While the grill is hot, toss on slices of pound cake or angel food cake. Serve them with grilled fruit and whipped cream or ice cream.

Here’s an easy red, white & blue dessert for July 4th, courtesy of McCormick: Grilled Angel Food Cake with Peppered Berries & Vanilla Cream.

With a luscious mascarpone topping instead of whipped cream and a touch of heat from black pepper, it’s memorable, festive and just right to celebrate the 235th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

> National Angel Food Cake Day is October 10th. There are 55 more cake holidays!

> A whole year of cake holidays (55+!).

> Angel food cake recipe with a strawberry glaze recipe.

> Angel food cupcakes recipe.

> The history of cake.

> The different types of cake: a photo glossary.
 
 
RECIPE #1: GRILLED ANGEL FOOD CAKE

Prep time: 15 minutes. Cook time: 5 minutes.

Ingredients For 6 Servings

 
Preparation

1. BEAT the cream, 2 tablespoons of the sugar and the vanilla in large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed, until soft peaks form. Gently stir in the mascarpone cheese. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

2. MIX the remaining 1/3 cup sugar and the cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Stir in the water and vinegar until well blended. Stir in the blueberries. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil over medium heat and boil for 1 minute. Pour into a medium bowl to cool slightly. Add the raspberries and pepper; toss gently to coat.

3. Grill the angel food cake slices over medium heat for 45 to 60 seconds per side, or until golden brown grill marks appear. To serve, spoon the berry mixture over each slice of cake. Top with a dollop of the mascarpone mixture.
 
 

[2] Mixed berries are more interesting than single varieties (photo © Green Giant Fresh).

[3] Rich and creamy mascarpone is a more festive topping than whipped cream (photo © Vermont Creamery)

Put up fruit for home and gifts. Photo
courtesy Washington State Fruit Commission.

This week’s idea: Throw a fruit preservation party, to preserve the delicious fruits of summer—or make your own jam.

Preserve lush summer fruits now to give later, as holiday gifts or wedding favors. Or, stock your own pantry and treat yourself to summer goodness when apricots, cherries, peaches and plums are no longer in season.

SweetPreservation.com is a website dedicated to the art of preserving fruit. There you’ll find:

Set a date and get ready to become the prince or princess of fruit preservation. It could become an annual event that your friends really look forward to!

It’s hibiscus tea, an herbal tea that’s our nominee for the tea to try this month (June is National Iced Tea Month).

Hibiscus has complex and vibrant flavors: fruity and floral notes with a tart, red fruit backbone—like a tart lemonade that you can sweeten to taste.

Well-chilled from the fridge and poured over ice, it’s a wonderful refresher.

And hibiscus is a superflower, full of potent antioxidants that do the body a lot of good.

Colorful, tasty and very healthful: hibiscus
iced tea. Photo courtesy Republic Of Tea.

Refreshing mint lemonade. Photo by
Petrelos | IST.

With the introduction of large juice extractors to the consumer market—in which any fruit or vegetable can be converted to juice—our old juicer is now called a “citrus press.”

Call it whatever you want—we love ours. It extracts the last drop of juice from fresh lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruits with barely a press of the fruit to the reamer.

Most people we know don’t have an electric citrus press. They use a manual citrus press. (Take a look at this unusual one that looks like a lovely bird sculpture, and gets rave reviews even though it looks like it won’t work.)

But the most dazzling citrus press has got to be the sexy new electric Krups Citrus Press. We’ve never called an appliance sexy before, but this stainless steel beauty is doing its best to seduce us into buying it and discarding our faithful old workhorse juicer.

Traditional lemonade and limeade are even more refreshing with the addition of fresh mint.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PRESS the juice from lemons.

2. COMBINE the mint, sugar and 1/2 cup boiling water in a pitcher or large bowl. Stir until the sugar dissolves (we use a whisk).

3. STIR in lemon juice, rind and 5 cups water.

4. CHILL and serve over ice.
 
 
LEMONADE TIPS

The recipe is courtesy of EatWisconsinCheese.com, a great source of recipes with all kinds of dairy products produced in our second largest dairy* state.

*The top 5 dairy producers, by total milk production, are California, Wisconsin, Idaho, New York and Pennsylvania.

CHILLED RASPBERRY YOGURT SOUP
Makes 4 six-ounce servings.

Ingredients

1. PLACE all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

2. GARNISH with additional yogurt, blueberries and/or raspberries, if desired.

3. SERVE immediately, or cover and refrigerate for up to 4 days.

 
MORE FRUIT SOUP RECIPES