really well done post.
the only problem will be about what to do with the 12 left over egg yolks ;)
He already used the egg yolks in Creme Brulee! :)
The angel cake looks delicious!
You might know that already, but you can get only whites or only yokes in small cartons (like milk) at the grocery store ;)... for the lazy.
Could you put half the batter in the pan, place cooked and cooled strawberries in, and then put the rest of the batter in, thereby baking the strawberries in the cake instead of adding them after?
re: Baking one half at a time
I haven't tried it, but I doubt baking half the angel food cake and then placing strawberries ontop and pouring the other half will work. Unlike butter or pound cakes, an angel food cake is quite delicate while warm and can't even sustain its own weight while cooling (which is why we must cool them upside down). Baking the egg white foam and then placing strawberries on top without fully cooling will collapse the foam. Pouring the remaining batter ontop will probably have the same result.
Just found your site and love it. I also love angel food cake and your recipe has motivated me to make one this week with my new silicone tube pan. Have you tried any of the new silicone stuff? I've aquired a silicone tube pan and a tart pan, but haven't tried out either of them.
P.S.
Any plans for a Tunnel of Fudge Cake?
re: silicone bakeware
I haven't tried the silicone baking "pans" yet. I don't bake enough cakes to justify buying more specialized equipment... maybe if someone sent me a sample... :)
do i need to worry about the cake falling out when the pan is inverted to cool?
should the cake be completly cooled off before putting strawberries in/on it?
i am planning on serving this in the morning, and wondering how much i can prepare the night before.
Don't worry about the cake falling out of the tube pan. I've never had it happen, nor have I heard about it happening. (Instead, I have some difficulty removing the cake from the pan when it is cooled...)
It's safest to wait until the cake is completely cooled or the weight of the strawberries may collapse the delicate structure.
Thank You! This made an awseome birthday cake. Your directions really helped.
Couple of comments on the quantities:
* The reserved strawberry solids just didn't look enough for the filling, so without checking I just added another bunch of strawberrys to my mix. Turned out this wasn't needed.
* But, 1 1/2 cup of whipping cream was *way* more than what I needed to frost the cake with.
Thanks again for the recipe.
i don't know if it would work or not, but i'm about to try angel cake muffins - cause its all i have in the line of baking utensils (individual tin muffin cases).
and i'm kinda liking the idea of lots of little angel cakes with strawberry/icing glaze....:)
just an idea
The chart synopsis and the end of the recipe is brilliant. I exalted out loud in appreciation!
can anyone please outline the difference between cake flour and All Purpose flour and can either of them ve used in this cake?
For an explanation of different wheat flours, please read:
Kitchen Notes: Wheat Flours
You can use either all-purpose or cake flour for this recipe. Be sure to lightly fold the flour into the mixture or else gluten may form causing your cake to lose the light (angelic) quality that sets this cake apart. Using cake flour can produce a lighter cake because of its relatively low protein content.
I have been cooking and baking for over 50yrs. I have never tried anything so complex as you have made this recipe. I have not yet found when to add the flavoring so I folded it in. As for a the silicone cookware; I'm glad I saved my receipts because, back to the store it goes.I inverted the tube pan and my cake plopped out.Give me the old aluminum or cast aluminum and I'll stay happy.
I'll also keep my receipe which has never let me down.I've added pecans,chocolate,raspberries and anything that hits my fancy that particular day and I'm not an expert.BUT, keep trying, you may make it yet.
I dislike sillicone pans for two reasons: 1) they buckle easily when being pulled in and out of the oven; 2) they don't brown well.
hi i just wanted to try out something...i want to frost the cake with chocolate frosting and then put the strawberry liquid on top. this would be instead of using the cream icing. wut do u think? :unsure: i think it would look and taste good.
Well, I for one am not a fan of Chocolate combined with Strawberries, so I would have to say.........no. 8|
Did you mean sift together 1 1/2 cups of cake flour and 1/3 cup CONFECTIONER'S sugar?
Signed,
An Engineer
Nope, I use granulated in this recipe.
Can I substitute lemon juice for the cream of tartar?
diffrent types of flour have varying levels of softness. for example- european flour, being diffrent from U.S. flour is much softer, and is about half cake flour and half all purpose flour. the flour is milled diffrently and thus produces diffrent levels of gluten in baking. the type of flour will greatly affect a light cake like this.
