Real talk:
I’ve never once made an Angel Food Cake.
Real talk:
It has scared the heck out of me.
Wait… I need how many eggs? Wait… I don’t grease the pan? Hold on just a second… I have to hang the cake upside down!?
What is this? Is this science? Is this some sort of trick?
Real talk:
I finally made my own Angel Food Cake.
Real talk:
There were only two moments during the making and cooling of this cake that I thought I had completely ruined the whole thing. I hadn’t. I was just kinda freaking out for no good reason.
Real talk:
You need a fancy pan (not that fancy, it’s just a tube pan), and enough faith to hang this cake upside down for a bit… but it’s totally worth it. These are true words.
Angel Food Cake, if you’re unfamiliar, is a super light cake made from eggs whites… lots of egg whites.
This particular recipe calls for a dozen large egg whites.
I’m totes making ice cream with the yolks… trust.
You’ll also need a bit of flour, sugar, and salt.
Without these things… you’d probably just have a frittata. That’s not cake.
Egg whites get beaten to medium peaks. Sugar is added, so they’re a bit glossy.
Dreamtown.
Once the eggs are beaten, you gently fold in the dry ingredients.
Folding is different from stirring. Folding flour into egg whites means swooping the spatula from the bottom of the bowl, over atop itself. Bring egg whites from the bottom up and over. We’re incorporating ingredients without deflating the eggs.
That’s a full, ungreased cake pan.
Ungreased!? Yea… don’t freak out. I kinda did. We use an ungreased pan so that the egg whites have something to hold on to (the pan) as they rises.
Oh man… that’s baked.
Make sure you give the cake the skewer test. A skewer is poked inside of the cake, and if it comes out dry… perfect!
A wet/underbaked cake will sink as it cools. Not cool.
Smash some sugar and vanilla bean into sliced strawberries. Let rest in the fridge while the cake cools (upside down) ((totally weird and awesome)).
As the cake cools, it will begin to separate itself from the sides of the pan. Phew. When the came comes out of the oven you’ll (if you’re anything like me) wonder how the dang cake is going to be removed from the pan.
After cooling… it totally wants to come out. It may need a little coaxing with a butter knife… but I promise… with a little tapping and fudging, youre golden!
This cake is light as air and sweet as sugar… because there’s totally sugar in here.
The strawberry topping is a simple mixture of sliced strawberries, sugar and vanilla bean. Add a touch of whipped cream.
Angel Food Cake with Vanilla Strawberries
makes one cake
recipe from Alton Brown
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
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.
Jenny Collins
I’ve made this angel food cake twice now and it comes out perfect. Great recipe and directions.
Jen
Joy’s recipes are usually a big hit, but this was a semi-failure for me. One thing I’d suggest is whipping the egg whites at least to a foam before adding in the extracts, water etc. and then I wouldn’t add the sugar until at least soft peaks form. Doing it the way Joy wrote out resulted in whisking those eggies for 30 min + (humidity didn’t help). Just my two cents! I’ll try making this again.
Mareike
Would it be possible to make these as cupcakes, and just adjust the baking time?
Martyna
Would it make a huge difference if I substituted cream of tartar with white vinegar?
joythebaker
i have not substituted white vinegar in this recipe, so i’m not certain.
J.S. @ Sun Diego Eats
So amazing how something completely devoid of fat can be so delicious :)
laura v.
oh, joy. i am soooo not a baker. i have baked a handful of things. i lie and say i like to bake, but i think i just like the idea of baking. but reading your posts makes me so happy and makes me think that, someday, i will bake. and i will bake well.
Angela
i have the same plate! and i love it. probs one of the best purchases i ever made. real talk.
Jocelyn
So my plan is to make this in the form of cupcakes but to add just a dash of cardamom and top it off with the rose buttercream frosting from a different cupcake recipe.
