Delicious, classic Homemade Angel Food Cake recipe! (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to angel food cake? ›

Angel food cake is one-of-a-kind, and no other cake recipe matches its super fluffy, airy texture. Though it's a type of sponge cake, it differs from other popular recipes because it's traditionally made using no butter or oil in the batter. Instead, beaten egg whites are the secret to its ultra-light texture.

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.

Cream of Tartar: Stabilizes the egg whites and keeps them from deflating. This helps create that light, fluffy texture. Vanilla: Vanilla extract adds incredible flavor! For angel food cake variations, try replacing some or all of the vanilla with almond extract, orange extract, or lemon extract.

Ingredients. Sugar, Wheat Flour Bleached, Egg White, Corn Starch, Baking Soda, Citric Acid, Enzyme Modified Soy Protein, Calcium Phosphate, Salt, Cellulose Gum, Artificial Flavor, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (a whipping aid). Contains Wheat, Egg And Soy Ingredients.

Every angel food cake has to be cooled upside down in the pan. Why? Until the cake is completely cooled, its spongy structure hasn't set. Flipping it upside down makes sure it doesn't collapse during that process.

It only uses egg whites as a leavening agent. A lot of them! That's what makes this cake extremely fluffy and light. Another reason why angel food cake is so light is because it's made with cake flour, which has less protein than all-purpose flour.

If you don't have cake flour, you can make a cake flour substitute: Begin with 1 level cup of all-purpose flour. Then remove 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour, and add 2 tablespoons of either cornstarch or arrowroot powder to the flour.

The softer wheat and the lack of fat cause angel food cake to have a very light texture and taste.

What happens when you over mix angel food cake? ›

In delicate sponge-type cakes (like chiffon or angel food cake) there are two moments for concern. First, when you're whipping the egg foam, and second, when you're incorporating the flour. An overmixed egg foam will be slack, wet, loose, and unable to hold peaks.

As stated previously, Angel Food Cakes are great for people with diabetes because they are low in sugar compared to most other cakes, and especially low in simple sugars and carbohydrates.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a 9x13-inch pan with cooking spray. Mix pineapple with juice and cake mix together in a large bowl until well combined; pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 25 minutes.

If the oven is too hot, the cake will set too fast before the air bubbles have formed. If the oven is not hot enough, the cake will rise too much, then fall in the center before it is set. Bake a cake mix cake for a test run to check your oven temperature. (Make sure you've preheated your oven, too.)

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.

Remove from the oven, then cool the cake completely upside-down set on a wire rack, about 3 hours. (Upside-down so the bottom of the tube pan is right-side up, see photo and video above.) Once cooled, run a thin knife around the edges and gently tap the pan on the counter until the cake releases.

These specialty vessels actually help delicate cakes rise. Because egg foam–based cakes like angel food and chiffon contain very little flour, and therefore very little of the structure-building network called gluten, the batter needs something to cling to as it bakes, or it will collapse.

The hole in the middle of the pan allows the hot air to circulate and reach the center of the cake. Unlike most cakes that are simply placed on a wire rack to cool, Angel Food Cakes are immediately inverted so the baked cake will maintain its volume and to keep it from shrinking as it cools.