Heavenly Cranberry Orange Angel Food Cake Dessert
In this cranberry orange angel food cake dessert, cream-covered angel food cake cubes are layered with a sweet cranberry-orange filling. It is an elegant dessert and so delicious!
This Heavenly Blueberries and Cream Angel Food Cake Dessert is one of the most popular recipes on my website. Say hello to this new cranberry-orange version! It is just as tasty and such a festive dessert for the holiday season.
How to Make Cranberry Orange Angel Food Cake Dessert
This simple dessert has four different components. Each one is prepared separately and then layered together for a stunning and crazy delicious dessert.
- Angel food cake: Cut a baked and cooled angel food cake into 1-inch cubes. Using a serrated knife makes easy work of this task.
- Cream mixture: Mix cream cheese (I promise it’s not overly cheesecake-y in flavor!), sugar, fresh orange zest, and evaporated milk until thick and creamy. Toss this mixture with the angel food cake cubes until they are evenly coated.
- Cranberry orange filling: Simmer fresh cranberries with sugar and orange juice until the cranberries pop and the mixture is slightly thickened. Yep…we’re basically making homemade cranberry sauce and using it in dessert! (Brilliant concept.)
- Whipped cream: Whip heavy cream with a bit of powdered sugar until soft peaks. You’ll use this to layer in between the other components.
Key Ingredients for This Easy Dessert
- Angel food cake: Store bought already-baked angel food cake, homemade angel food cake or a boxed mix angel food cake can be used in this recipe. Store bought angel food cake and this homemade angel food cake may produce less cake cubes than a cake mix angel food cake. When I make this with an angel food cake mix (baked and cooled), I usually use about 3/4 of the cake cubes. Add cake cubes JUST until they are all evenly coated with a thick layer of cream. Too many cake cubes and it might dry out (especially if it is made in advance).
- Cream cheese: This helps thicken the cream mixture, but it doesn’t give an overly cream cheese/cheesecake flavor.
- Evaporated milk: Half-and-half can be subbed in for the evaporated milk.
- Orange zest: Fresh orange zest is used in the cream mixture. It adds a delicious light orange flavor that compliments the flavors in the cranberry mixture.
- Cranberries: Use fresh or frozen cranberries (I do not recommend using dried cranberries).
- Sugar: Granulated sugar is used in the cranberry sauce, which is necessary to balance the tartness of the cranberries. It is also used in the cream mixture.
- Orange juice: This ingredient is simmered with the cranberries. Fresh or bottled orange juice can be used.
- Heavy cream: Cream is whipped together with powdered sugar and layered with the other ingredients.
To assemble, layer the cream-covered angel food cake cubes, followed by the cooled cranberry orange sauce and the sweetened whipped cream. Repeat the layers. And you’re done! It’s so easy…AND, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Talk about my kind of dessert.
A Few Additional Tips
At this point in the blog post (which very likely most of you have skipped over 😜), I really hope you have already gained enough information to understand why this dessert needs to be part of your life.
Here are a few additional, helpful tips:
- Make-Ahead Tips: This dessert can be assembled, covered, and refrigerated up to 24 hours in advance. Make sure to really watch the ratio of cream to cake cubes – if making 18 to 24 hours ahead of time, you might want to add slightly less cake cubes so the dessert doesn’t dry out as it rests in the fridge.
- Increasing the Recipe: The recipe can easily be doubled or tripled for a large crowd. Additionally, you can double the amount of fruit filling (just for a single batch) if you like a lot of fruit in the layers. Many people have commented on the blueberry version that they do that.
- Flavor Variations: We already have a blueberry version and a raspberry version, and I firmly believe the fruit options for this angel food cake dessert are nearly endless. Adding lemon or orange curd in the layers with the fruit would be spectacular. Different fruits can be used in place of the cranberries. Have fun with it!
This cranberry orange angel food cake dessert is heaven on a plate, truly. Haphazard, semi-messy layers all gloriously scooped onto a plate with zero pretentiousness. That’s my kind of heaven!
I feel like layered, creamy desserts like this are ALWAYS met with rave reviews. Even I have been known to bypass a decadent, rich chocolate dessert in favor of a lighter, fruitier, fun dessert like this…and if that isn’t a Christmas miracle, I don’t know what is. I hope you love this recipe!