Katie dB
Hi Joy… I just saw this post from the link on Homefries.com. The cake looks amazing. One question, I don’t really get what you mean by cooling it upside down, does that mean you take it out of the oven and flip it over? Wont the warm cake just fall out and make a big mess?
Do you think a silcon tube pan would work or would that not have enough stick for it to rise?
Thanks for your help! I look forward to trying this soon!
joythebaker
yes! flip the cake over! if the angel food cake pan doesn’t have feet to rest on, you can balance the pan, upside down on a bottle. The cake will not loosen from the pan until its cool. the upside down cooling is an essential part to making this cake successful.
Sarah
Hey Joy! As soon as you posted this recipe I was super excited and had to go make it myself. I was intimidated at first but it was delicious!!! I’m definately going to make it when the weather gets warm again. Thanks!
Ginny B
I recently made my very first angel food cake from scratch following Michael Ruhlman’s recipe in his book Ratio. He suggested that you use an inverted glass in the middle of a spring form pan (if you didn’t own a tube pan). It worked out really well and saved me from running out to the store to buy a tube pan. The cake was for my best friend’s birthday, so I was willing to do whatever it took to make her that cake!
Viola
You just made me drool! I might have to break my “no snowy egg whites” rule (also known as “I’m lazy and don’t care to beat anything that long) and attempt angel food. You’ve definitely tempted me, your blog is amazing. On a related note, here’s a tip I learned from a pastry chef from Paris:
Whenever you’re using vanilla bean, whether just scraping the inside or cooking the whole thing in cream, DO NOT THROW AWAY THE POD. Save it in a jar with sugar, and you’ll have a pot of the tastiest vanilla sugar!
Happy baking,
Viola
Brittny
Hi, I was wondering if I am able to make angel food cake in a regular 6″ pan, or does the tube shape help with the baking?
Thank you! :)
joythebaker
the tube shape is necessary for baking an angel food cake.
Linnea
Hi Joy! Thank you for the recipe, the cake came out great and tasted delicious! And also, you’re the best foodieblog ever. You’re the only one where I actually read everything you write, not just the recipe. Keep up the good work!
Clare
Hi Joy! I made this cake a few days ago and I love this recipe. Although the whole not-greasing-the-pan and hanging-it-upside-down thing was crazy. It turned out really well – so so so fluffy!
Jenn Case
ok, right, yum!
I have 2 questions for you. I totally want to make this cake (because its freaking awesome) but I don’t have a food processor. Do you think I could get away without grinding up the sugar? And also, what is the difference between cake flour and regular flour? Can I substitute regular for cake?
Thanks for the info!!! So can’t wait to make this for my Mom and MIL’s birthdays :D
Kasey
Totally made this, but macerated the strawberries in lemon-rubbed sugar.
Good lord that was amazing.
Oh, and it was the first time I had ever eaten angel cake. And I mean ever. FOR REAL.
So… thanks for the inspiration. Lovin’ it.
shalini
I totally need to make this…looks so tempting.
jeannette
no fancy pants tube pan here. i wonder if i can manage to make minis or something. i’m probably too chicken to try. boo.
Jen Marie
One question: In who’s household would an angelfood cake last 3 days?
Megan
I can’t get enouph of the pics! and the plates! I love it…really do.
Lucia
Egg whites like angel wings, sugar like the powder of our dreams. Gorgeous.
Krafty Keely
O my goodness yum! Angel food cake is one of my favorites and this looks just divine! The strawberries are a very nice touch!
Melly
yum. I want this right now, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, please.
Mary Kate
Hi Joy!
I’m glad you posted this. Angel food cake is one of my absolute favorite recipes to make. It is somewhat of a specialty for me. I love separating the eggs and all of the sifting. (I know, i’m weird) I have a favorite recipe that turns out all of the time. If you want, I could send you a cookbook that my mom and I printed for friends and family at Christmas (it has the recipe in it, although there may be some typos since I did it.) Thanks again!
