Angel food cake - the super light, tall, and ethereal cake made with egg whites, sugar, and flour that is a classic American dessert.
Angel Food Cake is like a meringue, but with added flour to give it a cake-like texture. It's very low in fat and just delightful with berries and whipped cream.
While angel food cake only needs a sprinkling of powdered sugar and a few berries for adornment, this one is sprinkled with a few raspberries in the batter and frosted with a raspberry jam whipped cream to take it to another level.
If you love angel food cake, but are nervous about making it yourself, give this recipe a try. In fact, you can definitely bake this as a standard angel food cake, omitting the raspberries or the whipped cream frosting. In fact, I'll be doing that next!
Growing up, whenever I was asked what kind of cake I wanted for my birthday, I always chose angel food cake with chocolate whipped cream.
I'm pretty sure the cake was Duncan Hines and the chocolate whipped cream included Cool Whip, but regardless, the cake was always my favorite. It was light, airy, tall, and sweet, and you could enjoy a nice big slice without feeling full.
I've always wanted to try making an angel food cake from scratch, and after having success with a chiffon cake made in a tube pan, I definitely felt ready to tackle angel food cake.
Ingredient Notes:
Egg Whites: This cake relies solely on whipped egg whites for leavening. You will need 1 3/4 cups of egg whites, the equivalent to 415 grams by weight, approximately 12 large egg whites. It's essential that you measure accurately, especially since the ratio to egg whites and yolks vary in eggs (it seems like the yolks are getting smaller!).
For me, the 12 egg whites measured to slightly more than 1 3/4 cups, so I discarded about a tablespoon.
Separate the egg whites from the yolks over a small bowl before adding the white to your mixing bowl, just in case the egg yolk breaks, so you don't ruin all of the whites you've already separated. Even a speck of egg yolk will prevent your whites from reaching their lightest and fluffiest potential.
P.S. Your egg whites should be at room temperature.
Cake Flour: Be sure to use bleached cake flour, such as Swan's Down.
Lemon Juice: The lemon juice is acidic and helps support and stabilize the egg whites and keep them from collapsing.
Cream of Tartar: Cream of tartar is also an acid, and also helps support the egg whites. You can find it in the spice section of your grocery store.
Superfine Granulated Sugar: The sugar should be superfine so that it dissolves easily. You do not need to purchase special sugar. Just process regular granulated sugar, after weighing, in a food processor for about a minute.
Vanilla Extract and Lemon Zest: For flavor.
Pantry Ingredients: Cornstarch (to further soften the flour) and kosher salt (for flavor).
Optional ingredients: This recipe also calls for fresh raspberries sprinkled in the cake, plus whipped cream and raspberry jam for the topping.
Definitely try the recipe for the cake as written, especially when measuring the ingredients, before trying to customize it.
Tips for Making Angel Food Cake:
Once you've processed the sugar, divide it in half, one part to mix with the egg whites and one part to whisk with the flour.
Using a stand mixer, whip the egg whites to foamy and then slowly begin to add the sugar. Whip the egg whites to medium stiff peaks. Check regularly to make sure you do not overbeat them.
Once you've beaten the egg whites and added the vanilla, sift the flour, sugar, salt, and cornstarch mixture into the bowl in four stages and gently fold it in with a rubber spatula. Be careful not to deflate the egg whites.
As Zoë François says in her book, Zoë Bakes Cakes, "prepare your angel food cake pan by doing NOTHING." The cake, as it is baking, will need to adhere to the sides of the pan as it rises. Otherwise, you risk that the cake will fall once you remove it from the oven.
Cool the cake in the pan inverted over a cooling rack, on a wine bottle, or over something that lifts the cake upside down so that air can circulate. I improvised and used a small inverted round casserole dish/ramekin because the center tube of my cake pan is too narrow for a wine bottle.
Note: I used large raspberries in my cake, which tended to shrink a bit, creating a few craters in the slices. This is not a problem flavor-wise, but you might want to pick out the smaller raspberries from your basket for sprinkling into the batter.