My cake part turned out very nice. I had never attempted an angel food cake and will probably never try it out of a box.
I did have some difficulty with the glaze, though. It may have ended up too runny but it made quite a mess at the base of the plate. Everything tasted great though!
Make sure that the cake is fully cooled before applying the whipped cream. A little bit of heat is enough to soften the whipped cream and cause it to flow.
hi,
could you please tell me the dimensions for the pan that you used? i cant wait to try this recipe!
thanks!
I used an angel food cake pan that measured 10-in. with 1-1/4-in center post from the top and 8-1/2-in. with 3-1/4-in center hole at the base.
Is it necessary to have a tube pan to make this recipe? I do not have a tube pan, and am wondering if I could substitute with a normal round or square cake pan. Thanks for your help.
Angel food cakes need a speecial pan for two reasons - the pan should never have touched oil - ever. If there is some oil on the pan, the foam won't hold up as well and there's always a little residue left. The other reason is that you need the central tower to help distribute heat evenly and provide a "Gripping" surface for the cake to climb up as teh foam expands. Without it, the cake won't be able to sustain it's own weight and will probably result in an odd looking, half risen cake.
:P We made this and LOVED IT - we have now made it a couple of times and it never fails to impress. I did double the amount of glaze - we are just greedy and love the strawberry center. We rave about it enough, thanks for the recipe and detailed pics. Cheers
As a child my mother always made a simple angel food cake for my birthday. Here in mexico I will have to figure out how to order an angel food cake pan from the US. But with your excellent instructions I'll be able to make it from scratch not a mix like she always did.
I like the idea of adding fruit. We always had it with vanilla ice cream and strawberries.
made this for a surprise birthday party, recently, and used the yolks for my version of your crème brûlée, which i've been making for quite some time. this was the first time i'd made things for such a varied group, and neither the cake nor the custards lasted very long. several people even asked for seconds :).
i've lurked on your site for a couple of years now, and really appreciate your approach. i'm always confident that a recipe i find here will work exactly the way you say it will, even if i make my own minor adjustments :).
thanks for a job (consistently) well done, and for sharing with the rest of us!
apologies for the special characters...
:unsure:
it should have read "creme brulee" with the appropriate diacriticals :P.
Hi!
I am going to make your New York style cheesecake for Thanksgiving using the strawberry glaze recipe from this cake. I have one stupid question though...why do you list 1/2 cup of water, but only use 3 tablespoons? Thanks for all you do here, I love to bake!!
Not a stupid question at all. Maybe I wasn't clear in my explanation - but you use both 1/2 cup water while boiling down the strawberries as well as an additional 3 Tbs. water when you mix in the corn starch. Total amount of water used: 1/2 cup + 3 Tbs. (or a total of 11 Tbs. water). Because I prefer to list ingredients separately when they aren't used at the same time or for the same purpose - water is listed twice. 1/2 cup is used earlier in the glaze recipe and 3 Tbs. is used when thickening. (The 3 Tbs. is there simply to provide some liquid from which to make a corn starch slurry.)
I had never had the courage to make an angel food cake before, despite being reasonably well-versed in the kitchen. I decided to try this out for Christmas and filled the cake with a pumpkin mousse (basically pumpkin pie filling baked in an 8x8" baking dish and piped into the furrow) and frosted with whipped cream as you directed, then dusted it with a bit of cinnamon. My family loved it and I'm so happy it tuned out well! Thank you so much for the detailed recipe!
I have suceeded in making my first angel food cake but now i have a problem. I want to glaze it and ice it in the morning for supper the same day. is that ok, or will it make the cake to soggy? I can't seem to get an answer for this question anywhere. Thanks for any help you can provide.
Christal
In my experience, it is fine to frost and glaze in the morning for service that evening.
Please help. I have been making angel food cakes for years without problems. Within the past six months I have had four cakes collapse in the oven after 30 minutes of cooking then fall out of the pan when I invert them. I am using the same tin, well washed, not greased; I've tried different eggs and beaten them to soft and to stiff points; I've replaced my flour and my cream of tartar; I've taken them out just as they started to collapse and also left them for an additional five minutes (they have been cooked in both cases). The cake seems to shrink away from the tin, not cleanly but leaving a thin layer of cake on the tin. Does anyone have any idea what is happening? T=320 to 350 and humidity is about 60%.
