Angel Food Cake Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to a good angel food cake? ›

Egg Whites: The star of the show! They provide all of the leavening for angel food cake. Using only whites (no yolks) gives this cake a super light texture. Be sure to use only fresh eggs; liquid egg whites in a carton have been pasteurized, which can prevent them from whipping into stiff peaks.

Use freshly separated eggs because they aerate the best. Carton egg whites or egg whites that have been frozen won't expand as much during the whipping process, which will negatively affect the rise of your cake. You'll have a lot of leftover egg yolks, so make some lemon curd and serve it with the cake!

Angel Food Cake is a beautiful kind of cake. Is airy, foamy and it has a velvety that feels like a marriage between a pound cake and a cheesecake. It's made solely with egg whites as the leavening agent and no butter, oil or milk.

Use cream of tartar – cream of tartar is an acid and stabilizes the egg whites. Without cream of tartar, your cake will collapse. Other acidic ingredients aren't quite as strong, so I wouldn't recommend substituting cream of tartar with anything. Sift some of the sugar and flour several times – four to be exact.

Without yeast to act as a leavening agent, an angel food cake relies completely on the egg whites to rise. You want to whip the whites just until they form soft peaks; whipping too much will make the cake chewy and dense. (No good!)

Do not grease the angel food cake tube pan (one in which the center tube is higher than the walls of pan and the bottom is removable.) You want the batter to cling to the side while it is rising. A greased pan will not allow the batter to rise.

Yes, you can bake an angel cake in a 9×13 pan instead of a tube pan.

Give your boxed angel food cake mix a summery twist by adding a can of crushed pineapple to it. Gently fold it into the whisked batter, careful not to deflate the mixture. If you over-whisk it, the cake will turn out chewy and dense.

Transfer the cake batter to the angel food cake pan. Using a silicone spatula or spoon, gently level the top. Bake the pan in the preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour until the cake rises to the top, turns golden brown, and the top springs back quickly.

Can I use a bundt pan for angel food cake? ›

The one thing bundt pans and tube pans have in common is their hollow center tube. It's generally advised to bake an angel food cake in a tube pan, but I have always used a bundt pan, and it works very well.

A small bit of moisture or egg yolk mixed in with the egg whites, a particularly humid day, or repeatedly opening your oven can also cause the cake to not rise. Over-mixing the batter once you've added the flour is another likely culprit, mix until just combined.

Can you make angel food cake without cream of tartar? Cream of tartar is used to add volume as well as to stabilize and whiten the whipped egg whites. If you don't have cream of tarter, you can replace every 1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar with 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice or distilled white vinegar as a substitute.

Not Whipping the Egg Whites Correctly

Without yeast to act as a leavening agent, an angel food cake relies completely on the egg whites to rise. You want to whip the whites just until they form soft peaks; whipping too much will make the cake chewy and dense.

The softer wheat and the lack of fat cause angel food cake to have a very light texture and taste. Angel food cake should be cut with a serrated blade, as a straight-edged blade tends to compress the cake rather than slice it.

Overmixing is exactly what it sounds like: the process by which a dough or batter gets mixed too much, typically yielding dense, tough, or deflated baked goods. Overmixed doughs and batters may have an unappealing look or feel, which remain just as unappealing when they're baked.