A must have in your baking repertoire. Super easy and a serious, no guilt cake. Primarily egg whites and sugar this cake is elegant, delicate, and pares perfectly with berries and a light dusting of confectioners sugar. It is a terrific way to learn essential cooking skills such as separating eggs and making a meringue which is a necessary skill to have if you are planning on refining your time in the kitchen. Meringue has several uses in baking with making icings, marshmallows, toppings and also in cake batters. This recipe, offers lessons in learning how to identify soft and stiff peaks and it gives an opportunity for mastering folding in, a technique which is misunderstood. Egg whites can deflate quickly if handled incorrectly which will result in a cake that isn’t light and fluffy. As always, don’t be scared off by the details. Take your time, have all of your ingredients measured, and understand your next steps before beginning. You won’t be disappointed and it will give you and your kids that much needed bonding time together. Put those aprons on and get baking!
looking for stiff peaks
slowly folding in the flour
Angel Food Cake
9-inch tube pan (un-greased)
Ingredients
1¼ egg whites (approximately 10 eggs)
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ almond extract
¼ cup sugar
1 cup cake flour
(no cake flour? no problem! measure 1 cup all purpose flour, remove 2 tablespoons of it and add 2 tablespoons of corn starch in its place)
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 350°
Have ready a clean and dry bowl from a stand mixer.
Separate the egg whites making sure not to get any yolk into the whites and place into the bowl. (Save the yolks for another time storing in the refrigerator up to a week.)
Sift the flour, ¼ cup of the sugar and salt together 3 times. Set aside.
Begin whipping the egg whites, with the water, and the lemon juice on medium speed until foamy.
Add the cream of tartar and continue to whisk.
Add the vanilla and almond extracts.
When soft peaks form, slowly add the sugar 1 tablespoon at time until all of the sugar is incorporated. You know they are fully whipped when the egg whites become glossy and hold a stiff shape.
Remove from the mixer.
Using a large rubber spatula, carefully fold in the flour mixture a ¼ of a cup at a time until it is all incorporated taking care not to over stir or deflate the volume of the egg whites.
Pour into an un-greased tube pan smoothing the top with the edge of the batter.
Bake for 45 minutes or until lightly browned and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Once you remove the pan from the oven let the cake cool upside down. The tube pan has small “legs” that elevate the pan so the cake doesn’t deflate.
Notes
My mom’s favorite cake!. With fresh strawberries on the side it is a really good way to eat cake without all of those added calories. Just egg whites, sugar, and flour keeps it light and airy like an angel. You quite literally can slice it with two forks or a cake comb specifically designed to pull apart the cake instead of cutting it. Otherwise you will have a squished, and deflated slice. Leftover cake is delicious toasted up in a pan with a bit of butter for an afternoon pick me up or for a Mother’s Day breakfast treat (spoiler alert!!).