I had a bunch of egg whites left from making ice cream and figured I may as well use them in a cake even though angel food isn't my favorite. They're so...spongy, and it's like I should use it to scrub my body, not consume. Because it was so pretty in a picture, this recipe was selected for my first angel food cake go-round.
Since I'm not a sauce junky, I opted to cut the sauce in half. The other ingredients are exactly as written in the original recipe.
Raspberry Angel Food Cake
from Cooking Club of America
click to print
CAKE
1 c sifted cake flour
1 1/3 c sugar, divided
Dash salt
1 1/2 c egg whites (10 to 12), room temperature
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp grated lemon peel
1 1/2 c fresh raspberries
Powdered sugar for sprinkling
SAUCE
2 (10- to 12-oz.) pkg. frozen raspberries
3/4 c sugar
Heat oven to 325°F.
Combine flour, 1/3 cup of the sugar and salt in small bowl.
Sift 3 times to evenly distribute ingredients and lighten mixture.
Beat egg whites in large bowl at medium-high speed 1 minute or until foamy.
My little hand mixer took a minute and 30 seconds to get this foamy.
Add cream of tartar; beat 30 seconds or until soft peaks form.
This took 3 minutes for me.
At low speed, slowly beat in remaining 1 cup sugar. Increase speed to medium-high; beat 30 seconds or until firm but not stiff peaks form.
You're gonna have to trust that I did add the sugar. And then it took 12 minutes for the peaks to happen.
Add lemon juice and vanilla; continue beating 30 seconds or until stiff peaks form.
Sift one-third of the flour mixture over the egg white mixture; gently fold in. Repeat twice.
Be gentle, lifting the egg whites from the bottom of the bowl and turning them over the flour, rotate the bowl, lift the egg whites from the bottom and turn them over the flour...repeat. I did four folds each time I added flour.
Fold in lemon peel.
Gently spoon half of the batter into ungreased 10-inch tube pan with removable bottom. Sprinkle half of the fresh raspberries over the batter; repeat with remaining batter and raspberries.
Run long narrow spatula through batter to eliminate any large air bubbles; gently smooth top.
Bake 50-60 minutes, or until top is golden brown and wooden skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean.
Invert cake onto feet attached to tube pan or onto neck of bottle or funnel. Cool completely.
Meanwhile, combine frozen raspberries and sugar in medium saucepan; bring to a boil.
This took about 12 minutes.
Cook over medium heat 5 to 8 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring frequently. Remove from heat.
Strain through fine mesh strainer into small bowl; discard seeds.
Carefully slide thin narrow knife or spatula around edges of pan and tube; lift tube out of pan.
I let my cake cook a total of one hour and 20 minutes. In that time, the tube part of the pan separated from the edge part.
Invert cake; remove pan. Place cake, top side up, onto serving platter. Lightly sprinkle with powdered sugar; serve with raspberry sauce.
All of that flour sifting was annoying. I am not sure how best to do it besides going back and forth between two bowls which ends up putting a very fine white mist on every surface in the vicinity. And I'm sure it's been proven that for a perfectly aerated, fluffy, spongy cake, it is a task that shouldn't be skipped.
The eggs took what seemed like forever to become firm. I'm not sure if that's because my eggs weren't straight-from-the-farm fresh or maybe they weren't quite room temperature or my mixer speed was slow.
The original directions said to bake the cake for 60 minutes. It started smelling done and I'm glad I checked it at 50 minutes and confirmed that my sniffer was on time.
Tasting it, the batter was fluffy and tasty. The baked cake turned out well. Some people at work really liked it a lot. Dave, who I don't think ever eats desserts, even commented on it positively. Oh, and halving the sauce worked out. It yields just over a cup, maybe 1.5 cups of sauce, and that was plenty for everyone.
Cost:
- cake flour: $0.44
- sugar: $0.34
- egg whites: $1.82
- lemon: $0.17
- vanilla extract: $0.12
- fresh raspberries: $5.79
- frozen raspberries: $4.49
