SS Baking an Angel Food Cake
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This is my first bake of the summer: an Angel Food Cake. Ruth Reichl's substack this week gave the recipe and several tips for how to bake an angel food cake. When I read her stack, I thought about the dozen eggs (from our hens) sitting on the counter we were about to give our neighbor. I remembered how good the cake is. So, sorry neighbor!
The recipe in Reichl's stack is from Baker's Dozen Cookbook, and she credits Flo Braker for the steps to a perfect angel food cake, and I used both the recipe and the tips to create my bake. Probably the first angel food cake recipe was published in 1878 in Isabella Stewart's Home Messenger Book of Tested Recipes. Ms. Stewart (who would become Isabella Stewart Gardner of museum fame) didn't create the recipe herself. She was from the rich upper class where women were not typically involved in cooking meals. But she loved food, loved to eat, and collected recipes which she shared with her cook.
My mother's favorite cake was angel food. We did not come from wealth. She bought the cheap little rectangle loaves at the grocery store, and doled the slices to herself sparingly. Once when I was visiting (and staying with her), I decided to bake her an angel food cake. I had to buy the pan first, because she didn't have one. Then all the other ingredients, because she didn't have those either, except for the half teaspoon of salt. She kept her refrigerator and cupboards pretty bare, but had a chest freezer full of bread for the birds. My cake turned out just fine, but for Mom it couldn't compete with the grocery store loaves. When I returned home, she gave away the cake pan. (And likely fed my cake to the birds.)
The ingredients begin with a dozen large eggs. A cup of cake flour, a cup of granulated sugar, one and a half cups of powdered sugar, cream of tartar and vanilla. Oh, and half a teaspoon of salt, of course.
It isn't all that hard to make, just a bit fussy. There cannot be one speck of fat (or egg yolk) in the egg whites, for example. No fat on the beaters, or bowls. And you have to have a special cake pan. You could absolutely make it without a mixer if you can whip egg whites to a soft droopy peak by hand. Luckily for me, I have my trusty KitchenAid stand mixer.
I began the day by taking the eggs out of the fridge, because the whites will separate more easily if they've been refrigerated. But you do have to let the eggs come to room temperature, so I watered all the trees while the eggs warmed up.
First, I donned my apron and tied back my hair, then I assembled all the equipment and ingredients. I followed all of Reichl's tips, and the recipe to the letter. When I had to create a substitute for cake flour, I used my kitchen scale to measure 110g of flour, added 16g of corn starch, and voila! Cake flour.
I wanted to be sure my oven was exactly 350 degrees, so I tried to remember where I had put my oven thermometer. Before we got this oven, I had one that ignored the dial, so I always had to measure the heat before baking. I thought I had put it in the mini fridge we got from our Buy Nothing group, so I got it out and set it on the counter. When it was time to preheat the oven, I saw the thermometer was actually a Refrigerator/Freezer one (duh). I put it back where it belongs, and did a quick search for the right one, which turned out to be on top of the fridge.
With the oven at the correct temperature, I mixed up the cake, then folded it into the pan. I set my timer for forty minutes to check the cake.
While I was waiting, I did all the dishes and cleaned the counter tops.
The scariest part for me is taking the cake out of the oven and placing the pan upside down over a bottle. I'm always worried something will go wrong. This is not how regular cakes are cooled! Not at all. I have racks for those, cake plates to turn the cake onto, and confidence from years of baking cakes, cooling them on racks for ten minutes, then turning them out to cool on the rack for an hour or so before moving them to a cake plate. Angel food cakes required three hours of cooling upside down on a bottle!
The cake cooled without incident. It looks a bit lopsided to me, but I'm hoping the taste overrides any discontent with its appearance.
Happy Summer!
Are you baking? Enjoying baked goods? Or is it all salads and lemonade for you?
As one of your English readers I was surprised to see that you were measuring in grammes and not cups. I use both imperial and metric. Perhaps you do the same? Looks lovely.🐰
That angel food cake looks beautiful! ✨ So does your kitchen! You made quick work of that sink full of dishes to wash! I hope you are enjoying a reward of your lovely cake. Since it is strawberry season, I might use them and some whip cream for strawberry shortcake! 🤗🎈