Angel Food Cake
Growing up, my experience with angel food cake was the weird, dry sponges you’d buy at the grocery store to fill with strawberries. When I started making 18 egg yolk pasta, I learned how to make angel food cake as a way to quickly use all the egg whites.
It turns out angel food cake is extremely delicious when made at home: it’s light, fluffy, moist, but deeply flavoured – it’s one of my favourite desserts now.
I also enjoy giving it alongside the Lasagna of Sadness: the name is fitting, the dessert is great, and it uses up egg whites.
Ingredients
120g | 1 cup cake flour, sifted
300g | 1½ cups granulated sugar, divided
360g | 12 large egg whites
1½ tsp cream of tartar
¼ tsp salt
1½ tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp lemon juice
Ingredient notes:
This is a case where sifted cake flour is worth buying. You can use all purpose, but the texture won’t be the same. For a gluten free variation, use sweet rice like (like Mochiko).
Your egg whites will struggle if there is any fat present. If there is egg yolk in your egg whites, use a shell to remove it. The yolk is attracted to the shell.
You also want to wipe down your mixing bowl very well. I like to rub the inside with a lemon just to be safe.
Cream of tartar is an acid leftover from winemaking. It helps stabilize egg whites so they are more likely to whip up nicely and stay fluffy. You can find it in the spice aisle. If you can’t find it, add 1 tsp of lemon juice in its place.
Special equipment
Stand mixer
Angel food cake pan
Small offset spatula
Using a bundt pan isn’t ideal, because they are non-stick the cake will fall out when flipped upside down. Look for an aluminum, uncoated angel food cake pan. It should have a removable bottom and ideally with little feet to hold it up while it cools. If you can’t find one with feet, use a wine bottle.
Method
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Make meringue
Rub the inside of your mixing bowl with a slice of lemon then wipe it down. This will help ensure there is not fat inside the mixer.
Add the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt. Beat on medium speed until the egg whites are broken up, around 30 seconds. Increase the speed to high and beat until the egg whites have double in size, are foamy, just before soft peaks. Gradually add in 150g | 3/4 cup of sugar over 30 seconds.
You want to stop beating when the egg whites are very glossy, just before stiff peaks. Add the vanilla and lemon juice and mix briefly to incorporate.
If you overheat, the water in the egg whites will begin to separate the meringue will look curdled and dry. To fix this add another egg white and beat very briefly to re-emulsify.
Fold in the flour
In a small bowl, mix the flour with the remaining sugar. Sift 1/3 of the flour/sugar on top of the meringue and fold it in. Repeat this process until all the flour is incorporated.
The batter should be impossibly light.
Fill the cake pan
Do not grease your pan – you want the cake to stick to it, since the cake will be flipped upside down after baking.
You also want to avoid air gaps in cake pan. Put around 2 cups of batter in the bottom of your cake pan and use a small offset spatula to spread it around into every corner of the pan and up the tube in the centre. Pour the rest of the batter in to add batter ensuring you have an even distribution.
Bake
Bake for around 40 minutes until the cake is puffed in the centre (it may have a crack line) and the top has some golden colouring. A toothpick or paring knife inserted into the thickest part will come out clean.
Set up your area for flipping the cake before taking it out of the oven. If your cake pan doesn’t have feet you may need to set it on a glass.
Remove and immediately flip the cake over to cool. It must cool upside down so the structure can set. In the minute it took me to take a photo of the cake when it came out it had already collapsed by an inch. Flip it with the courage of your convictions – if it’s going to fall out of the tin, better it falls out when it’s as tall as it can be. (It shouldn’t fall out if you use an uncoated pan).
When the cake has cooled completely, 1–2 hours, use a small offset spatula to scrape around the sides and tube of the pan to release the cake. Pop the removable bottom of the pan out. Use your offset spatula to scrape along the bottom of the pan (the top of the cake).
Place your serving plate on cake, flip it over. Remove the bottom of the pan.
Serve
Slice into 10–12 wedges. Serve with fruit.
In Winter, I like to make a quick sauce. Add 300g frozen strawberries (or berry of your choice) and 75g sugar to a pot and cook until simmering, then mash with a potato masher.
In the Summer you can macerate fresh berries with sugar.
Optionally serve with whipped cream.