Using For using up extra egg whites
Created by Irma Rombauer, 1931
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Related workflows: Whipping Egg Whites; Cocoa Angel Food Cake; Grandma’s Pound Cake.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Sift 1 ½ cups sugar twice. This will break up any lumps & make the sugar a little finer & smoother.
3. Separately from the sugar, sift cake or pastry flour. Only AFTER sifting, measure out 1 cup of flour. **
4. Then sift together three times: the cup of sifted flour, ½ cup of sifted sugar, and ½ teaspoon of salt. Set this mixture aside.
a. You will need a couple bowls for this, as the ingredients are sifted from one bowl to the other.
b. Repeated sifting will mix these ingredients together ahead of time, since you will not be stirring the cake batter much later.
4. In your largest mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to whip
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12 egg whites (aprox. 1 ¼ cup) until foamy. ****
5. Add 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar to the foamy egg whites, then beat them with the electric mixer until they form stiff peaks, but not so long that they look dry.
a. Cream of tartar helps egg whites whip & stay whipped. If you don’t have it, it will take a little more work.
b. You can do this with a hand-cranked mixer or a whisk, but it will take longer.
c. Stiff peaks? Stop the mixer, then lift it out of the egg white. It should leave a peak behind that stands up straight as you lift the mixer out & then doesn’t fall over.
6. Continue to whip the egg whites, slowly adding in the 1 cup of sifted sugar that has not been combined with flour.
7. Whip in the 1 teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract, as well.
8. Once the sugar and extract have been incorporated into the whipped egg whites, set aside the mixer. With a large silicone spatula, gently fold a quarter of the flour & sugar mixture into the whipped egg white. Continue with further portions of the flour & sugar mix.
a. To “fold” a batter, slide the spatula along the inside bottom of the bowl, then use it to gently lift the batter from below and turn it over on itself.
b. DO NOT mix this batter briskly, or fold it any more than absolutely necessary. By treating it gently, you avoid activating the gluten in the flour.
9. Gently pour the batter into an ungreased tube pan. ******
10. Bake for 45 minutes. Position the oven rack so that the cake will have space to rise above the rim of the pan.
11. Remove from oven. To cool, invert the pan. Leave it this way for at least a half an hour, so the cake sets.
a. If the pan does not have feet to hold the cake off the surface it is on, stand it on a funnel or bottle.
12. Once cooled, slide a knife around the inside edge of the tube pan, then separate the two pieces of the pan. Slide a knife around the bottom and center edges, then lift the cake off the pan.
13. To cut a fresh angel food cake, use a cake divider, pry it apart with two forks, or use a serrated knife.
14. Store uneaten cake (if any) in a cake box or cake tote. If storing, do not add frosting, jelly or fruit, etc.
Notes:
**Notes on flour:
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