Angel Food Cake

This weekend, I actually made two of these cakes. I was worried that the tube pan I'd purchased barely fit inside my toaster oven - the metal "tube" actually touched the top of my oven, so I wanted to do a "test" cake before I actually baked for my co-workers. Fortunately, I discovered that the center of my oven is slightly taller than the opening, so the pan didn't actually touch the oven's roof - but it was very, very close! The top did burn a little during baking, but I was easily able to trim the burnt pieces after cooling.

As for the actual recipe, it is fairly straight-forward. The only aspect that posed any challenge is beating the egg whites to a stiff peak - which is quite the workout without the aid of an electric mixer! I was also a little curious as to why the dry ingredients needed to be sifted so many times (the original recipe called for 5 siftings - I only did three and had no issues.) Although the cake is a little denser than what I'd have in the States, it was still very tasty. (I believe the denseness might the be result of overmixing the dry ingredients into the egg whites - less is more when it comes to stirring with whipped ingredients!



Angel Food Cake
(yields one 6-7" tube pan)

¾ c. egg whites
½ c. plus 2 T. flour
¾ c. plus 2 T. sugar
&frac18 t. salt
½ t. cream of tartar
¼ t. vanilla
¼ t. almond extract*

Beat the egg white until they form stiff peaks. Add the cream of tartar, vanilla (and optional almond extract) and mix well. Sift together flour, sugar, and salt. Re-sift two to three additional times. Gently combine the egg whites with the dry ingredients and pour into an ungreased tube pan. Place cake in a cold oven, and set temperature to 325°F (165°C). Bake for approximately 55-60 minutes or until golden brown. Invert pan and allow the cake to cool completely before removing from the pan.

I omitted this since I didn't have almond extract and don't think of angel food cake as having an almond-y flavor.