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This angel food cake is so easy, I’ve already made it three times!
Angel food cakes always intimidated me — what if the egg whites don’t whip up? What if the cake collapses? And how do you get all those egg whites?
So what really inspired me to try baking an angel food cake myself was, oddly enough, an ice cream maker.
Ryan and I got an ice cream maker at the beginning of summer, and so far we’ve made about 10 litres! Most of the recipes we follow use the French style, which means the base is an egg custard. Many of these recipes use four or five (and sometimes six) egg yolks. That means I was left with containers full of egg whites!
Twelve egg whites is about 1.5 cups, depending on the size of your eggs. So if you forget how many egg whites are in your container, you can just measure it out. Thankfully, egg whites last a long time in the fridge, and for months in the freezer.
Angel food cake is a sponge cake that is leavened by whipped egg whites instead of baking powder. It also contains no fat, as it contains no butter, oil, or egg yolks. Here I flavoured the cake with a hint of almond extract. Ideally you would use an angel food cake tube pan which has little feet on the top rim. These feet allow you to let the cake pan cool upside down and air to circulate without compressing the cake. However, I don’t have one of these pans, so I use a springform tube pan that I already had in my kitchen.
The angel food cake is an American cake, the first recipe appearing in Lettice Bryan’s The Kentucky Housewife of 1839 (according to Wikipedia).
This is a great cake to bring to a pot luck or picnic, as there is no frosting that will melt in hot weather. Also, the finished cake has great structure due to the amount of egg whites used. Serve with fresh fruit (here we have Niagara peaches) and whipped cream, dusted with icing sugar.
Easy Angel Food Cake
Ingredients
- 12 egg whites room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1 3/4 cups white sugar divided
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 cups flour
- 2 Tbsp flour
- 1 Tbsp icing sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 F.
- In a large bowl, whip the egg whites and cream of tartar at medium speed until foamy.
- Slowly beat in 1 cup of sugar. Keep whipping until soft peaks form.
- Whip in the vanilla and almond extracts.
- In a medium bowl, mix the remaining 3/4 cup sugar, the 2 cups plus 2 Tbsp flour, and salt.
- Sift the sugar and flour mixture into the egg white mixture in thirds, folding between each addition.
- Spoon the mixture into a 10" tube pan and smooth the top. Tap the pan gently once or twice on the counter to settle the batter.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Remove cake pan from oven and let cool upside down. I balance mine on an upside down coffee mug so that the cake can hang.
- Once cool, remove from pan. Dust with icing sugar and serve with fresh fruits and whipped cream!
Angel food cakes are great to bake in advance. Thankfully, the finished cake will keep at room temperature, well wrapped, for 3-4 days. They are also pretty quick to whip up.
Check out some of our other cake recipes here:
- Cardamom cake with rosewater whipped cream
- Chocolate marble pound cake
- Carrot cake with cream cheese icing
- Cinnamon streusel coffee cake
- Black chocolate bundt cake
- Caribbean buttered rum cake
- Maulwurftorte – German molehill cake
Yes, I have always been intimidated by Angel food cakes, too!
If you ever have 12 egg whites to use up, this recipe is tops! I’ve made it already three times with no problems!
That is a great looking Angel food cake! I have never made one but you make it sound so easy I feel I should give it a go! 🙂
Thank you for sharing it at Fiesta Friday 🙂
I love how you serve the fruit and cream on the side. Some folks (like me) love just the cake! And this one is lovely!! Thanks for sharing at the What’s for Dinner party. Hope you have an amazing week ahead.
It looks delicious! The only time I made angel food cake I used an angle food cake flute that came with our springform pan and so much of the cake mixture leaked out the crack in the springform pan and made such a mess of the oven. I have been afraid to give it another try!
I’ve had a similar disaster making monkey bread and leaking butter into a gas oven…
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Mmm, this looks really yummy! I always loved eating Angel Food Cake as a kid which seemed rather popular at family and church gatherings. I’m a bit curious to try your recipe, so I borrowed it. Thanks for sharing, my dear! Have a boogietastic week!!
Let us know how it goes! We’ve made it several times so far and it’s a winner every time!
I haven’t made an angel food cake in years and you have sparked my interest. I’ve pinned your recipe. Thank you so much for bringing it to Fiesta Friday.