Mary Kate
p.s. My family always puts a special frosting on angel food cake. It consists of a pint of cream and one large box of jell-o. Just whip the cream and the jello together until peaks form. Whoever the birthday boy/girl is gets to pick the jell-o flavor (lime is the best!)
p.p.s. Alton Brown rocks!
Sasha @ The Procrastobaker
You may have never made an angel food cake before, but even more depressing is the fact i have never even TRIED one! Ive always been intrigued by them on food blogs, they look like the airiest fluffiest things ever, and i hope it is not long before i finally get to discover what they are like! Yours is absolutely stunning, and thumbs up for biting the bullet and making it. Delightful post and lovely writing style :)
Marla
Great job on this angel cake girl. Angelic & perfect for a first go of it.
Maureen
All those egg whites – I can make heaps of ice cream from the yolks. (I can make pasta too but ice cream sounds better with the cake)
I love making angel food cake. You’d never see one in a bakery here in Australia so it’s something different that none of my friends would serve.
muppy
i totally want to try this, but i’m scared of an ungreased tin!
Heather
I fell in love with making angel food cakes years and years ago, when my MIL bought me a KitchenAid mixer. I hesitate to make them unless I can give at least half of it away because it will scream at me till I eat it. All of it.
Heather C
I don’t have a tube pan but I have a bundt pan. Could I use that instead?
Jennifer G
Your posts make me smile, and I absolutely needed that today. So, thanks. :)
michelle
Hi Joy!
I am enjoying your blog so much – in fact, I’ll be on my way to the kitchen to try this angel food cake recipe and to sugar some strawberries. It’s my husband’s birthday today & guess what he’s getting???? A homemade angel food cake :)
And I also have to let you know that the recipe you put on your blog a several weeks ago for the cinnamon pull apart bread to totally to die for. So very easy and completely worth the the wait for the dough to raise. I’ve made it twice and not a crumb remained both times :)
Have a great afternoon!
Michelle
Alyssa Goodnight
Your blog just makes me want to cook…and bake…and buy some pretty dishes and lovely vintage tableblothes and cool gadgets. So thank you for the inspiration! I’m hoping for cookbook news soon! (Or did I miss it???)
Karen
LOVE angel food cake. It’s so much fun to make and the flavor is so good. Have you tried a chocolate version? I have a recipe that I’ve never made and am wondering…
Karen
Rachel @ The Avid Appetite
The prospect of baking an angel food cake definitely freaks me out a little bit too. Yours looks so fluffy and wonderful though!
tia
I am totally making this tonight!!! I have always been intimidated by an angel food cake, but this looks too simple not to try. Thanks for the recipe.
gloria
yummm! Look delicious!!! gloria
Sasha (Global Table Adventure)
*You’re* an angel cake. :)
Julia
My dad totes loves angel food cake (one of the only desserts he loves), but I’ve always been to scared to make it for him. I feel a little braver now though. Maybe because your bowl of beaten egg whites looks so magical. So do the strawberries on top of your finished cake!
homegrown countrygirl
You totally rocked this angel food cake… and you wrote about it in a way that makes every one of us Joy Fans feel like we can do it now, too. Is there any other baked good that scares you? Because if baking something scares you it probably really scares the pants off rest of us… but how you write about things you give us all baking courage!
Marissa
I love me some Alton!
annie
Yum!! I wasn’t going to do any baking before going on vacation, but, maybe now… :)
joythebaker
so good! just so good!
Kat @ Cupcake Kat
This is a great post. Angel food cake used to be my absolute favorite. I haven’t had it in forever and I really want to make my own but using all of those egg whites scares me. I should do it!