Heavenly Cranberry Orange Angel Food Cake Dessert
Ingredients
Cranberry Filling (see note):
- 12 ounces (340 g) fresh or frozen cranberries
- 1 cup (212 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup orange juice
Cake and Cream:
- 1 angel food cake cut into 1-inch cubes (see note)
- 16 ounces (454 g) cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1 tablespoon fresh orange zest
- ⅔ cup (141 g) granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup half-and-half or evaporated milk
Whipped Cream:
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons (22 g) powdered sugar
Instructions
- For the cranberry filling: In a medium saucepan, combine the cranberries, sugar, water, and orange juice. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook until the cranberries have popped and the mixture is slightly thickened, 6 to 8 minutes, stirring often. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature – it will thicken more as it cools.
- For the cake and cream layer: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using an electric handheld mixer, add the cream cheese, orange zest, and sugar. Mix until well-combined and creamy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the half-and-half or evaporated milk. Mix until smooth and well-combined, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add angel food cake cubes to the bowl with the cream mixture and gently fold together until the cake cubes are evenly coated. IMPORTANT: Read the note below – you may not want/need to use all of the cake cubes, depending on the size of the cake. Add cake cubes until they are all thickly coated with a layer of cream.
- For the whipped cream: Whip the heavy cream and powdered sugar together until soft peaks form.
- To assemble: In a trifle dish, a large glass bowl or a 9X13-inch (or slightly smaller) dish, spread half of the angel food cake mixture. Dollop half of the cranberry mixture across the top and lightly spread and follow with half of the sweetened whipped cream. Repeat the layers. The layers don't have to be perfect. It's going to be a little haphazard and messy. Don't stress.
- Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours. Serve chilled.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
I made this recipe with the blueberries and liked it so thought I would try the cranberry version. I’m not a huge cranberry fan but it is so yummy! I brought it to our church’s Christmas dinner and it was very popular! Love, love, love your recipes, Mel!
Thanks for taking the time to let me know how it turned out for you, Becky! Glad it was a hit!
Hi Mel-
How do you think this would taste with your chocolate angel food cake? I love chocolate and orange, but not sure about the cranberry and chocolate…I just need a baker’s opinion before I make the angel food cake!
Hi Kathie, to be honest, I think this recipe is best with a regular angel food cake, but let me know if you end up experimenting with the chocolate; I’d love to know how it goes!
I can always find something I love in your collections and this once again was a hit! I made it for a holiday choir brunch and everyone loved it, even a local restaurant owner gave high praise! I made it in a trifle bowl and decorated with orange slices along the bottom outside of the bowl and some fresh cranberries, orange twist and rosemary sprigs on the top so it was not only “heavenly” it was beautiful too. I did opt to whip up an extra cup of cream to get the last layer full but that was no trouble.
Oh my, Stephanie – your dessert sounds so beautiful; I love those extra touches. Thanks for sharing!
Mel, this is so good! We are big fans of the original blueberry version of this, but this is next level! The orange cream with the cake reminds me of an orange creamsicle- ahh to die for! And then with the tart and sweet cranberries, perfectly balanced! I made this for a Christmas gathering and it got rave reviews. I like that it’s a Christmassy dessert but feels a little lighter than other Christmas desserts. Thanks for another winner!
I’m so, so happy to read your comment. Thanks, Mady! I was really hoping people would love this dessert – it really is so many delicious holiday flavors wrapped up in one tasty dessert. Thanks for taking the time to let me know!
This was really good fancied up as a trifle for appearance’ a party. Cranberry lovers will love this! Thanks for another great recipe!
Thanks, Sam!
Oh, Mel- you did it again! This is fabulous! I’m here for unpretentious desserts all day long. I made your angel food cake for the first time and it was delicious! That orange cream is amazing
Amen to unpretentious desserts (aren’t they often more delicious than the almost-too-gorgeous-to-eat ones??). So happy you loved this one – thanks for letting me know!
I enjoyed making this. I used a 3 qt baking dish as the 9×13 seemed too big for the amount of cake cubes I had. I used a store bought rectangular 10 oz angel food cake. The cranberry orange mixture was more liquid than I expected but it helped to moisten the cake cubes. I think the orange zest for the cake cube cream is very important. I recommend a microplane zester.
This was very easy to make and everybody oohed and aahed when I brought it to the table. It was gone in a flash.
Thanks so much for the detailed comment, Sarah – very helpful! Glad it was a hit!
Could Cool Whip be substituted for the sweetened whipped cream?
You could definitely try that – should work fine.