Hi guys!
I'm Laura Vitale.
On this episode of 'Laura In The Kitchen' I am going to show you how to make Angle Food
Cake.
It is absolutely delicious; it is relatively simple to make.
It is really easy, and I am going to show you exactly how to do it.
The first thing you need to do is go over the ingredients so that we can get started.
You are going to need some cake flour, egg whites, regular granulated sugar, vanilla
extract, almond extract, cream of tartar, and salt.
Those are your ingredients.
Angel Food Cake is great; there is no butter in it, there is no oil in it, there is very
little flour in it, and it is made with egg whites, so it is kind of 'figure friendly'.
There is sugar in it, but you can't win them all, can you?!
So, before we get started, let me give you a few pointers on Angel Food Cake, because
I do know that a lot of people that have been e-mailing me requesting the recipe, have been
telling me that they feel intimidated about making Angel Food Cake.
There's a few steps, a few things that you need to know before you start.
The first thing you need to do, of course, get your oven preheated, but that's like always.
But, the key things to this is, if you are going to make it in a standing mixer, like
I am doing it, you want to make sure that your bowl, and your whisk is really, really,
clean; there's to be no residue of anything in there, because otherwise, the egg whites
will not get that beautiful, glossy color.
Second thing is you must use cake flour.
It's much, much finer than regular all purpose flour, giving you that light, soft, airy inside,
that makes the Angel Food Cake so special.
The second thing is that you need to have egg whites, and make sure that when you are
separating your egg whites that no yolks go into your egg whites; otherwise, they are
not going to get nice and stiff peaks, and beautiful like they should.
And third thing is you have to have an angel food pan, like so, and it cannot be greased.
This is nonstick, you want nonstick, but you do not want to grease it at all.
You don't want any grease in this recipe, whatsoever.
Okay, now that the oven is preheated, let's get started.
The first thing we need to do is sift the flour.
Now, you guys already know that I am not a big fan of sifting, just because it takes
time, but this time, you need to sift, and you don't only have to sift once, but you
have to sift this three times.
You want to make sure that this is lump-free and by sifting, it gets nice and airy and
just delicious, and gives you that perfect, perfect consistency.
So all I am going to do is sift this three times, going from this bowl, to this bowl,
to this bowl.
See those little lumps there?
You don't want any of those.
So now I am going to do exactly the same thing, and sift it to this bowl.
Last time to sift.
Perfect.
Now, I am going to set this aside.
Another really key point to this is that your egg whites must be at room temperature.
Now, it is much easier to separate your eggs when they are cold, so separate the eggs from
the whites and the yolks, put the yolks into the refrigerator.
It makes for a fantastic ice cream.
You can make custard with it.
Don't throw them away.
But, keep the egg whites at room temperature for about a half an hour, and now I am just
going to put these into my mixer, along with the cream of tartar, and the salt.
And, the cream of tartar stabilizes the egg whites, and makes them kind of hold their
shape better, so all I am going to do is mix this until it is nice and frothy.
Now that my egg whites are nice and frothy, I am going to start adding in my sugar, one
tablespoon at a time.
I am going to add in my vanilla, and my almond extract.
And now, I am just going to crank the speed up to high.
That's a little too high.
And, let those whip up until the egg whites become nice and stiff peaks, and glossy.
That looks exactly how I want it to look, so now I am going to get rid of this, put
this in my sink, get my bowl, and now it is time to fold in your cake flour.
And, I am going to do this just a third at a time, and just folding it like so.
You don't want to deflate the egg whites; that is why we do this by hand instead of
putting it in - instead of doing it with the mixer running.
That is good, just folded in the last of my flour.
Now I am just going to put this in my ungreased tube pan.
Just trying to get this to be as even as you can manage.
Make this as level as possible.
That looks fabulous.
Now you are going to take a butter knife, and I just do little swirls, and this just
kind of gets the air bubbles out if there are any.
You don't want air bubbles.
So, that looks perfect.
It looks like a big cloud; I guess that is why they call it Angel Food Cake, right?
Now this is going to go into your preheated oven, at 350F, for about forty to forty-five
minutes.
You will see that the outside is like, light brown, and cracked on top, and I will show
you what to do the minute it comes out of the oven.
My Angel Food Cake was in the oven for forty minutes, and it is exactly how it should look.
Now this is extremely important.
This cake has to cool upside down.
It just has to, otherwise, it is going to fall on itself, and become very heavy.
And, you want to put the pan on something that is going to hold it upside down, and
I use a heat-proof wine bottle.
It works every single time; just make sure there is actually liquid in it that holds
it nice and steady, and this is going to cool like this, for about an hour-and-a-half, or
until it is fully, fully, fully cooled, and like I said, this step is crucial.
It has to happen.
So, I am just going to set this aside, for about an hour-and-a-half, and then I will
show you what it looks like once it is cooled.
My Angel Food Cake is completely cooled, so now I can take it off the bottle.
Take a knife; I am just going to run it, right on the edge, the center, as well.
Now you just lift it out, and I just take my knife, run it right along the bottom.
Dun Dun dah!!
Put it on a cake plate!
Ah, it's so beautiful!
Smells fantastic!
I just want to stare at it for just a second, because it looks so beautiful.
Now we are going to go right into it, and get a nice slice, but I am going to clean
up first.
Let's give this a slice.
It's so soft.
Just cutting it is like - make sure you cut it with a serrated knife so that you don't
damage it.
Look at that, oh, that is beautiful!
Ah, take some berries, put that alongside for a good contrast in colors and, of course,
taste.
I just really want to give this cake a taste.
Ah, you can see it is so beautiful and light.
It's delicious!
Mmmm, it is the softest, most fluffiest cake you will ever put in your mouth.
It's so so good.
It's not heavy, at all, and this recipe is totally fool proof if you just follow this
recipe, and follow the key steps I told you about, you will have perfect Angel Food cake,
on your table, any time, whenever you are ready, whenever you want it, whenever you
have company over, just you want to make yourself some Angel Food Cake.
You know what I am saying?!
You can get this recipe, and others, go to www.laurainthekitchen.com.
I am going to continue to eat this, because it is really delicious!
Catch you next time.
Bye bye!