NaBloPoMo #10: #RECIPE: Angel food cake

Angel food cake is probably my favorite cake to make from scratch.  Don't get me wrong, regular cake-with-frosting is good too, and I like making it, but it's so rich that I don't love having it hanging around the house, taunting me with its buttery goodness.  

Angel food cake is hardly a health food but as far as indulging in a special treat goes, you could do a lot worse. In the words of Cookie Monster, it's a great "sometimes treat".  I particularly like making it when strawberries are in season...or, year round because it's awesome. 

Angel food cake: the only cake that needs to hang upside down.  Like a bat!

ALSO, the scientist in me loves beating egg whites.

In the same vein of yesterday's entry about how much I love having a tried-and-true recipe to work from...I have tried a LOT of angel food cake recipes in my search for the perfect one, including the one from Alton Brown and the one from America's Test Kitchen...so you might be surprised to learn that my favorite, go-to angel food cake recipe is actually from (drumroll) the humble Betty Crocker herself!  

I like this version the best because it doesn't require cake flour (one less flour to keep around, my pantry is already pretty cluttered with the all-purpose, wheat, and bread flours I keep stocked, PLUS it's hard to find unbleached cake flour and the flour bleaching process is gross) and it also doesn't mess around with grinding up sugar (I like my food processor but HATE washing it). 

It's a simple recipe for a very simple cake. Love!

Angel food cake recipe

From Betty Crocker

Ingredients:

12 large eggs

1.5 c powdered sugar

1 c all-purpose flour

1.5 t cream of tartar

1 cup white sugar

1 1/2 t vanilla

1/2 t almond extract

1/4 t salt

Instructions:

Separate the egg whites into a clean, large bowl (you don't use the yolks, I just throw mine away).

Let the egg white sit until they reach room temperature - 30 min to an hour.

After that, preheat the oven to 375.

Combine the flour and powdered sugar in a small bowl, and set aside.

Sprinkle the cream of tartar over the egg whites.  With an electric mixer, beat on high until foamy.
After the mixture is foamy, start slowly adding the sugar while continuing to beat the eggs on high.

Once all the sugar is added, add the vanilla, almond extract, and salt while still beating the eggs.

Keep beating the eggs on high until the egg whites are stiff and glossy.  If you aren't sure if they're glossy yet, then they probably aren't -- it's pretty obvious.  Err on the side of overbeating rather than underbeating.

Once you have stiff, glossy peaks, sprinkle about 1/4 c of the powdered sugar/flour mixture on top and fold in using a rubber spatula.  Repeat this step until all the sugar/flour is incorporated.  Don't rush it, you're trying to keep the egg whites as fluffy as possible.

Spoon the batter into an ungreased angel food cake pan.
Bake 30-35 minutes.

After you remove the cake from the oven, hang it upside down so that the cake doesn't collapse on itself before it cools.
After 2 hours or whenever it's cooled, run a knife between the cake and pan and shake the pan upside down over a plate to get the cake to fall out. 
Eat, enjoy!

Note: the one inconvenient thing about angel food cake is that it requires a specialized pan. You need an angel food cake pan to make angel food cake and there's (almost) no way around that -- also, NOT nonstick because the cake climbs as it bakes (I have no idea why people even sell nonstick angel food cake pans).  If you really don't want to buy one, though, (understandable) Betty Crocker says you can make 30 cupcakes by reducing the baking time to 15-20 minutes.  Fair warning, I've never tried it.

Second note: sugar, powdered sugar, and I suspect almond extract and cream of tartar, are all considered processed ingredients.  I think I'm 2-for-2 on posting legitimately unprocessed recipes, currently. To which I say: Eh.  ~shrug~