Stephie
Angel Food Cake is my mom’s favorite dessert. She always makes it for her birthday, though has always gone with a boxed mix, more for lack of effort than lack of knowledge. This past year I decided to make her one from scratch – it took me two tries (real talk…I might have given up but I’m far too stubborn for that. I was convinced I was going to get this right), but the end result was amazing. I used the egg yolks to make lemon curd and served the cake with fresh blueberries and drizzled the whole shebang with the lemon curd. The combo was sweet and tart and so danged delicious it totally made the effort of making two cakes worth it.
Chris
I’m sure it is NOT coincidence that I see your post today…..the opening day for the organic blueberry ranch season here! I LOVE lemon and the curd idea is the absolute perfect solution to the yolk dilemma! Now I have no choice but to put this on the baking list! Alas…..I’ll never get rid of those last 10 pounds!
Jenn
I love that plate! Where did you get it?
joythebaker
anthropologie.
loulou
No pic of the upside-down cake?
My mom made many angel food cakes when I was growing up. It was the ‘go-to’ birthday cake in my house. She would hang it upside-down on a soda bottle (back when soda bottles were glass and heavy and wouldn’t fall over), and then frost it in this delicious marshmallow-ish frosting. Delish!
Wendy
Alright it just came out of the oven. I’ll be honest doing egg whites scare the heck outta me, but it turned out! Now we’ll see in an hour if the cake will come out!
joythebaker
i’m rooting for you!
Wendy
Oh goodness Joy!!! Absolutley wonderful. I snuck an extra piece last night at midnight! Thanks for sharing this..quite simply you rock!
Anna
looks so yummy. when i was little my mom used to make a cake that was really yummy and thick and biscuit-like (but sweeter) and cover it in strawberries and whip cream and call that an angel food cake. it totally wasn’t, but now i just want THAT whenever i think of angel food. maybe she never tried the real kind cause she was scared of the weird recipe!
yours look gorgeous.
love your egg shells.
Amy @ Saving with Us
Oh……my…….goodness. My mouth is watering at the sight of your pictures. This sounds so delicious! I’ve had the store bought kind but I’m sure they don’t compare. I think I found my weekend project! Thank you!!
Caral From SoCal
Hmmm…I do want to be courageous and give this a go…but I must confess I do not understand. When it “cools upside down, inverted over a bottle” does that mean:
1) Upside down, like it bakes (because rightside up for the cake will be when it is out on a plate). To me this means the pan is right side up, but the cake is upside down.
or 2) Upside down, like the PAN is now upside down, but the cake is going to come outta there when it is ready? So the pan is upside down, but the cake is rightside up (like it would be to serve).
Sigh. Sorry so baking-illiterate. :)
Stephie
The pan itself is upside down. Since it is in a tube pan, you can perch it on a bottle – my mom has always used a worchestershire sauce bottle, but anything of that sort will do. When it comes out of the oven, instead of setting it on a cooling rack, you will flip the whole pan over and perch the inner tube part on the neck of said bottle. The cake won’t fall out (the very first time I made this I screwed up with my egg whites and I knew it had gone badly when it DID fall out). Once it is cooled, you can flip it back over and remove from the pan. Ta-dah! Hope that helps.
joythebaker
no worries!
after baking, the cake pan is turned upside down, and the center is made to rest of a bottle, to keep it elevated in air. the cake will not call out of the pan when it’s turned upside down to cool. it’ll stick in there. after the cake is cooled, it will have partially pulled away from the sides of the pan and be ready to come out.
hope that helps!
Christine
In fact, you’ll know have an angel food cake pan as opposed to just a garden variety tube pan, if your pan has 3 little “legs”sticking over the rim of it. You can see 2 of the 3 legs in Joy’s pic of the baked cake. Usually the cake will rise up past the legs and they’re of no use when you flip the pan over, hence the need to prop the pan on the bottle, so you’re not squishing your cake on the counter top.
Caral From SoCal
Ha! Okay – I get it. I am definitely trying this tonight. (If the kitchen cools off enough that I’m willing to turn on the oven….) :)
Thank you for not laughing at my silly question, ladies!
