I have always made my angel food cake from a box mix. Since I am usually someone that makes almost everything from scratch, I don’t know why it has taken me so long to decide to make this cake from scratch as well. My daughter just celebrated a birthday, and her request was for an angel food cake with a light whipped topping and fresh raspberries. So I decided this was the time to finally make one from scratch.
I have to say…it was yummy!
I used a recipe from “How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman (one of my favorite cookbooks!) Of course, I never follow the directions completely, and there are some thing I will change the next time I make this, but here it is:
1c. cake flour, sifted
1 1/2c. sugar
9 egg whites
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
- Preheat over to 325°
- Sift together the flour and 1/2 c. of the sugar – twice
- Beat the egg whites until foamy, then add the salt and cream of tartar. Continue to beat until there are soft peaks (the tops of the whites will droop a little bit). Beat in the remaining 1 c. sugar, the almond extract and the vanilla extract. Beat until the peaks are stiffer.
- Gently fold in the flour mixture, adding a small amount at at time. (I found that if you don’t add the mixture gradually, you will end up with clumps of flour mixed into the egg whites. You don’t want to beat down the lumps or the whites could get runny). I used my rubber spatula to do this part.
- Pour into a tube pan (do not grease!)
- Bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Note: do not over bake or the cake will be dry.
- Invert the pan and let the cake cool for about an hour. Then slide a knife down the sides of the pan to loosen, and remove to a plate to finish cooling. Do not slice until the cake is completely cool.
Things I would do differently next time: I would use fine sugar and I would use 12 egg whites. I like my angel food cake to be a little lighter than this version was, but believe me, this cake was still yummy!
I hope you enjoy!
Cheryl
