Angel Food Cake

Berry season is sadly at its end. Strawberry picking is over. I canned my customary batch of raspberry jam. Soon berries will make way to stone fruit in the delicious seasonal food cycle. I blinked and Spring turned to Summer.

I am relieved that Ontario is opening up at long last. My children are finally independent at day camps after months of painful online learning. Business closed for far too long are seeing signs of relief. Yet I feel somehow melancholy that our forced containment is ending. It was nice, for a while to enjoy the quiet, to relish simple days with few demands. Perhaps the answer as we all resume parts of our former lives, is to do away with the obligations that feel obligatory. Keep the engagements that bring us enjoyment. Try to enjoy some quiet.

This cake is the perfect accompaniment to the last of the berries. Typically angel food cake is a daunting, fickle dessert. Stella Parks in her usual fashion has taken all of the guess work out of angel food cake, simplifying the process and ensuring delicious results to even notice bakers.

It is best to use a proper angel food cake pan, one with a removable bottom and stilts for holding the pan upside down. I did not have an angel food cake pan (probably because my husband abhors single use items in the kitchen) and so I made do with a 10-inch spring form pan and placed a pop can in the center, weighted with beans. Not ideal, but it did the trick. What is crucial is do not grease your pan. The cake requires an ungreased pan to rise up the sides of the pan. You also need to ensure that you place the pan upside down as soon as it comes out of the oven. If your cake pan has stilts, this is easy. If you are using a cake pan without stilts, place the center of the bunt pan upside down onto a wine bottle, with the top of the wine bottle fitting into the mouth of the tube. For me- I just inverted it onto the pop can, losing only a few beans in the process.

Angel Food Cake

From Stella Parks, Bravetart

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp (5 ounces) bleached cake flour
2 cups (15 ounces) egg whites, straight from the fridge (from 12-15 large eggs)
2 cups (15 ounces) sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp (1 ounce) freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp kosher salt

Adjust oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350F. Have ready an aluminum tub pan with a removable bottom, roughly 10 inches across and 4 inches deep (See Note above). Do not use a non-stick pan and do not grease the pan.

Sift flour. If using a cup measure, spoon into the cup and level with a knife before sifting.

Combine egg whites, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix on low speed to moisten, about 1 minute, then increase to medium-low (4 on a KitchenAid) and whip for 3 minutes; the whites will look very dense and dark from the vanilla. Add the lemon juice and salt and increase the speed to medium (6 on KitchenAid), and whip for 3 minutes. The meringue will be light but thin, not foamy. Increase to medium-high (8 on a KitchenAid) and continue whipping until the wires leave a distinct vortex pattern in the thick, glossy meringue, another 3 minutes or so depending on the freshness of your eggs. To check the meringue, detach the whisk. When whipped to very soft peaks, the meringue will run off the wires but retain enough body to pile up on itself in a soft-mound.

Sprinkle cake flour over the meringue and stir gently with a flexible spatula to disperse. Switch to a folding motion and work from the bottom up, cutting through the middle, until no pockets of flour remain. Pour the batter into the pan. If you notice a small patch of unmixed flour as you pour, incorporate into the surrounding batter with a gentle wiggle of your spatula. The pan should be about 2/3 full.

Bake until the cake has risen will above the rim of the pan, with a firm, golden blonde crust, about 45 minutes. The cake should register 206F on an instant read thermometer. Immediately invert the pan on its stilts, or over the neck of a wine bottle, and cool upside down until no trace of warmth remains, at least 2 hours.

Turn the cooled cake right side up and loosen the outer edges with a metal spatula. Lift the venter tub to remove the cake, then loosen it from the bottom. Invert onto a serving plate. When ready to serve, cut with a chef’s knife or serrated bread knife, with a gentle sawing motion, applying very little downward pressure. Serve with berries and plenty of whipped cream.

Wrapped tightly in plastic, leftovers will keep for up to a week at room temperature.