What Happens If You Underbeat An Angel Food Cake

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Using but 6 ingredients, this perfect affections food cake bakes up alpine, light, and airy. For best results, follow this recipe and video tutorial closely. The delicate texture can only exist achieved with detail ingredients and careful mixing methods.

Ready for a slice of sky? We are no stranger to decadent and rich cakes. Only what about a cake recipe where butter, fatty, and egg yolks run abroad in fearfulness? Meet angel food cake. Affections food cake is a low fat cake recipe made mostly from egg whites, cake flour, and carbohydrate. Information technology's pristine white on the within with a chewy light brown crumb around the outside. What it lacks in butter makes up for in texture. This tall, tender, and timeless cake has a cloud-similar crumb and ultra light season.

I've published angel food cupcakes and a super fun sprinkle angel food block on my blog, but now it's time visit where both originate: classic bootleg angel food block!

Angel food cake slices with strawberries on white plate

Angel Food Cake Video Tutorial

Let'due south dive right in. Get-go, here's a video tutorial where I walk you through each step. The steps and ingredients are pretty straightforward, but it's ever helpful to have a articulate visual. 🙂

Top of angel food cake with berries and pink peony flower

six Angel Food Block Ingredients

You merely need 6 ingredients to make angel food cake. With so niggling ingredients, sympathize that each one is imperative to the block's final taste and texture. Hither'due south the breakdown:

Granulated Sugar:The recipe begins with granulated carbohydrate. Pulse it in a food processor to create superfine sugar. Superfine sugar'southward granules are the best size to provide optimal structure for angel food cake. It'southward not as coarse equally granulated saccharide and non as fine every bit confectioners' sugar. Granulated sugar is but too coarse, while confectioners' saccharide dissolves too quickly in the egg whites.
Cake Flour: Cake flour is a low protein flour and yields a tender angel food block. Exercise not employ all-purpose flour because the block will taste similar white staff of life…! In a pinch, you lot can use this cake flour substitute. But existent cake flour is ideal.
Salt: Adds flavor.
Egg Whites:You'll notice there's no baking powder or baking soda. The egg whites are really the sole leavening ingredient providing all the block'due south rising. Use freshly separated eggs considering they aerate the all-time. Carton egg whites or egg whites that take been frozen won't aggrandize equally much during the whipping process, which will negatively impact the rise of your cake. You'll take a lot of leftover egg yolks, then brand some lemon curd and serve it with the cake!
Cream of Tartar: Cream of tartar is an acid and stabilizes the whipped egg whites, just equally it does in my chocolate swirled meringue cookies too. Without it, the cake would collapse. Other acids, such equally lemon juice, tin work simply they aren't nearly equally effective. Cream of tartar is found in the spice aisle and is actually a common baking ingredient. I have many recipes calling for it!
Vanilla Extract: Adds season.

How to Make Perfect Angel Food Block

I'm confident this will be the most perfect angel food cake to always hit your lips. We can't attain angel nutrient cake perfection for free, so brand sure you follow these steps closely.

Pulse the granulated saccharide into superfine carbohydrate. Utilise a nutrient processor or blender.
Set up 1 loving cup of the superfine sugar aside. Yous'll add together it to the egg whites.
Add cake flour and common salt to food processor. Pulse them with the remaining sugar. This aerates the dry ingredients.
Crush egg whites and cream of tartar together.Beat on medium-low speed until foamy.
Slowly add 1 loving cup of superfine sugar. Turn the mixer up to medium-high and pour in the superfine sugar you set up aside.
Beat into soft peaks.Whip the egg whites, cream of tartar, and superfine sugar into soft and lofty peaks. This takes at least 5 minutes. Afterward that, add the vanilla.
Sift and fold in dry out ingredients.In 3 additions, sift and fold in the dry ingredients.
Cascade/spread concoction into a tube pan. Do not grease the tube pan. Greasing the pan causes the batter to slip downwardly the sides, preventing it from properly ascent. If you already greased it, launder and wipe it completely make clean.
Bake at 325°F (163°C). A higher temperature won't properly cook the cake.
Cool upside downwards on a wire rack.If cooled upright, the block's own weight will trounce itself. Cool it upside-down on a cooling rack and so information technology holds its shape and air can reach it.
Run a thin pocketknife around the edges to release.Tap the pan on the counter a few times to assistance loosen the cake, too.
Slice with a serrated pocketknife.A regular precipitous knife squishes the cake.

Tin I use a Bundt pan for affections food cake? No, practise not utilize a Bundt pan for affections nutrient cake. You'll have a very hard fourth dimension getting information technology out in one piece. You need a tube pan which has a flat bottom and straight sides. If you don't have one, I recommend this tube pan. Information technology'southward relatively inexpensive for its great quality. Though it's labeled every bit nonstick, the coating is VERY thin and has never been an issue for my angel nutrient cakes.

And proficient news: here's a helpful trick for how to bake angel food cake without a tube pan.

2 images of cake flour in measuring cups and food processor

Y'all demand 1 cup (16 Tablespoons) + 2 Tablespoons of cake flour. Sounds like an odd amount, merely 18 Tablespoons is the precise quantity to bring plenty construction to the cake.

2 images of whipped egg whites on a whisk attachment and in glass bowl

Soft Peaks, Not Stiff Peaks

Retrieve, whip the egg whites into soft peaks. (Pictured to a higher place.) Soft peaks don't hold a stiff shape. Instead, they "wilt" dorsum into the mixture afterwards a few seconds. Soft peaks are the optimum consistency considering they'll continue to expand in the oven. Strong peaks, on the other manus, means that the egg whites have been over-whipped for angel food block and volition likely collapse in the oven.