Kelly
This looks fantastic! Angel food cake is a terrifying no man’s land for me, but I may try it now. And vanilla strawberries… I’m overwhelmed. Yum.
Sarah-Anne
OH. YES. angel food cake is a love for me.
RebeccaUtah
Hell to the no. That looks hard. Honestly you lost me at a dozen egg whites. I’ll just buy it. Love, love your blog btw. :)
MegB
I LOVE IT! Fresh made angel food cake is so much better than those yucky spongy cakes you buy at the store. I’ve always just used the box mix for the cake, though, because I haven’t had the guts to try a recipe from scratch. But it looks like very simple ingredients, so I think I can do it! Now I just need to get eggs- I think my friend that has chickens might be up for a sweet trade… Oh, and some yummy ice cream ideas with all the yolks would be loved!
Leanne @ Healthful Pursuit
I’ve wanted to make mini angel food cakes for years, but making them gluten-free scares the heck out of me. For the first you’ve ever made, yours turned out so beautiful… I think I could totally do it.
Rachel
Now I’m sad I left my stand mixer at my apartment and sublet it to two strangers for the summer! Wah! Thing I could do it with a hand mixer?
Wendy
I did it with a hand mixer just fine!(poor me no stand mixer) The cake turned out wonderful!
Emily @ Wardrobe Block
I totes love that plate!
Allison
I just recently made Angel Food Cake for the first time and I also freaked…but was pleasantly surprised in the end ;)
Christine
This post made me smile the whole time I was reading it!! I had exactly the same reaction the first time I had to make an angel food cake. It wasn’t anything I’d ever made before and the whole ungreased pan hanging upside-down thing totally intimidated me. Then I watched Alton do it on his show and I thought “Well that looks totally easy!! I can do all that!” I literally clapped at the end of your post when I saw it was his recipe you used!! It’s a great one!
Ruth
This looks amazing – I have to try it! I had never heard of it before, but, well, it would be rude not to give it a go!
Linnea
*drooling* i think i’ll make this for my ukrainian friends – they definitely have nothing of this sort here – and fresh strawberries are still are over the bazaar!
laura
i’m a little afraid of making angel food cake, too – thanks for being brave! :)
Dana@TheSundaySweet
I had no idea about having it cool upside down!
CookiePie
Love love LOVE this – and the vanilla strawberries, yum!!!!
la domestique
I’m singing because I love angel food cake! It’s kind of like a marshmallow, but different. I think strawberries are the ideal accompaniment…raspberries and raspberry sauce could be nice too.
Seanna Lea
I have super ice cream making time coming up, so I will have to make angel food cake. Otherwise I will make pavlova and macaron and dacquoise and all sorts of other things just to use the egg whites up.
vidhya,UAE
the pics have inspired me to try this cake – which i never would’ve dared otherwise………. first, let me go pan hunting :)……….
good wishes to u n keep posting such lovely recipes.!!
Lindsay
Joy yours is so much prettier and kudos-worthy than my grandma’s last week box mix! Is that even a worthwhile comparison or compliment?
Regardless,
kudos on your perfectly angelic cake.
Darcee
Mmmmmm, angel food cake. I am nearly 36 years old, and still ask my mom to make one for me for every single birthday.
ApexAngie
Why is it, Joy, that you seems to write the very thoughts I have in my head?!? I just recently made my first angel food cake for all the reasons you mentioned and yet it turned out fine! Now I want to try a chocolate recipe version. Thanks for sharing and being real!
Claudia from Idiot's Kitchen
My grandmother used to make angel food cakes and whip the egg whites by hand. Seriously hard core baking there. I think I’ll happily use my mixer for this one. GREAT idea to add vanilla bean to the strawberries. Totally stealing that one. Thanks Joy!
