

Step 10

Sprinkle the chocolate shavings over the top of the cake. Store any leftover chocolate shavings covered in the refrigerator or freezer.

Store unfrosted chocolate angel food cake covered in plastic at room temperature. Angel food cakes frosted with ganache should be covered and stored in the refrigerator.

To freeze your angel food cake, I recommend freezing it before frosting it with the ganache.

If you have the freezer space, you can certainly freeze the whole cake. Just wrap it a couple of times in plastic wrap, then foil, and store it in the freezer for a couple of months.

You can also freeze individual slices of cake. Wrap them in plastic and place them in zip-top freezer bags.

To defrost your cake, let it sit at room temperature.

Taking your chocolate angel food cake to-go? This handy cake carrier is tall enough to cover even the loftiest angel food cakes.

To avoid lumps of cocoa powder in your chocolate angel food cake, sift in the cocoa powder or whisk it into the dry angel food cake mix.

After placing the angel food cake batter into the cake pan, run a knife through the batter to remove any air bubbles that could cause air pockets in the cake.

Always use an ungreased tube pan when making any kind of angel food cake.

Because angel food cake is so delicate, gently cut it with a serrated knife, using a sawing motion.

No, not at all! If you don’t have an angel food cake pan, you can still make angel food cake.

You bet! After you remove it from the pan, just cover it in plastic and store it at room temperature. If it’s frosted with ganache, store it in the refrigerator.

Yes!

One of the tests we rely on for plain angel food cake is the deep golden color. But we can’t lean on that with a chocolate cake. So look for dry cracks on the top of the cake.

Let the angel food cake cool completely in the pan before removing it. Otherwise, it could stick.

Wondering what else you can put on angel food cake?

• A dusting of confectioner's sugar
• Powdered sugar glaze. Just mix 1 cup powdered sugar and 2-3 tablespoons milk, water, or chocolate milk.
• Cream cheese glaze
• Whipped honey ricotta and fresh berries
• Yogurt and fresh fruit
• Bananas foster imposter. Melt butter and brown sugar in a pan, add bananas, and cook until the bananas are soft and the brown sugar mixture is bubbly. Top with ice cream.
• Strawberries and whipped cream
• Whipped cream with chocolate shavings

Strawberry Angel Food Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze tastes like strawberries and cream!

Pumpkin Angel Food Cake is filled with warm and cozy spices and topped with a cinnamon drizzle.

Pumpkin Angel Food Cake Roll with Lemon Cream Filling is as stunning as it is easy to make.

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