Angel Food Cake

With all of the fresh fruit available now, an Angel Food Cake is the perfect thing to pair them with…. This recipe was easy & so much better than the store-bought ones!

From Bon Appetit in  the BA Best collection, I found the recipe simple to follow. It worked perfectly…I was kind of worried it might fall, or not be moist, but happily, I was worried for nothing!

The recipe calls for cake flour which I was out of. I looked on the internet & found out how to substitute all purpose flour for cake flour.  Here it is…... use 1 cup of all-purpose flour….. take out 2 tbsp of the flour & replace it with 2 tbsp corn starch…then sift this 5 times.,,yes  5 times.. I thought it seemed a bit much, but this worked in my cake so now that is what I will do when I don’t have any cake flour.

This cake was sweet, cloud-like & perfect! You should give it a try. I served this cake with the Kahlua Vodka Ice Cream Cake

Here is the recipe from Bon Appetit

Angle Food Cake

Ingredients

1 cup cake flour *** you can substitute all-purpose flour for cake flour…see paragraph above

2/3 cup icing sugar

1 3/4 cups egg whites…12-14 eggs  *** I measured the egg whites & i used 13 eggs

1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp kosher salt

2/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice *** I used fresh

2 tsp vanilla

 

Method

Preheat oven to 325f

One 10 inch tube pan …ungreased, with a removable bottom *** my pan didn’t have a removable bottom so I was lucky it came out of the pan so nicely!

1. Whisk the flour with the icing sugar into a bowl & set aside
2. Using a mix-master, with the whisk blade, beat the egg whites, cream of tartar & salt on medium-low speed to break up the egg whites, which the recipe says takes about 30 seconds
3. Increase speed & beat until the whites are very foamy & form soft peaks, about 4 to 5 minutes longer.
4. Gradually add the sugar & beat until stiff peaks form. Be careful not to over-beat the whites. The whites should be shiny & stiff.
5. Beat in the vanilla & lemon juice
6. Remove the bowl from the mixer
7. Sift 1/3 of the dry ingredients over the egg whites. Return the bowl to the mixer & beat on low-speed until the dry ingredients are incorporated with the whites.
8. Remove the bowl again, sift 1/2 of the remaining dry ingredients over the meringue mixture, return to the mixer & beat on low speed until mixed
9. Do the same one more time, remove the bowl from the mixer & sift the final amount of flour mixture over the meringue & beat slowly until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated into the batter. Using a spatula, gently check the bottom of the mixing bowl to make sure that there isn’t any flour on the bottom
10. This next step was different then I have seen before but I did it!  Take 1/2 of the batter & put it onto the ungreased tube pan. Use a spoon and push the batter around the bottom of the pan into the corners & up the sides & centre tube. This helps eliminate air pockets..
11. Put the remaining cake batter in the pan & smooth out the top
12. Bake the cake for approximately 35 – 40 minutes. Use a cake tester & when it comes out clean your cake is done…the top will be cracked, puffy, browned & it will spring back when you gently push on it
13. When the cake is finished baking, it has to cool upside down. So there are a couple ways to do this. You can invert the cake pan & balance it on a wine bottle by placing the centre part on the neck of the bottle…or if you pan has feet you can just turn the cake pan over & have it stand on the feet , OR this is what I do. I get 4 cups or glasses that are the same size & I balance the edges of the cake pan on these…the rims of the cups are just under the rim of the cake pan

Cool the cake like this until it is completely cool, at least 1 hour. I kept feeling the pan after the hour & if it felt warm I waited.  When cool, turn the cake right side up. Use a knife or thin metal spatula to cut around the edges & centre of the pan to loosen the cake. Loosen the cake with your hands & gently help it out of the pan while turning it over. If you use a pan with a removable bottom you remove the bottom once the cake is out of the pan. Then turn it over onto a serving platter

Serve with fresh berries, whipped cream, ice cream or on its own!!!

Enjoy!