B.C. strawberries are in season, and I enjoy turning them into a dessert with angel food cake and whipped cream or ice cream. It’s a dessert all ages enjoy and to make it in a no-fuss way I’ll most often buy an already baked angel food cake from a grocery store.
But when recently planning to serve the dessert — and feeling very eager — I said to myself I could bake the cake from scratch. And I did.
After doing that, I remembered why I most often use the grocery-store option: Things can go awry if you’re not careful.
Years ago, the first time I made the cake, it was a sunken, sticky flop that I ended up cutting into cubes, setting in serving bowls and topping with sliced strawberries and whipped cream. That dessert was not the dreamy angel food cake I and others hoped for, which explains why in the Joy of Cooking they dedicate hundreds of words of advice on how to prepare it successfully.
According to a few sources, angel food cake is believed to have originated in the United States in the mid-1800s. To make its batter, you fold a flour/sugar mixture into dense, sweetened, beaten egg whites.
Things can go wrong if you don’t use a very clean mixing bowl, if you under-beat the whites, if you don’t separate the whites from the yolks correctly or if you add the sugar to the whites too quickly so the sugar does not dissolve completely. All these things can cause the cake to fail.
You can also have issues with the cake if you fold the sifted flour/sugar mixture into the beaten egg whites too vigorously, causing them to deflate — not a good thing for a cake meant to be light in texture.
Cake and pastry flour, sold at most grocery stores, is used in angel food cake because it has been milled for use in light and delicate baked goods.
To make angel food cake you’ll need a tube pan; a round, flat-sided cake pan with a hollow, cone-shaped centre. It is sold at stores selling a good selection of kitchenware. The one I purchased eons ago has a false bottom, which makes it easier to free the cake from the mould. Don’t confuse a tube pan with a bundt pan, which has a fluted design that will make an angel food cake difficult to remove.
The recipe below is an adapted version — primarily in how it’s formatted — of the recipe for angel food cake found in The Joy of Cooking. It’s the recipe I used to yield the appealing cake you see in today’s photo.
Angel Food Cake with Sliced Strawberries
Sweet, light, slightly chewy cake you can serve with strawberries and whipped cream or ice cream.
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Makes: 12 servings
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar (divided)
1 cup cake and pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups egg whites (see Note)
1 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
• icing sugar for dusting (optional)
• sliced fresh strawberries, to taste
• whipped cream or vanilla or strawberry ice cream, to taste
Sift the granulated sugar into a medium bowl (see Eric’s options). Scoop out 1/2 cup of the sugar and sift it with the flour and salt into a second medium bowl.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Set out a very clean, ungreased 10-inch tube pan. Place the egg whites, water, lemon juice and cream of tartar into the very clean bowl of your stand mixer. Beat until stiff, but not dry-looking, peaks form. Fold the extracts into the beaten egg whites.
Gradually sprinkle and beat the remaining 3/4 cup of sifted sugar into the egg whites, adding it 1 Tbsp at a time. When all the sugar has been added, the beaten egg mixture will be thick and glossy.
Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the sifted flour/sugar mixture over the beaten egg whites and with a very clean rubber spatula, gently fold it in. Repeat this step, adding 1/4 cup of the flour/sugar mixture at a time, until all is incorporated.
Spoon the batter into the pan and very gently spread to level the top. Bake 45 minutes. Carefully invert the pan, while cake is still hot, onto a baking rack. Let cake cool upside down at least 90 minutes, or until cooled and set.
To release the case from the mould, run a sharp, thin-bladed knife or thin metal spatula around the outside edges of the pan to loosen the cake. Set a cake plate over the pan, and then invert and let the cake slip onto it. If the cake does not come out, firmly tap on the pan to help release it.
To serve, dust the cake with icing sugar, if using, and then use a sharp, serrated knife or angel food cake cutter to cut it into wedges. Plate the cake and serve with sliced strawberries and whipped cream or ice cream.
Note: Cartons of egg whites are sold in the dairy aisle of many grocery stores. If you want to crack and separate your own egg whites, nine to 10 large eggs, when separated, should yield 1 1/4 cups.
Eric’s options: If you don’t have a sifter, you can do what I did and sift the sugar and flour thorough a fine sieve set over a bowl. Use a whisk to stir, push and sift the sugar and flour through the sieve.
Eric Akis is the author of eight cookbooks. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