Regards
Carol
Have you tried a different cake pan? It's unusual for the cake to peel away while inverted and just fall out. It is possible the sides could have been contaminated with oil at some point and it's nearly impossible to completely wash it clean. Also, you haven't moved to a new location, right?
I haven't changed the tin because the cake wasn't peeling off cleanly - there was still a thin layer of cake on the tin. I've tried scrubbing it but a new pan may be necessary. I haven't moved recently although I did get a new oven two years ago. I have baked angel food cake successfully since I got the new oven though. The collapse and shrinkage shouldn't be related to the tin but what would cause that?
Thanks for your help.
Carol
Thanks for the great recipe. I did it without the filling and just the glaze. It was a lot of work though without a mixer :)
Can i use a bundt tin instead?
Not really. If it's brand new, then you avoid the "residual oil destroying the egg white foam" problem, but the foam is still very delicate and may not successfully climb the ridges in the bundt pan. Also, unmolding it might be a challenge.
As a kid I was really into Angel Food cake. I was also into cooking desserts and tried making one a few times. I think I was only successful one of those times. I always thought it was because I made them when it was humid or rainy out. My mother told me that it affects the eggs and they won't rise right. I never knew, and doubt she did either, about having to keep the pan COMPLETELY oil free. Wonder which or if both were the culprits?!
But about the coincidence.. my birthday is this weekend and my wife asked me what kind of cake I wanted. I said Angel Food cake. And that since it had been so long I wanted to make it (I'm also the baker in the family). But I told her I wanted a strawberry glaze on it and that she could make that. I've never had it that way but thought it sounded good. I finally got around to looking for a recipe by searching google and to my suprise I found one not only for strawberry glazed Angel Food cake but on a website called Cooking For Engineers. See, I'm an engineer, too. And I love cooking! Sometimes. ;) Very cool.
I will definately use your recipe. And thanks!
Wanted to say that I just had three (count them -- 3) angel food cakes in a row plop out of a brand new Wilton Ultra Bake 2 non-stick angel food cake pan. I'm going back to my old aluminum angel food cake pan which -- over many, many years of use -- has not allowed a single angel food cake to fall out of the pan while the pan is inverted!
Thought that Wilton must surely know what they were doing when they made a non-stick angel food cake pan -- since I know you are not supposed to greese an angel food cake pan in any way. Evidently, they don't!
I am a owner/operator of a retail bakery in southern IL near St. Louis.
We also have experienced angel food collapsing in the oven after 30 to 35 minutes. In our experience it is the egg whites which have had one of the constituents damaged during pasteurization. This does not affect the whipping properties, just the gel network of the proteins which prevent collapse during the heat of baking. We have extensively troubleshooted for over 9 months with to avail.
Carol's problem would not be the same as ours if she is not using commercial egg whites.
Jim K.
Great blog!
I can taste this already.
Lesley :)
It's 10 pm. I put the strawberries in and glazed it already. I haven't iced it yet. Will it be ok to serve tomorrow at 4 pm. or will it be soggy?
It might be okay. I would guess that that would be borderline, there's a good chance it'll be soggy, but if you're lucky it won't be bad. I always put the strawberries in the day that I'm serving the cake.
Will it work with canned strawberries? Thanks!
Marcela -
need to define "canned"
fresh, know about them
frozen, know about them
"canned" is strawberry jam, to me.
well, jam - preserves - conserves .... whatever floats your boat
frozen will work.
Sorry, English is my second language and I guess I deal much more with economics than with cooking. Anyway, I meant whole strawberries put in a can (tin?) or a glass jar with some sort of syrup. Would preserves be a more accurate word for that?
Hi Marcela -
no need to apologize - we'll get it worked out <g>
fruit put up as preserves, conserves, etc., is usually cooked - or at least heated in the canning / preserving process. that breaks down the physical structure of a whole strawberry - gets soft, etc.
if that's all you can get - certainly it will "work" but the texture will obviously be different than fresh, same for frozen berries. depending on how thick the syrup is, that could run a bit or make for a gooey mass rather than a crisp fresh tasty morsel on the cake.
good luck and let us know how it works out if you go that direction!
This morning I had an angel food cake fall out of the inverted pan, down the bottle (reaming a big hole in the cake) and land on the counter. I was using a regular two-piece angel food cake pan. It's supposed to be a birthday cake for my brother-in-law (his favorite cake). The second cake is in the oven now and I'm afraid to turn it over to cool it after my earlier disaster.
