I have a lot of angel food cake recipes in my vintage collection, but because I didn't have time to fail, I turned to a tried and true, albeit new-ish, recipe in my personal collection, clipped from a magazine more than a decade ago. (When someone buys my personal recipe collection at a Brooklyn stoop sale in 20 years, this will be in it.)
But this isn't just any recipe -- it was developed by The Bakers Dozen, a group of passionate professional and amateur bakers founded in 1989 by Marian Cunningham and Amy Pressman in San Francisco. This recipe has all the kinks worked out, and its clear and explicit directions provide a fearless introduction to angel food cake, which relies only on the air in the whipped whites for leavening. (Not as scary as it seems, especially if you use a standing mixer.)
This wonderful recipe that consistently yields a perfect result, if you follow the recipe precisely, including sifting the dry ingredients two times. You don't need a sifter; just pass the ingredients through a strainer.
The dry ingredients are carefully folded into the whipped egg whites, using a large spatula.
Spoon or pour the batter into an ungreased tube pan. Smooth the top (as I did right after snapping this photo).
After pulling the cake from the oven, turn it upside down over an empty wine bottle. Not having one, I simply put it over a bottle of Chateau Diana, a vile "wine product" that no one should ever be forced to drink but somehow made its way into my liquor cabinet. At last, I found a good use for it.
Angel food cake has no fat, but plenty of sugar. It's great served plain, or you can ramp it up a bit with a sauce. I made a sour cherry sauce, which didn't photograph well -- the cake looked like it was bleeding, so best to leave it on the side.
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Looks amazing! great recipe!
ReplyDeleteAlways good to add a tried and true recipe to the collection. Of all the angel food cakes I've ever made, the only one that was an epic fail was one I made in culinary school. At least we weren't being evaluated that day. C'est la vie.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like its good tasting bread. Thank you for sharing this one. Hope to see more instruction on how to bake it.
ReplyDeleteIt always makes me feel a little like a heathen to admit that I hate angel food cake. It's so pretty (yours looks gorgeous) and versatile that I probably should love it, but I definitely do not. Whenever AFC is a component in a dessert I want to make, I use pound cake instead.
ReplyDeleteDo you have one of these:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.etsy.com/listing/88829908/vintage-cake-break-cake-slicer-red?ref=similar_items_sash
I picked one up at a thrift shop not long ago just because.
Just found your blog this week thru pinterest somehow. However, we give up sweets for Lent, so it's killing me that I can't make anything! I'm still having a great time reading. Keep up the good work!