Helpful Tools:
Angel food cake pan: The one I use is light colored and has no coating. You can also use a darker, slightly nonstick angel food cake pan, but be sure to lower the oven temperature by 25 degrees F.
Egg Separator: While not essential, it makes it so much easier to separate the whites from the yolks.
Food Processor: You will need one to process the sugar to superfine. My favorite for this job (easier cleanup) is a mini food processor, but a full-sized one will work too.
Stand Mixer: You can use a hand mixer for beating the egg whites, but a stand mixer makes such fast work of the job. I use mine constantly.
Mesh Sieve: This is essential for sifting the flour mixture over the beaten egg whites.
To Remove the Cake from the Pan: If you use the uncoated pan, use a thin metal knife. If you pan is coated, use a plastic picnic-style knife.
The recipe also includes instructions for making the raspberry jam whipped cream frosting. It's lightly sweet and fairly refrigerator stable because of the addition of the jam.
If you don't want to frost the whole cake, you can whip up the frosting and keep it in the refrigerator for dolloping on the cake when serving. So good.
Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Zoë Bakes Cakes by Zoē François. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!
Follow our Facebook and Instagram, pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.
The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.
Yellow Cake
Angel Food Cake
- Karen's Kitchen Stories
Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
Hot Milk Sponge Cake
Recipes for Using the 12 Extra Egg Yolks:
Angel Food Cake with Raspberry Whipped Cream
Ingredients
- 250 grams (1 1/4 cups) superfine sugar, divided in half (see Ingredient Notes)
- 120 grams (1 cup plus one tablespoon) bleached cake flour
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1 pinch kosher salt
- 170 grams (6 ounces) fresh raspberries
- 415 grams (1 3/4 cups/12 large) egg whites, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream, cold
- 2 1/2 tablespoon confectioner's sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup raspberry jam
Instructions
- Heat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together half of the sugar, the flour, corn starch, and kosher salt. Aerate by sifting via a fine mesh sieve from one bowl to another three times. You can also use a food processor to aerate the mixture.
- In a small bowl, sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture over the raspberries, if using. Toss lightly. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites, lemon juice, and cream of tartar on high speed until the egg whites are foamy. Switch to medium low and slowly add the other half of the sugar. Turn the speed to medium high and whip until you have medium-stiff peaks, about 3 to 3 1/2 minutes. Briefly beat in the vanilla on medium speed.
- Sift a fourth of the flour mixture over the mixer bowl and fold it in with a rubber spatula. Repeat with the rest of the flour mixture, in three more stages, folding each in. Fold in the lemon zest.
- Transfer half of the cake batter into the pan. Sprinkle with half of the raspberries. Add the rest of the batter and top with the rest of the raspberries. Swirl a knife through the cake batter in the pan to remove any air bubbles.
- Bake the cake for about 40 minutes, until golden and a cake tester comes out clean. Invert the pan over a wine bottle, cooking rack, or inverted ramekin immediately, and let cool completely, about an hour.
- Using a thin knive, loosen the cake from the sides and center of the pan and invert it over a plate. Remove the outside section of the pan. Using the knife, loosen the top of the cake from the tube insert and remove.
- If you are using the raspberry whipped cream, spread it over the cake, including the center. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, stir together the cream, sugar, vanilla, and jam, and beat on medium high until the mixture has just thickened.
- Remove the bowl from the mixer and mix by hand with the whisk attachment until the whipped cream is spreadable and the consistency you want.
Nutrition Facts
Calories
331.15Fat (grams)
14.73Sat. Fat (grams)
9.14Carbs (grams)
44.33Fiber (grams)
1.38Net carbs
42.95Sugar (grams)
32.35Protein (grams)
6.33Sodium (milligrams)
76.75Cholesterol (grams)
44.82
Your cake is stunning as always and looks absolutely delicious! Thanks for baking along this year with the CSB!
ReplyDeleteIt turned out perfectly Karen and it looks scrumptious.
ReplyDeleteThanks Wendy!
DeleteI have never made an angel food cake! I will have to remedy that soon.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely! It was my first one.
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