Recipe

December 23, 2016

Classic Angel Food Cake

Recipe: Nikole Herriott

“This is a cake to have with fresh seasonal berries and a dollop of whipped cream. Always whipped cream! Just don’t jump around the house when the cake is in the oven. It will fall. The ingredients should be at room temperature, and the eggs can be a little older.” – Nikole Herriott

Ingredients

  • 12 egg whites, at room temperature
  • 1 1⁄4 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1⁄2 tsp fine-grain sea salt
  • 1 1⁄2 cups sifted granulated sugar
  • Seeds scraped from 2 vanilla beans or 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3⁄4 cup sifted cake flour
  • Icing sugar, lightly sweetened whipped cream and seasonal berries, to serve

Directions

Yield: Serves 10 to 12

  1. Place oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Pour egg whites into bowl of stand mixer with whip attached. Beat whites on medium- low until broken up and starting to froth, approx. 30 seconds. Sprinkle in cream of tartar and salt, raise speed to medium and beat until whites billow, approx. 3 to 5 minutes. Raise speed to medium-high and add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time. Continue beating until whites are thick, glossy and hold a firm peak. Beat in vanilla seeds. Remove bowl from mixer and sift 1⁄4 of flour over top. Fold to combine. Continue sifting in flour in small amounts, until all incorporated.
  3. Carefully spoon batter into ungreased 9″ tube pan with removable bottom. Smooth top of batter. Bake without opening oven door until puffed and golden and top springs back when pressed, approx. 35 minutes. A cake tester inserted halfway between pan edge and tube should come out clean. Set cake pan on its feet if it has them, or invert tube over a bottle or funnel so air can circulate around it. Let cake cool completely before removing from pan, approx. 1 1⁄2 hours.
  4. Dust with icing sugar and serve with whipped cream and berries. (Cake is best served the day it’s made.)
Photographer:

Michael Graydon and Nikole Herriott

Source:

House & Home May 2015

Stylist:

Tara O’Brady