I love Angel Food cake but it can be a little tricky to make from scratch. I think it’s totally worth the effort though because it has such a delicious subtle almond flavor and the cake itself is not very heavy. The texture is soft and spongy and it has a slightly crisp outer layer.
The trouble with making this cake from scratch is the fragility of the egg whites. What makes Angel Food cake distinct is that the sole rising agent of the cake is whipped egg whites. They can collapse easily so you have to be patient and careful when baking and handling this one. But with a few helpful tips, I promise you can do it!
After you fold in the dry ingredients at the end, I recommend using a metal serving spoon to spoon the batter into an angel food bundt pan. Here’s what it looks like:
Then I smooth the top out gently and bake. You always bake an Angel Food cake in an ungreased pan. In order for it to rise, the cake needs to be able to cling to the sides of the pan.
Next is the trick for cooling the cake. I know this seems crazy, but you should always cool an Angel Food cake upside down! I put mine on top of a bottle. Until the cake is completely cooled, the spongy texture has not set. Cooling it upside down ensures that the cake doesn’t collapse.
Once it has cooled upside down for an hour, you can release the cake from the pan by sliding an offset metal spatula around the sides and carefully wiggling that sucker out. It’s ok that it looks a little crumbly. That’s how it’s supposed to be! Plus, you’re covering it with frosting, so who cares?
I think cream cheese frosting knocks this recipe out of the park and that’s what I always frost this cake with. The sweet but tangy flavor of the frosting goes well with the flavor of the cake.
I frost this cake with an offset metal spatula and since the nature of Angel Food cake is a crumbly surface, you will have a few crumbs showing in your frosting. That’s ok! You could crumb coat it with half the frosting, refrigerate, and frost it again, but honestly that’s just too much. Perfection is boring. Sometimes a perfectly un-perfect home-made dessert just shows how much love you put into it.
After that, you can decorate to your heart’s content with summer berries, dust with powdered sugar, and you will have a beautiful dessert that is both impressive and delicious. This would be perfect for July 4th with it’s patriotic colors. This is also a great cake to make anyone who loves strawberries or lighter desserts.
Look how beautiful! Man, I love this cake. It’s so pretty and tastes so darn good. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Frosted Angel Food Cake with Summer Berries
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 1/4 cup cake flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups egg whites, about 12
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
For the frosting:
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 5 tbsp butter, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp heavy cream
- 3 cups strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Sift together the cake flour and 1/2 cup sugar. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer with a metal bowl and whisk attachment, combine egg whites, salt, cream of tartar, vanilla, and almond extract. Whip until soft peaks start to form. Add the rest of the sugar in 4 separate additions, blending until each addition is absorbed. Do not scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Add the flour mixture in 4 seperate additions, FOLDING it into the batter with a metal serving spoon. Using the same metal spoon, spoon the batter into an ungreased metal angel food bundt pan. Gently smooth out the top and run a knife through the middle of the batter to give it room to expand.
- Bake for 35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Invert the cake pan upside down onto a bottle and cool for at least an hour upside down.
- Once the cake is cool, prepare the frosting in a mixing bowl with a hand mixer. Using an offset spatula, frost the cake. Top with summer berries as desired.
strawberry