Gen
Wow it looks just perfect, and I love the strawberries with it!
beth
I love angel food cake, so does my sis. she loves it even more then me. So much so that she named her cat Angel Food Cake, when we were growing up (she was 5) we later dropped the “food cake” and mostly called her Angel. she was an awesome cat. so awesome.
and strawberries this time of year, super yum! i can’t wait to make it!
Thanks Joy!
Stephanie
I LOVE making angel food cakes… they really are super easy once you get over the “differentness” of them. And they taste SO much better than the icky store-bought ones (and even better than the mix). I usually make a custard or lemon curd with the leftover yolks, but a ice cream would sure be a nice change (especially in the summer). I’d better drop a hint to Santa!
Christine
Hi Joy; thanks so much for the recipe! Angel food cake will always remind me of my gruff but wonderful Grandpa Gibson. He was a diabetic and since angel food cakes don’t have a ton of sugar my grandma would always make one for his birthday. Such good memories!! I have never tackled a from-scratch angel food cake before either, but your post has inspired me! I even have a little pot of strawberries sitting on my patio, so maybe when they’re ripe I’ll give this recipe a go. Also, I have a tube pan with a removeable bottom—would that be a bad idea for this cake??
Becky
Oh man, I’ve still never attempted angel food cake…it makes me a little nervous too! Thanks for dispelling some of the fears, maybe I’ll give it a try soon! : )
Vicki B
Homemade angel food cake is amazing! Your’s turned out fantastic! As a child I remember being mesmerized watching my mom make it. She had a special utensil for folding in the flour. It looked like a miniature version of something they used to smack rugs with. I looked and looked for one and no one makes them anymore. William Sonoma has a stainless steel strainer for frying, I guess, which is about the closet thing I’ve seen. I look for them on ebay and occasionally run across one as no one seems to know what they are.
Bea Tobias
When my sons were babies, I fed them egg yolks and froze the whites (you were not to supposed to feed babies egg whites). And then I baked angel food cakes for their first birthdays. A dozen eggs are quite inexpensive, so even if the cake flops, you haven’t really wasted a lot of money.
I have baked them in a couple of loaf pans with good results too.
Oh, It's Just Perfect!
That looks soooo amazing!!
Naina
Somehow my strawberries in syrup never look so pretty. They tend to look…pre-eaten. Yours look great and I am jealous.
Urban Wife
I’m another one of those who has never attempted making her own Angel Food Cake. Looks scary (all those eggs!!!) and all but doable.
Christy Davis
I made angel food cake for the first time last week; unfortunately, mine didn’t look as good as yours, but I did blog about it. Good thing I put my cake in a beautiful fruit trifle.
Ellen W
Once you start baking them from scratch, you can never go back to the grocery store or box variety. This is one of the first recipes I tried to convert to my gluten-free flour blend and it worked out fine. Another idea to use up the egg yolks – lemon curd. I use a great recipe from the first Baked cookbook.
Marie Baars
Whoa I just had a fantastic idea…I bet an angel food cake could be cooked in a baked doughnut pan. I need to try that asap!
Jo @ Jo In the Kitchen
I love this angel food cake! I’ve also let it sit upside down over a wine bottle, and that helps the “coming out” process ;)
megan
whenever i use a lot of egg whites i also think to myself… now i can make ice cream with the yolks!
Sonia
C-c-can I, like, just steal this cake??? IT LOOKS SO GOOD! I can’t wait to test it out! All I need is that pan… Hm… Can you use a rectangular pan? Or is this cake picky about where it chills?
Stephanie
Sonia… It’s kind of all about the pan (and the egg whites), but like Sheila said (comment above), you can pick them up cheap at a thrift store. I see them all the time at garage sales too.
Sheri
I’m totally afraid to make an angel food cake! I went out and bought one this weekend for a trifle without a second thought. Maybe with this fabulous tutorial (and the thoughts that apparently go through everyone’s heads while baking it) I’ll be brave enough to make one myself!
