Angel Food Cake Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to angel food cake? ›

Egg Whites: The star of the show! They provide all of the leavening for angel food cake. Using only whites (no yolks) gives this cake a super light texture. Be sure to use only fresh eggs; liquid egg whites in a carton have been pasteurized, which can prevent them from whipping into stiff peaks.

Ingredients. Sugar, Wheat Flour Bleached, Egg White, Corn Starch, Baking Soda, Citric Acid, Enzyme Modified Soy Protein, Calcium Phosphate, Salt, Cellulose Gum, Artificial Flavor, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (a whipping aid). Contains Wheat, Egg And Soy Ingredients.

An angel food cake is finished baking when the cake is golden brown and it springs back when touched. If the cake stays pressed when you touch it, it isn't finished baking and needs a few more minutes.

In delicate sponge-type cakes (like chiffon or angel food cake) there are two moments for concern. First, when you're whipping the egg foam, and second, when you're incorporating the flour. An overmixed egg foam will be slack, wet, loose, and unable to hold peaks.

Give your boxed angel food cake mix a summery twist by adding a can of crushed pineapple to it. Gently fold it into the whisked batter, careful not to deflate the mixture. If you over-whisk it, the cake will turn out chewy and dense.

Vanilla and almond extracts: A combination of vanilla extract and almond extract gives angel food cake its signature flavor that's delicate and almost marshmallow-like.

As stated previously, Angel Food Cakes are great for people with diabetes because they are low in sugar compared to most other cakes, and especially low in simple sugars and carbohydrates.

Angel food cake is a white sponge cake made with only stiffly beaten egg whites (yolks would make it yellow and inhibit the stiffening of the whites) and no butter.

Angel food cake recipes are also unique because they contain beaten egg whites for leavening and because no fat is used in the batter. Without the fat, there's no tenderizing effect on the batter and the gluten develops more easily, which can result in a gummy mixture.

Baking: The temperature at which an angel food is baked is very important – if it's too low, the cake won't rise like it should. If it's too high, the top of the cake will set before the cake has fully risen, and it will stifle itself. Either way, the result is a less-than-airy angel food.

Why did my angel food cake fall in the middle? ›

If a cake pan is too small, the batter may be too deep. It will rise and maybe dome, but if the center is still wet, it will collapse before the structure sets in the center. (It may also spill over the sides of the pan and onto the oven floor, or both!)

It's not just the raw eggs. Don't do this. Most of us know that raw eggs in cookie dough and cake batter can carry salmonella, but a new warning from the FDA and surge of product recalls is a grim reminder that raw flour could be making us sick, too.

Not recommended are aluminum, which will tint the egg whites gray, and plastic, because with plastic it's almost impossible to remove the traces of fat that have accumulated from previous uses. (Fat prevents the whites from reaching full volume.) A deep, round-bottomed bowl is the best shape.

The gas and bloating you've experienced after eating your cake is because of the gastrointestinal side effects of the maltitol and lactitol. These sweeteners are slowly and only partly absorbed from the digestive tract, and this can cause a laxative effect or gas.

The reason angel food cake is made in a tube pan is because the pan needs to not be greased in order for it to rise. This means the cake will stick to the pan and needs to be released by pushing it through or using a butter knife or something similar.

Baking: The temperature at which an angel food is baked is very important – if it's too low, the cake won't rise like it should. If it's too high, the top of the cake will set before the cake has fully risen, and it will stifle itself. Either way, the result is a less-than-airy angel food.