Of import to remember: Don't let a driblet of egg yolks into the mixing basin. Any lingering fat could foreclose the egg whites from forming peaks at all. Crack eggs over an egg separator into a small bowl, and so add together the whites one-by-i into the mixing bowl. This manner if the yolk breaks, it doesn't pause directly in the mixing bowl.

2 images of angel food cake batter in mixing bowl and tube pan

Sift the dry ingredients over the browbeaten egg whites in a few additions, gently folding together after each addition. The goal is to retain as much of the whipped volume as possible. Pouring the dry ingredients on top all at once will quickly deflate the egg whites.

2 images of angel food cake cooling in pan and pan upside down on cooling rack

The Magic is in the Details

I've thrown a lot of information at you lot in this mail service, and then hither'south a quick summary of all the important success tips. Retrieve that the magic is all in the details.

Use freshly separated egg whites.
Pulse granulated sugar into superfine sugar.
Whip egg whites into soft peaks, not stiff peaks.
Sift and gently fold in dry ingredients.
Practise not grease the tube pan.
Cool the block upside-down on a wire rack.
Use a serrated pocketknife to slice.

Helpful Tools

Food Processor – These range in toll. You lot tin apply a little ninja, a big food processor, or even a blender.
Egg Separator – This is very cheap, only Then HANDY!
Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer
Fine Mesh Strainer (Sieve/Sifter)
Tube Pan
Cooling Rack

Want to make angel nutrient cupcakes? I have you covered.

Angel food cake doesn't need to hide under frosting, but tastes beatific with fresh berries, raspberry sauce, and/or a dollop of whipped cream! Experience free to dust the top with confectioners' sugar, likewise. If you bask these flavors together, you'll dearest my fresh berry foam cake. (Which, if I'one thousand beingness honest, isn't quite equally fussy as this cake!)

I know what you're thinking: is this cake really worth information technology? The answer is Yeah. Affections food cake boasts a texture similar no other and once you go through the procedure, you'll understand the training isn't that difficult– it's but a little picky. 😉 Let'south do this!

See Your Affections Nutrient Cakes!

Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge! Feel gratis to email or share your recipe photos with united states on social media. 🙂

Description

Using only half-dozen ingredients, thisperfect angel food block bakes up tall, lite, and airy. For best results, read the recipe in full before beginning and have all your ingredients ready to go. Enjoy!

1 and 3/4 cups (350g) granulated carbohydrate*
1 loving cup + ii Tablespoons (133g) cake flour (spoon & leveled)
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 large egg whites, at room temperature*
1 and 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 and i/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
optional: confectioners' sugar for dusting, whipped cream, and berries

Adjust the oven rack to the lower middle position and preheat oven to 325°F (163°C).
In a food processor or blender, pulse the sugar until fine and powdery. Remove 1 cup and ready aside to use in footstep three; go on the residuum inside the nutrient processor. Add the cake flour and salt to the food processor. Pulse 5-10 times until saccharide/flour/salt mixture is aerated and light.
In a large bowl using a manus mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk zipper, whip egg whites and cream of tartar together on medium-low until foamy, near one infinitesimal. Switch to medium-high and slowly add the 1 cup of sugar yous prepare aside. Whip until soft peaks class, almost 5-6 minutes. See photo and video to a higher place for a visual. Add together the vanilla extract, then vanquish merely until incorporated.
In 3 additions, slowly sift the flour mixture into the egg white mixture using a fine mesh strainer, gently folding with a rubber spatula later on each addition. To avoid deflating or a dense cake, don't add the flour mixture all at in one case. Sift and very slowly fold in several additions. This is important! Pour and spread batter into an ungreased 9 or 10 inch tube pan. Shimmy the pan on the counter to smoothen down the surface.
Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes. Rotate the pan halfway through baking. The cake will rise up very tall while baking. Remove from the oven, then cool the cake completely upside-down prepare on a wire rack, near 3 hours. (Upside-downward and so the bottom of the tube pan is correct-side up, run into photograph and video above.) Once cooled, run a sparse knife around the edges and gently tap the pan on the counter until the cake releases.
If desired, dust with confectioners' sugar. Piece the block with a precipitous serrated knife. Regular knives tin can hands squish the cake. Serve with whipped cream and fresh berries.
Store leftovers in the refrigerator for upwardly to 5 days.

Notes

Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Prepare the angel food cake one day in accelerate, then comprehend tightly and store at room temperature overnight. Angel food cake tin can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then bring to room temperature before serving.
Sugar: In this recipe, you employ granulated sugar and pulse information technology in a nutrient processor to make superfine carbohydrate. If you lot have superfine sugar or caster sugar, use that. Pulse 3/4 cup of it with the dry ingredients in step 2. Use 1 cup of it in step 3.
Egg Whites: I strongly recommend using fresh existent egg whites instead of egg white substitutes, previously frozen egg whites, or egg whites from a carton. Split the eggs when they're cold, so bring the egg whites to room temperature. Fresh room temperature egg whites whip into the fluffiest volume. With the actress yolks, make lemon curd or some of these recipes.
Pan: An angel nutrient cake pan (aka tube pan) is imperative. Practice not use a Bundt pan. Affections food cake's construction and stability requires the tube pan's detail specifications. Some angel food cake pans come with piffling feet, which makes cooling the cake upside downward easy. If your pan has anxiety, no need to utilize a wire rack. Whether your tube pan has anxiety or not, cool the block upside downwards as directed in step 5.

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Keywords: angel nutrient cake