Looks absolutely beautiful and delicious!
sheila @ Elements
What a gorgeous looking angel food cake, Joy! It looks perfect…certainly angelic! The strawberries on top look amazing too! :)
I’ve always wanted to make angel food cake but I don’t have the pan. When I find a used one for cheap at the Goodwill I’ll buy it and finally get around to making it. :)
Butta Bean's Ya Ya
Joy, Joy, Joy – Totally missing the pic of said cake hanging upside down : (
jen @ the baked life
I mildly freaked when I made my first angel food cake too. So many eggs, special pan, need to be fluffy, scared of flattening egg whites. All for nothing. This one looks amazing.
Heidi @ Food Doodles
Yum! I’ve never made my own angel food cake either because I’m scared too! I feel a little better. I know a girl who has begged for an angel food cake for her birthday but never gets one and even though it’s not her birthday I think I need to make this :D
Alexis
This looks awesome, per usual. But. I think I’m more excited about what kind of ice cream you’ll be making with the dozen egg yolks you have left over. Quite a few from David Lebovitz’s book are calling my name.
Wendy Darling
I LOVE Angel Food cake!!! When I was little my great-grandmother made everyone their own specal cake for their birthday – mine was always an angel food cake. (My brother’s was a devil’s food cake!!!)
I have wanted to repeat those yummy memories… but honestly was too afraid. This might be the encuragement I needed. Thanks Joy!
The Teenage Taste
I made Angel Food cake once…and am never going to make it myself again. It was way too much work for my lazy butt. ;]
jenny b
Sorry – I too have made it from scratched in the past, figured out the the box mix tastes just as good and soooooo much easier.
Shannon
It turned out gorgeous. I tried making them once upon a time in college and they didn’t turn out so great. I had great success with smaller muffin tin versions but I’ll have to try the big tube pan again. YUM!
Leslie
Joy–this cake look totally gorg! I am totally going to make it. I got an angel food cake pan for my wedding, but have yet to use it. I am always looking for ideas for strawberries while they are still in season!
Clara
Joy- your writing is just so deliciously dreamy. And laugh out loud funny! I love that you say totes. You’re awesome.
Karriann Graf
Simple and yet so gorgeous, Happy Baking!
Mi Vida en un Dulce
I have to confess that I always wanted to make an Angel Food cake, and like you, I have no courage to make it. I have to try, one day…
Stephanie
My mom has an angel food cake pan…that she never uses & I always wondered what it was for as a kid. When she isn’t mad at me I might have to go liberate it from the depths of her cabinets.
Nikki @ The Tolerant Vegan
I want to eat those strawberries with my fingers, right out of the bowl.
desiree @ unprocessed365
Shut up! I am blogging about angel food cake this week, too! AND I totally never tried it before because of the whopping dozen eggs needed! I paired mine with triple sec soaked strawberries & fresh whipped cream.
But seriously, here’s a cake toast from one angel food cake newbie to another.
Leslie Yates
Your angel food cake looks AMAZING!! This was the first thing I ever learned to cook/bake. I was 12 and my Mom said “You need to learn to bake.” And I did. Let’s just say, over the years I have screwed up my share of cakes. But I did learn that there’s nothing better than a homemade Angel Food cake. Way to go!!!
BLP
This looks deliciously and ridiculously sinful.
Shakila @ Baking Epiphanies
Omg, thanks for demystifying the whole Angel Food Cake baking process. I’ve been totally afraid to make my own too. I bought a store-bought one recently and frankly, it’s disgusting. Could go for box mix, but I KNOW it’s not the same as made from scratch….so this is awesome.
So, any ideas on what would happen if you DON’T bake it in a tube pan? The middle would sink?
joythebaker
if you don’t bake this in a tube pan, i’m guessing that the center will sink.
Michelle Jaffee
Aaaaaaah. Lurv this!
I like to think of Angel Food Cake as magic, but science it is!!
Lovely post.
Michelle
I love angle food cake. love it. the tang is fantastic and I love the texture. great idea there joy!
