Angel food cake is light and airy and will melt in your mouth, especially when served with fluffy whipped cream frosting.
By Kelsey Hilts
Angel food cake is a type of sponge cake that originated in North America in the late 19th century. It is made with egg whites and baked in a tube pan to allow the cake to rise more than other cakes. It is light and airy and will melt in your mouth, especially when served with fluffy whipped cream frosting. Its sweet, rich almond flavor goes well with fruits and berries and paired with its overall light texture makes it the perfect cake for summer.
I have always loved angel food cake so I’m not sure why I haven’t tried making it until recently. I used a classic recipe from The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook and discovered that it is surprisingly simple to make as long as you have lots of egg whites. Beating the egg whites into stiff peaks, using cake flour and ultimately not over beating the batter are important steps to keep the batter light and airy. You can top the cake with many things but whipped cream and fruit complement the light cake perfectly in my opinion. The cake is thick so I like to slice it in half and spread fluffy frosting in the center to create a creamy whipped cream filling.
PrintAngel Food Cake
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 12 1x
Description
Angel food cake is light and airy and will melt in your mouth, especially when served with fluffy whipped cream frosting. Its sweet, rich almond flavor goes well with fruits and berries and paired with its overall light texture makes it the perfect cake for summer.
Ingredients
Angel Food Cake {The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook}
- 1 1/4 cups (163g) powdered sugar
- 1 cup (90g) cake flour
- 1 1/2 cups (355mL) egg whites (roughly 10–12 egg whites), at room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp (4,7g) cream of tartar
- 1 1/2 tsp (7,4mL) vanilla
- 1/4 tsp (1g) salt
- 1/4 tsp (1mL) almond extract
- 1 cup (192g) sugar
Whipped Cream Frosting
- 2 cups (473mL) heavy cream
- 1/4 cup (32,5g) powdered sugar
- 1/8 tsp (0,5g) salt
- 1 tsp (5mL) vanilla or almond extract
Instructions
Angel Food Cake {The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook}
- Stir the powdered sugar and cake flour together in a bowl and set it aside.
- Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, vanilla, salt and almond extract at high speed until well mixed.
- Continue beating the mixture and add the sugar, 2 Tbsp (24g) at a time, just until the sugar dissolves and the egg whites form stiff peaks.
- Do not scrape the bowl while you beat the batter.
- Fold in the cake flour mixture, 1/4 a time, using a rubber spatula, just until the flour disappears.
- Pour the batter into an ungreased 10-inch (25,4cm) tube pan.
- Cut through the batter with the spatula to break any air bubbles.
- Bake the cake for 30 minutes or until the top of the cake springs back to the touch. Any cracks on the surface should look dry.
- Invert the cake pan onto a funnel and let it cool completely.
- Loosen the cake from the pan with a spatula and place it on a plate.
Whipped Cream Frosting
- Beat the cream, sugar and salt at medium speed until stiff peaks form.
- Fold in the vanilla or almond extract.
- If a creamy whipped cream filling is desired, slice the cake in half using a serrated knife.
- Spread a thin layer of whipped cream frosting in between the layers.
- Then frost the outside of the angel food cake and using the spatula pull the frosting into attractive peaks.
- Keep the frosting and the frosted desserts in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve them.
- Slice the cake with a serrated knife so that the cake doesn’t compress while being cut.
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
Oven temp omitted..375 leaves cake burned on top and goooey in center perhaps 350 for 45 min
I’ll give this a try it sounds good.
Why did you not tell us to use a chilled bowl and beaters when making the topping? I was beating it for a good 7 minutes until I finally googled how to make a whipped cream topping.
Mmmm making this topping. Any tips?
I’ve look over and over again..maybe i’m overlooking something.
but What degree of the oven you are supposed to bake??
Thanks for catching that. Bake the cake at 375 degrees F. Enjoy!!
Wow, it’s like eating a giant marshmallow! I love the idea of adding almond extract.