Unboxing and Baking Angela’s Famous Dominican Cake

Familia Kitchen mailed one of our favorite cocineras and bakers, Michelle Ezratty Murphy, a super special package from Brooklyn, N.Y.’s famous Angela’s Bakery. Its contents? Two boxes of the pastelería’s legendary Dominican Cake Mix: vanilla and chocolate for double-delicioso dessert DIY.

Since 2003, Angela’s Bakery has been a landmark in the New York City area for all seekers of authentic D.R. sweets and treats, most notably the shop’s Dominican cake—a defining dessert back home in the Dominican Republic. Bizcocho Dominicano is legendary for its uniquely airy texture and meringue icing. Founder and namesake Angela opened the shop after taking a class with a friend and finding she had a knack for making it. Today, the business is run by her daughter, Rose, who grew up working in the family store. ”Angela’s was my first job. I never worked anywhere else,” says Rose. ”I was 16, a kid. I worked the front, taking orders. I learned a lot about people!” Today, she is president and CEO of Angela’s, overseeing the bakery and its growing mail-order services.

”With baking, I think it has been an éxito because my mom only uses the best of the best ingredients in our cakes. She always says: I don’t buy anything that is on sale. She actually did an interview years ago and they asked her: What is it that makes your cakes so good? And she said: I don’t bargain: It’s all about the quality of your ingredients.’ My mom was like: ‘Lo más caro es lo mejor.’” Quality is quality, and can’t be bargained with. That means using the best butter, the best flour, the best eggs.

”You’ll see in the box you get that we include a card we send it out. We suggest the brands to look for in the store when you make our cake,” says Rose. ”We always say about my mom: ‘Le gusta lo bueno y le saca el jugo.’” Meaning: Angela likes the good stuff—and then uses every last bit of the goodness in each ingredient to get maximum results you can taste in each bite.

(For more D.R. deliciousness, check out the family-favorite recipes Rose shared with our Familia Kitchen community for two of her favorite Dominican dishes: mangú con los tres (actually dos) golpes and pork chops with arroz con guandules.)

Those of us who don’t live near Brooklyn are in luck. Dominican cake from Angela’s is just a click away, thanks to the bakery’s quick-ship packaged mixes with step-by-step instructions on technique and ingredients.

Meanwhile, back in Arizona, Michelle and her (offscreen) Puerto Rican husband Pat were more than ready to open the box, try their hand at baking—and sample both Angela’s Bakery traditional D.R. bizcochos. Check out how Michelle’s cakes turned out in her step-by-step video, below.

”Both cakes turned out beautifully,” Michelle reported. ”Everyone in my house loves chocolate, but I was especially excited about the vanilla Dominican cake, which called for pineapple juice in the mix and pineapple fruit topping. I used a little rum, too. The chocolate cake list of possible ingredients include orange juice: how amazing is that? I also really love how the boxes arrived with high-end flour mixes, ready to go. The instructions were clear and I knew exactly what kind of butter and other ingredients to buy and bake with. It made it so easy to have a little bit of Dominican heaven in my kitchen in Arizona.”