Angel Food Cake
This fluffy and delightfully sweet cake is a classic favorite. Angel food cake is wonderful all on its own or served with fruit and whipped cream, and this recipe makes plenty to go around for everyone. This cake has a reputation of being an intimidating bake, but we’ve made it easy to whip up at home with some tips and tricks. I hope you enjoy this scrumptious cake!
Make sure your egg whites are room temperature to get the best rise in your cake. Room temperature egg whites will whip up better than cold ones, which is important. There are no other leaveners, or ingredients to make this cake rise, besides the egg whites.
It is very important not to grease the pan you’re using for this cake. The batter must stick to the walls of the pan to help it rise and keep it from falling out of the pan in it’s cooling phase. You are also asked to turn the cake upside down while cooling. This will keep the cake from collapsing on itself and help it keep it’s rise while cooling.
This recipe will fill a tube pan, which is traditional for making angel food cake. It will also fill 2 loaf pans. Any pan you use must have tall walls to ensure that the cake can cool upside down. You can halve this recipe to fill one 1 loaf pan.
Ingredients:
1 Cup cake flour (see instructions below if you do not have cake flour)
1 ¼ Cup of sugar
¼ tsp salt
12 large egg whites
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cream of tarter
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 350°
Separate your egg yolks from your egg whites, placing the egg whites and a large bowl. Set the egg whites aside to reach room temperature.
If you do not have cake flour, read these instructions to make your own. Take 1 Cup of all purpose flour and remove 2 T from the flour. Add 2 T cornstarch. Sift the flour and cornstarch together three times. This will serve as your cake flour for this recipe.
Sift your cake flour together with your sugar and salt into a medium sized bowl. Sift the dry mixture one more time to ensure it is fluffy and fine.
Using a hand mixer or stand mixer with a whisk attachment, beat your egg whites until they are foamy, about 1 minute.
Add your cream of tarter and beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes. If your egg whites are not forming soft peaks after 2 minutes, add another 1/8 tsp cream of tarter to help the peaks form.
Add your vanilla extract and beat until combined.
In 3 separate batches, slowly sift in your dry ingredients. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg whites carefully to avoid losing volume. Fold the mixture until you no longer see large streaks or patches of the dry ingredients in the egg whites.
Pour your batter into an ungreased pan and immediately place it in the oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the top is lightly brown and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
Flip your cake upside down on a cooling rack and allow it to cool at room temperature for 1 hour.
To remove your cake from it’s pan, run along the sides of the pan with a butterknife. For pans without a removable bottom, lay the pan on its side and insert the butterknife into the side of the pan. Gently pull it towards you using the cake on the bottom of the pan with the knife. Alternate sides until the cake pulls away from the bottom and out of the pan.
Serve plain or with a side of fruit and whipped cream. Enjoy!
