Almond Angel Food Cake

In the summer, I am always looking for recipes that will leverage all of the fruit that is in season. I was never one for baking, but over this past year, I have become obsessed with finding recipes that are not only a little bit of a challenge for me, but taste and look amazing. This recipe for Angel Food Cake was fun to make, goes great with just about any fruit you have in the house and was definitely husband approved!

One of my go to resources in the kitchen is the America’s Test Kitchen website. There are endless recipes, helpful hints and reviews of kitchen gadgets (another one of my obsessions). They have multiple versions of Angel Food Cake, of which this recipe is a bit of a simple spinoff.

Required Tools

• Food Processor
• Mixer
• Angel Food Cake Pan (tube pan)
• Rubber Spatula
• Sifter

I used a food processor, as well as a mixer, but a blender and/or hand mixer could be substituted in. A fine mesh sieve can be used in place of the sifter.

There are only 6 core ingredients in this recipe, making it quite manageable.

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Ingredients

• 1.75 cups of white granulated sugar

• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp cake flour. Do not substitute all purpose flour here (see tips below)

• 12 large egg whites (see tips below)

• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt

• 1.5 tsp cream of tartar

• 1.5 tsp Almond Extract (you can substitute Vanilla, if desired)

• Optional Ingredients

• Any type of berry, banana, or other fruit, confectioners sugar for dusting, whipped cream or mascarpone to top

Instruction

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Set rack to middle position in oven
2. Using a food processor or blender, pulse all of the sugar until it is a very fine consistency. Remove 1 cup of the sugar from processor and set aside
3. Add the salt and flour to the processor and pulse only until combined
4. Add the egg whites and cream of tartar to mixing bowl. Set mixer to medium high and slowly incorporate the 1 cup of sugar that you had set aside. Mix until you have soft peaks. This should take about 5 mins. Feel free to stop and check the mixing attachment to ensure you are not over mixing. Once you have soft peaks, add in the Almond Extract and mix for only the seconds it requires to be completely distributed
5. Here is where you need some patience. To avoid creating a dense Angel Food Cake, sift the flour mixture into the egg mixture very slowly, using your spatula to fold in the dry ingredients. Slowly work out any pockets of flour, but the name of the game it to not overwork the batter and work slowly getting it combined
6. Once batter is ready, pour into ungreased Angel Food Cake pan. Use spatula to lightly spready out the batter evenly
7. Bake for 40-50 mins, beginning to check for a golden brown top at the 40 min mark. The top should feel springy to the touch
8. Invert cake, in the mold, upside down onto a cooling rack and allow to cool in the mold for 2 hours. Once cooled, carefully run an icing spatula (if you have it) around edge of cake to release cake, with the bottom of pan from main part of pan. If you do not have an icing spatula, a flexible knife will do the trick. Carefully remove the bottom of pan and turn cake over, bottom side up on your platter.
9. Finish with confectioners sugar and fruit, as desired!

Tips

• Do not skimp on the Almond Extract. Only use pure
• When separating the egg whites from the yolks, use a separate bowl and separate each on its’ own, before adding to the rest of the whites. This is to ensure there is NO yolk in the mixture of whites. If some yolk does get into your whites, use a shell half to fish it out and remove
• If you decide to use Vanilla, rather than Almond Extract, also adjust the recipe for whipped cream to also use
• Do not substitute in flours other than Cake Flour
• Be sure to use an Angel Food Cake pan, and not a Bundt Cake pan. It will be too difficult to get the Angel Food Cake to release
• Enjoy!!

If you like this recipe, you may also like my recipe for amazing Strawberry Muffins as well!