Angel food cake
An American cake built on one rule that goes against most bakers' instincts: the tin must not be greased. The batter has no fat and no raising agent, so it rises purely on whipped egg white — and it needs something to climb up. The second rule is equally counterintuitive: the finished cake cools upside down, hung on a bottle, because its own weight would compress it into a disc.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Preparation 15 min
- Meringue 15 min
- Baking 45 min
- Cooling 75 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneDo not grease the tin at all
Heat the oven to 170°C. Prepare a tube tin about 25 cm across, completely dry and ungreased. This is not an oversight: a fat-free batter rises by climbing the sides, and on a greased surface it has nothing to hold — it slips back and bakes as a flat, rubbery ring.
Ingredients: 12 pcs egg whites · 300 g sugar · 130 g cake flour · 30 g cornflour · ½ tsp citric acid · ½ tsp salt · 2 tsp vanilla extract
Sift the flour with sugar four times
Blitz 100 g of the sugar to powder, mix it with the flour, cornflour and salt and sift the lot four times. Four is not excessive. Heavy lumps of flour punch through the foam and sink, forming a dense layer at the base.
Ingredients: 12 pcs egg whites · 300 g sugar · 130 g cake flour · 30 g cornflour · ½ tsp citric acid · ½ tsp salt · 2 tsp vanilla extract
Whip the whites with the citric acid
Whip the whites with the citric acid until foamy and opaque, then add the remaining 200 g of sugar a spoonful at a time. The acid stabilises the foam, so it holds up in the oven and the crumb bakes snow-white.
Ingredients: 12 pcs egg whites · 300 g sugar · 130 g cake flour · 30 g cornflour · ½ tsp citric acid · ½ tsp salt · 2 tsp vanilla extract
Stop at medium peaks
Whip until the peak on the whisk just curls over — not to full stiffness. An over-whipped foam is dry and grainy, breaks as you fold in the flour and loses air instead of holding it. Finally, briefly whisk in the vanilla extract.
Ingredients: 12 pcs egg whites · 300 g sugar · 130 g cake flour · 30 g cornflour · ½ tsp citric acid · ½ tsp salt · 2 tsp vanilla extract
The peak just curls — do not whip to stiffness.Fold in the flour in four additions
Sift the flour over the foam in four additions, folding each in with a spatula from the bottom up. Twenty strokes per addition, no more. Every extra stroke is lost air, and in this batter air is the only raising agent.
Ingredients: 12 pcs egg whites · 300 g sugar · 130 g cake flour · 30 g cornflour · ½ tsp citric acid · ½ tsp salt · 2 tsp vanilla extract
Fill the tin and run a knife through
Spoon the mixture into the tin, level it and draw a knife through it in several places to break the larger air pockets. Left intact, they show up in the baked cake as big empty holes.
Ingredients: 12 pcs egg whites · 300 g sugar · 130 g cake flour · 30 g cornflour · ½ tsp citric acid · ½ tsp salt · 2 tsp vanilla extract
A knife breaks large pockets — or they become holes.Bake 45 minutes and keep the oven shut
Bake 45 minutes at 170°C. Do not open the oven for the first 35 minutes — a sudden temperature drop collapses the foam irreversibly. The cake is done when the top is springy and lightly cracked.
Ingredients: 12 pcs egg whites · 300 g sugar · 130 g cake flour · 30 g cornflour · ½ tsp citric acid · ½ tsp salt · 2 tsp vanilla extract
Cool upside down on a bottle
Invert the tin and hang it by its tube on the neck of a bottle for 75 minutes. Cooled the right way up, the cake settles under its own weight. Once cold, run a knife around the sides and turn it out. To serve, whip the cold cream with the icing sugar to soft peaks and slice the strawberries — serve alongside each piece.
Ingredients: 400 g strawberries · 250 ml whipping cream (30%) · 30 g icing sugar
Hung on a bottle — otherwise it settles under its own weight.
Before you start
Not a trace of fat
A drop of yolk in the whites or grease in the bowl makes the foam impossible. Crack the eggs one at a time into a separate bowl and wipe the mixing bowl with a lemon half. This is the commonest cause of a failed angel food cake.
What to do with twelve yolks
You are left with exactly enough for tocino de cielo, crème anglaise, mousseline cream or mayonnaise. Yolks keep two days in the fridge under a layer of water, poured off before use.
Saw it, do not press
An ordinary knife crushes this crumb. Use a serrated knife with a sawing motion and no pressure. In the US special cutting combs are sold for it — a two-pronged fork works too.
