Angel food cake really is the stuff of angels—light, fluffy, ethereal. It’s the perfect cake for spring and summer since it’s so light and can be paired with any number of fruits or berries. Cue angels singing.
Making an angel food cake does take some planning. You need a special angel food cake or tube pan. Here’s the number one rule of angel food cakes: do not grease the pan! It seems counterintuitive, I know, but those egg whites can’t climb up the side of a greased pan.
You’ll need a lot of egg whites for the cake, 12 to be exact. When separating the eggs, it’s a good idea to use the 3-bowl method we talked about before. With 12 egg whites going into the mix, you really don’t want to have the yolk crack into a big bowl of separated whites on egg #11. The 3-bowl method will save you a lot of eggs if there’s a runaway yolk.
The egg whites will need to be at room temperature before mixing, but they separate better when cold. Separate, then put those yolks in the freezer to make a pastry cream or lemon curd (that would be so yummy on the cake)!
Because the whipped egg whites are the key to this cake, you’ll want to make sure that your bowl and any tools you’re using are free of grease. As a little extra insurance, wipe everything down with some white vinegar and then rinse with water and dry.
Another star of the show is cream of tartar (preferably not the bottle that’s been in the back of your spice drawer for 6 years). Cream of tartar acts as a stabilizer for all of those egg whites, keeping them fluffy and tall.
The recipe calls for cake flour which leads to a softer cake and a more tender crumb. You’ll also process the granulated sugar for the recipe to make those granules smaller, easier to dissolve, and lighter so as not to deflate the egg whites. You’ll just give regular sugar a whir in a food processor until it’s finer.
You’ll be looking for soft and stiff peaks at different parts of the recipe. This is an example of a soft peak. It’s a bit foamy, and the mixture is forming a peak, but it flops over.
A stiff peak is when the mixture holds a peak even when you shake the bowl or the beater. The peaks are glossy and smooth.
Once the cake is mixed, spoon the batter into the pan. Run a knife or a spatula very gently through the batter to avoid large air pockets.
Oh, it’s so pretty. When it’s baked, the top will be lightly golden and cracked.
Here’s the key to keeping that gorgeous height and fluff: the cake must be cooled upside-down. There are many different types of angel food cake pans. Some have feet attached on which the cake can rest. Other simply have the hole in the center. The cake can rest on a bottle in the center. (This is a good time to use that bottle of wine that’s been languishing half empty in your fridge. A vintage Coke bottle works, too.)
My new pan has handles on the side and a hole that is too narrow for a bottle.
Thank goodness for a teenager home from college who quickly thought to balance the cake handles on two paint cans. Whatever works!
Let the cake cool completely before turning out, about two hours. Run a knife along the edge of the pan and the center hole; invert onto a cake plate. Give it a few good shakes to release. If it doesn’t release right away, run the knife around again and repeat.
Angel food cake cuts best with a serrated knife. I like to serve mine with a huge dollop (or three) of whipped topping. Of course, real whipped cream is always welcome. My favorite fruit topping is brown sugar-macerated strawberries. Plain berries, cherries, peaches, or even chocolate syrup are also heavenly.
How long has it been since you’ve made angel food cake?
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