Angel Food Cake with Vanilla Strawberries

This has been my second time baking an Angel Food Cake, and what I can say that it's still a bit hard for me to bake. But I pulled through! I think I did a pretty good job, cause I thought when I took this cake out the oven it was ruin! But as I let it rest and removed it from the tube pan, I was relieved that it came out good!

Angel Food Cake is a super light and delicious cake. One slice just wouldn't be enough. You would have to have another. The strawberries is a must-have for this recipe. If you prefer, you can add whip cream to each slice of this cake.

If your not so sure about making this cake, do your research first. So you can at least achieve a great cake. 

Good Luck!

Angel Food Cake with Vanilla Strawberries

 Source Alton Brown 
Printer Friendly

Ingredients

1 3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup cake flour, sifted

12 large egg whites, at room temperature

1/3 cup warm water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 pint fresh strawberries

2 to 4 teaspoons granulated sugar (depending on how sweet your berries are)

1/2 scraped vanilla bean

Directions

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In the bowl of a food processor, fitted with the blade attachment, grind sugar for about 2 minutes. This will help create a super fine sugar that will be better absorbed into the egg whites.

Place half of the sugar in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, sift together the remaining sugar, salt, and cake flour.  Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment, beat together the egg whites, water, extract, and cream of tartar medium speed.  If you’re worried that the cream of tartar is too chunky… don’t worry, it’ll smooth itself out.  Beat on medium high, gradually adding the sugar from the small bowl, until medium (not stiff) peaks form.  The meringue will hold a trail of the beaters through it, be glossy, and won’t be overly foamy.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and sift in one quarter of the flour and sugar mixture.  Fold with a spatula.  Try to avoid stirring the mixture too much.  Instead, sweep the egg whites from the bottom of the bowl to the top, incorporating the flour.  Add flour mixture in three more batches.  Fold until thoroughly combine, but don’t overmix or deflate the egg whites.

Spoon battering into an ungreased tube pan.  Ungreased in is important, as it will help the cake rise. 

The tube pan will be full.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.  Remove cake from the oven and carefully invert upside down, propped up on a bottle.  This cake cools upside down.  Let rest for at least an hour before trying to remove from the pan.

Slice strawberries and mix with sugar and vanilla bean.  Let rest in the fridge to create juices while the cake cools.

As the cake cools, it will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.  To remove from the pan, tap the pan with a butter knife, or carefully run a butter knife around the edges between the cake and the pan.

Serve with berries and cream.

Cake will last, well wrapped at room temperature, for up to 3 days.