Angel Food Cake with Macerated Berries and Ice Cream
Nibbles and Bites Issue #40: July 4th Weekend!
Hi there,
I cannot say I have ever had an angel food cake that I actually enjoyed until I was asked to make one for my mom’s birthday and baked one from scratch. The previous times that I’ve eaten one, the cake had been store bought and was either too sweet or tasted heavily of almond extract and imitation vanilla. This version is far from that memory.
This angel food cake is light and exceptionally airy. The best way to describe the consistency of this cake is that it’s basically a meringue with a bit of flour suspended throughout, giving it a cake-like structure and crumb. I want to note that you do have to bake this batter in a special angel food cake pan that has very high sides because the batter expands quite significantly in the oven like a soufflé and quite literally doubles in size vertically. The pan looks a bit like a bundt pan with high sides and a straight tube running through the center.
We served our angel food cake with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream and macerated strawberries from the farm stand. The moment the bowls of angel food cake, ice cream and berries hit the dinner table everyone fell more or less silent and licked their bowls clean. If that isn’t an indication of how good it was, then I don’t know what is! Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this recipe and that you all become an angel food cake converts.
Angel Food Cake (This recipe was adapted from Betty Crocker’s Cookbook)
Ingredients:
1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
1 cup cake flour
1 ½ cups large egg whites
1 ½ tsp cream of tartar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla
½ tsp almond extract
½ tsp salt
Instructions:
Measure all of your ingredients and bring your eggs to room temperature before starting. Move the oven rack to the lowest position to prevent the top of the cake from browning and drying out too quickly. Preheat the oven to 375.
Sift together the powdered sugar and cake flour to remove any lumps. In a large bowl of a stand mixer, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until slightly foamy and frothy. On high speed, beat in the granulated sugar, a few tablespoons at a time and add the vanilla, almond extract and salt with the last addition of sugar. Continue to beat on high speed until stiff, glossy peaks from about 3 minutes.
Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and fold in about ¼ cup of the powdered sugar at a time just until the sugar dissolves into the mixture. Make sure to fold gently from the bottom of the pan up to the top being careful not deflate the mixture while making sure that the flour is thoroughly incorporated.
Place the batter into an ungreased 10” x 4” angel food cake pan (also known as a tube pan) and using a butter knife cut through the wet batter to break air pockets while smoothing out the mixture and distributing it towards the sides of the pan.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, turning the cake halfway through or until the cake cracks at the top and feels dry to the touch. Immediately remove from the oven and turn the cake upside down onto a cooling rack. Let hang upside down for 2 hours until the cake is completely cooled.
Once cooled, loosen the sides of the cake with a sharp knife and remove the base of the pan from the sides. Loose the bottom of the cake from the tin and gently transport onto a cake stand or plate for serving. Serve with macerated berries and ice cream.