:( Dear Michael Chu: I believe you misunderstood the directions for preparing this cake. Putting strawberries in the bottom half of the angel food cake is supposed to be done AFTER the cake is baked and cooled and cut in half - horizontally. Not before! The bottom half is then kind of hollowed out to allow the cool strawberry/glaze mixture to be poured-or spooned into it. Then the top half is replaced and may or may not be "frosted" with whipped cream. That way, when you slice the cake and lay the slice on its side, you see the center of the slice is filled with strawberries and the whipped cream is around the outside of the slice of cake. It will work--but you DO have to bake and cool the cake first.
What is this comment in response to? I believe it is, by definition, impossible for me to misunderstand the directions... considering I wrote it (as well as photographed each step of the process). I checked and I don't think I made a mistake in the recipe (at least not about the baking part - I checked - it says bake first!).
Dear Michael Chu:
I am terribly sorry! That message was meant for "Angie" who asked the question about putting strawberries on the cake BEFORE it was baked. It was also clear BACK in 2006--I apologize! I was trying to quickly find a great recipe of this kind (and I did--YOURS!) ...but was skimming through so fast that I missed many details in the comments.
I am truly sorry and I LOVE your site! I have NEVER seen such a well explained, well photographed recipe site ANYWHERE before! You have done a wonderful job and I will be back. (Not to criticize, either!) I just felt so badly for whoever it was that had asked that question to have not understood your very great directions. I will NEVER again be so hasty! Sorry! Please keep up this excellent work!
No need to apologize... I thought it was funny!
Hi
I wipe the mixing bowl, whisk and cake pan with a tissue soaked in vinegar. This means you can hand whisk the egg whites in minutes, and the de-greasing effect of the vinegar means you can use any old cake pan - doesn't have to be a tube tin.
Hope that helps!
ST (Mrs)
for the
Press on the solids to squeeze out as much liquid as possible step a chinois or a China cap really helps.
Oh wow I have actually never had angel food cake. I actually baked a Red Velvet cake this weekend using this recipe http://www.howcast.com/videos/139827-How-To-Make-Red-Velvet-Cake so maybe I'll bake an angel food cake this weekend and make it red!!
How many days in advance can I bake the Angel Food Cake ensuring that it will appear and taste great? PLEASE ADVISE!
appearance will hold up longer than taste/texture.
two days in advance max - allow to cool _thoroughly_ and then keep covered.
less time if you're in high humidity. angel food has a fair amount of sugar which will absorb humidity out of the air and develop a wet surface.
Can I use fresh strawberries instead of frozen ones? If so do I cut the strawberries up first or just leave them whole while I boil them? I made the cake once and used fresh strawberries and I cut them up and my glaze looks different than yours.
OMG! That will be Perfect for our family's celebration pick-nick planned for this July!!! Looks delicious!!! I can't think of anything more appropriate! Thank You! :)
When I was diagnosed with celiac I was looking for recipes which might convert easily in a gluten-free form. This one works great and I have been making it for years.
Just exchange the wheat flour against an equal amount [cups] of sweet rice flour and the result is a fantastic gluten free angel food cake. Some liked it even better than the wheat version.
[Thank you Michael, for adding all you explanations to the recipes, that makes it so much easier to convert them for people with celiac :D]
i cut into the topside half of the cake and add the solid strawberrys, covering the top with the bottom half of the cake, i then flip it right side up :)
the top falls into the bottom :)
As always, start by assembling the ingredients: 1-1/2 cups cake flour and 1/3 cup granulated sugar (to be sifted together), 1-1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract, 1-1/2 tsp. cream of tartar, 1/4 tsp. salt, and 1-1/2 cup egg whites (about 12 large egg whites). It is important that the egg whites are free of any yolk. The smallest amount of fat (such as from the yolk) may cause the white to not foam up and become a soupy mess. If the egg whites have been previously frozen, thaw them in the refrigerator in a bowl covered in plastic wrap. Then remove them from the fridge and let them warm up to room temperature (about one hour). Room temperature egg whites will produce a foam with larger volume than cold egg whites.
Preheat you oven to 375°F. Sift together the flour and 1/3 cup sugar. I like using a squeeze handle sifter because it sifts the flour into a neat pile and works quickly and efficiently because of its three mesh screens and blades. Sift the flour and sugar at least twice to evenly distribute the sugar within the flour.
