a slice of chocolate angel food cake on a black plate with a red strawberry on a red doily with a black bowl with whip cream and a large angel food cake in the background with strawberries on top

This beautiful delicious easy Chocolate Mocha Angel Food Cake is light fluffy and rich in chocolate mocha flavor. A special dessert for a Valentine’s Day dessert or any special occasion. Angel Food Cake is an American invention. Light as a cloud that the Angels would sit on. Start with a box cake mix so you have a simple and delicious dessert.

Angel food cake tastes like you are cheating but you are eating a light egg yolk free sponge cake. No butter or oil, fat and cholesterol free. A perfect dessert if you are on low cholesterol and low-fat diet. My mother-in-law started me baking Angel Food Cake for dessert as she was trying to eat heart-healthy for my father-in-law.

Making the perfect light and fluffy Angel Food Cake can be a challenge but starting from a box cake mix, allows you to make one any time for a quick and easy dessert.

a whole chocolate angel food cake with whole strawberries on top, on a clear pink platter on a red doily with a black bowl with whip cream off to the left.

Why a Box Cake Mix for Angel Food Cake?

I do not know about you, but I love dessert. Dinner is just not complete without a little something. But as we all know eating dessert every night is not the best for a healthy weight. When I want just a little something I look to see what cake mixes I have in the cupboard.

Box cake mixes make life easy for busy parents. If you have a birthday for a little one and not planning a party you can mix up a birthday cake in a 13 by 9 pan with a simple buttercream frosting and there will be smiles all around.

The box mix does all the hard work of making a cake. You do not have to have special cake flour at home, no sifting, no guesswork on how to make sure it does not fall in the oven. The professionals have started you out with all the bases you just add the 3 basic pantry ingredients.

Most box cake mixes only require water, oil, and eggs. It is when you start thinking “outside the box” (pun intended) by adding in other fun ingredients that a box mix cake becomes a masterpiece.

You can get more creative and make a cake mix in round pans and you have a bakery cake right at home. There is a little more work but you can add your own touch with frosting and sprinkles and you are the star baker of the family.

While a from scratch angel food cake is not complicated it does take some special ingredients and working with egg whites if you do not do it right all your hard work can fail.

So why not start with the experts doing all the hard work for an Angel Food Cake, you just add in water. That is right, cake mix and water and you have a light fluffy eye-catching cake that is deliciously sweet but with no fat and low sugar.

How to Make Angel Food Cake Chocolate Mocha

As with all box cake mixes, you can include add-ins. For the Chocolate Mocha Angel Food Cake, I simply added dark chocolate cocoa powder and substituted some strong coffee for some of the water.

Just mix per the instruction on the package of the cake mix. Our family always used Duncan Hines cake mixes. My mother-in-law when we first were married told me Duncan Hines is all she uses. I have tried all the others and I always come back to Duncan Hines. The cake mixes work just as they say and they are always enough batter for a large cake.

I have found that Some of the discount brands make smaller cakes. This is just from my experience. You may have your favorite brand just use whatever you like.

a whole chocolate angel food cake with whole strawberries on top, on a clear pink platter on a red doily

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Supplies Needed:

You do need an Angel Food Cake Pan. We can talk later about other pans but for the classic Angel Food cake, you need the special pan.

I also have an empty wine bottle that I have had for years. I use the wine bottle to invert the cake right out of the oven so it cools upside down and it does not lose its fluffy shape. This Angel Food Cake Pan stands upside down on its own.

You will also need a knife to run along the edge of the pan when you are ready to release the cake when it is cooled.

Do not forget to always cut an Angel Food Cake with a good serrated knife.

How to Make an Easy Chocolate Mocha Angel Food Cake

Preheat the oven to 350°.
Put the rack in the oven on the lowest rack so the cake has plenty of room to rise.
Do not butter or grease the pan. Some of the cake will stick to the sides but that is part of the process to keep it up and fluffy.
In the bowl of a stand mixer add the cake mix, 1 cup of water, 1/4 cup of coffee, 1/4 cup of dark chocolate powdered cocoa.
Mix on low for 30 seconds.
Beat on medium for 1 minute. Do not over mix.
Pour the batter into the ungreased Angel Food Cake pan.
Place the cake pan in the oven and bake for 38 to 48 minutes. I always put my timer on for 38 minutes to make sure that it does not burn. If needed add a few more minutes.
Remove the cake from the oven. Let cool for 5 minutes and then invert onto a wine bottle or any bottle where the cake can rest on the neck so that it cools upside down.
When the cake is completely cooled take a sharp knife and run it on the outside of the pan and along the inner circle of the pan.
Gently tap the cake out of the pan.
Top with large strawberries and whip topping or whipped cream.
Always cut with a serrated knife.