Having sweets from Dinner to Dessert...

For Christmas, I was given a new tube pan that I had been wanting. It comes in two pieces and is *not* non-stick. The last pan I had, worked fine and was non-stick, but I just felt I could get better results and height where the cake could climb up the pan better. Since you have to scrap the sides to loosen the cake anyway, the old pan was pretty ugly as the coating had started coming off from knifes and metal spatulas.

There are many varieties of Angel Food Cake recipes out there, some plain, or some with a lot of add-ins. Since it is such a light cake, we enjoy it most when it is served without a sauce or some sort of frosting. Most base recipes are pretty much the same, so I started there and made some changes to punch up the flavor. So today to test out my new pan, I made a Mocha Angel Food Cake.

This airy, tall, and fluffy cake has a slight hint of coffee, but the reason I used it was to heighten the chocolate flavor. I used dutch-proccess cocoa, as I find it adds a deeper, more rich flavor. I would suggest using superfine sugar because I think it mixes with the egg whites a little easier. You can use regular granulated, but if you have a food processor, take a few minutes and grind your own superfine! When you are ready to beat the egg whites, make sure that the bowl and beater are clean of any fat or grease as they will hinder the volume. Also, plan ahead and have your egg whites at room temperature to ensure they will triple in volume.

When cooled, you could dust with cocoa or powdered sugar, if desired, but I just placed a dollop of whipped cream and a chocolate covered espresso bean. To really let the flavor of this cake shine, simple is best when garnishing in my opinion!

The dish for dinner tonight, is something I would probably not usually serve. I couldn't figure out if I should do this as a dessert or just have a bit of fun at dinner. Grilled Peanut Butter and Banana Split Sandwiches are a fun way to make dinner a bit different. This is a pretty sweet tasting sandwich, so if you don't like things pretty sweet - you might not like this. When I was preparing this, I was not sure if this combination would be something we would even like. As we took our first bite, we kind of looked at each other and we both said "huh! this is actually pretty good!" I loved how the banana softened a bit and melded with the chocolate and how the sticky peanut butter melted into a sweet creamy base. It was also super quick to throw together, which is another plus for this!

Recipes
Mocha Angel Food Cake
Grilled Peanut Butter and Banana Split Sandwiches