Whisk egg whites until they begin to froth. (Whisking in a copper bowl is supposed to produce the most volume, but my Kitchenaid doesn't have a copper bowl and I have no plans to hand whisk my egg whites.)
When the whites start frothing, add the cream of tartar and the salt.
Continue to whisk until the egg whites reach soft peaks. At this point, whisk in the sugar about two tablespoons at a time. While whisking in the sugar bit by bit, add the vanilla extract as well (the exact time you do it doesn't matter). Continue to whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks. (When a foam has reach soft peaks, a whisk dipped into the foam and lifted out, will produce pointed mountains or peaks that droop at the tip. A foam is considered to form stiff peaks when the mountains formed by the lifting whisk do not droop.)
Next, sift a thin layer of the flour mixture over the top of the egg white foam.
Use a spatula to fold the flour into the egg whites, about seven or eight strokes. Don't stir the flour in or over mix or you may collapse some of the egg white foam. The idea is to gently suspend the flour in the foam. Sift more flour onto the foam and continue to fold, repeating until all the flour has been folded in.
Pour the batter into a tube pan and level with a spatula. A tube pan (or tube cake pan) is a special pan that has a center tube that is taller than the sides. This enables the pan to be inverted while cooling. Some pans have a removable bottom which makes cake removal easier. It is also important to keep the tube pan free of any fat. I have a tube pan dedicated to baking angel food cakes to ensure it is free of fat. Bake at 375°F for 35 minutes.
While the cake is baking, make the strawberry glaze. Assemble 8 oz. frozen strawberries, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup water, 1 Tbs. lemon juice and 1 Tbs. cornstarch.
Combine the sugar, water, lemon juice and strawberries in a saucepan. Stir to dissolve the sugar into the liquid while bringing it up to a boil.
Once the mixture begins to boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for about ten minutes. When the strawberries get soft enough, break them in half with a spoon to help release more flavor from the strawberries.
Remove from then heat and strain the liquid from the strawberries. Press on the solids to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Set aside the strawberries and return the liquid to the pan.
Bring the liquid back up to a simmer. Whisk 3 tablespoons of water into the cornstarch and then pour it into the simmering liquid.
Increase heat and whisk until the glaze comes to boil. Continue to whisk while the glaze boils and thickens, about 5 minutes. Pour into a bowl and set aside to cool. Once the glaze has cooled down, place it in the refrigerator to chill.
After the cake is done baking, remove it from the oven and immediately invert the pan. Elevating the pan helps allow air to circulate and cool the cake. The can be easily accomplished by setting the pan over a longneck bottle of beer or wine. The neck of the bottle goes into the hole in the center tube and the glass bottle has enough mass to keep the pan from tipping. It is necessary to invert the pan when making angel food cake because the hot cake is in a very delicate state. While cooling, the weight of the cake is enough to collapse it partially. Upside-down, the weight of the cake will help keep the cake tall.
Once the cake has fully cooled (a few hours), run a thin knife around the outside of the cake to separate it from the pan. Also, separate the cake from the center tube. If you have a separating pan, you can remove the outer ring from the base and simply run a knife along the base to free the cake. If you are using a single piece tube pan, pressing into the center a little with the knife while loosening it might help free it from the base.
Remove the cake from the pan and place it on a clean surface.
Using a long serrated knife, cut the cake through the middle (parallel to the counter).
Remove the top layer and dig a shallow furrow in the middle of the bottom layer. I use a teaspoon from my flatware set for this task.
Place the reserved strawberry solids into the furrow.
Return the top of the cake.
Using a spoon or icing spatula, coat the outside of the cake with a layer of strawberry glaze.
Shortly before serving, prepare 1-1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, 1 Tbs. granulated sugar, and 1 tsp. vanilla extract. Using a cold bowl and whisk, whip until the cream reaches stiff peaks. I actually like my whipped cream frosting on angel food cake to be a little over whipped. Continue to whip the cream for a few more seconds and the cream should begin to clump up. I find this "not quite whipped cream, not quite butter" frosting is easier to apply and holds up for longer periods of time without weeping.
Apply whipped cream with an icing spatula on top of the strawberry glaze. I like to cut the angel food cake with a serrated knife (using light pressure while sawing) before applying the whipped cream. This makes it really easy to serve and each individual slice looks beautiful.