Robyn
were those plates on sale at anthropologie this week? super cute!
joythebaker
they were a gift… thank you very much!
Laura Merrill
I just registered for those plates on my Anthropologie aka “Dream Big” wedding registry. So glad to see them on your blog…they are super cute!
joythebaker
super cute for sure!
Lisa @ Sunny Seed Stories
Mmm that looks so delicious, it almost makes me want to shift my current craving from strawberry shortcake to strawberry angel food cake. Almost. Angel food will be second on the list.
Karmstrong
Made my first Angel Food Cake this weekend. Made it in a bundt pan — not a good idea. It cracked on its way out. BUT, I smushed the cake back together and covered the whole thing with a warm, spicy blueberry sauce. Then, I filled the hole in the middle with sliced strawberries. Red, white and blue — and no one was the wiser. (Now I have just told the world, though.)
joythebaker
nice job! yea… angel food cakes don’t typically do well in bundt pans. too many dang ridges.
Lorena I.
You all want me not to wear my bikini to the beach this summer, lol….angel food cake (my favorite since I can remember) and vanilla strwaberries??? that sounds delicious… this recipe of yours is another keeper. Thanks for sharing and a kiss from Spain ;)
Gina @ Running to the Kitchen
that definitely sounds a little intimidating, but looks well worth it!
Tamara
Love that you used AB’s recipe. Love your plates. LOVE your tablecloth (do you remember where you got it?). Love, love, love! :)
joythebaker
thank you! thrift store table cloth!
Tamara
Rats! I was hoping you’d say Target or something :) Happy Baking!
Casey
Angel food cake is SO intimidating! But, once you try it once, you realize it’s not so bad! I made my first one in one of those silicone pans and it was not so easy to get out. For future reference/warning to all :)
Ruth
Wow! It looks so delicious. Sometimes I feel scared when using too much of any ingredient, because I think I could make a mistake and have to throw away the entire thing! But this cake totally deserves the risk haha.
Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe.
The apple of my eye.
dana @ my little celebration
Pretty! I adore angel food cake!
Julie H. of Spinach and Sprinkles
I think you may have just answered my ‘WHY DID THIS HAPPEN TO MEEEEE?!?!’ question…. Mine came out of the oven looking great. I flipped it over and left for 10-15 mins only to hear ‘flop’ coming from the kitchen. It just fell onto itself, :(
Maybe I should try again! :)
joythebaker
it fell!? hm… perhaps it wasn’t baked long enough?
Nicole @ The Dirty Oven
I am in love with angel food cake and have always wanted to make one! Will have to give this a try…now for a tube pan! I have this real cool comb type knife thingy from my grandmother that is an angel food cake cutter. Did you know they have those? Mine has a vitage pretty handle and is old… now to bake a cake so I can use it because you really can’t comb your hair with it! Thanks again…loves!
Aimee @ Clever Muffin
You have succesfully real talked me in to wanting to make this. Alternate suggestion for egg yolks suggestion – bearnaise sauce! Nom nom.
Juls
I’ve never made Angel Food Cake either.
But I’m totally going to.
cindy
angel food cake was one of the first cakes i ever baked from scratch…then i baked it every week for like 3 months. i forgot all about that until just now…i need more angel food cake in my life! and, yes, it’s totally weird that it cools upside down.
Wanda Thorne
Real Talk: I’ve made angel food cake 3 times. I have a habit of not reading the recipes carefully. I didn’t cool the cake upside down. I kept wondering why the darn thing was all weirdly shaped. Tasted good though. UGH. I’m so trying this upside down thing NOW.
Real Talk:
Thank you JOY!
lynn @ the actor's diet
i’m much more of a devil’s food girl but angel really is beautiful!
Emily
Is this science?
Yes.
Baking is science for hungry people! (http://bit.ly/aCrFfq)
So remember, all this time, you’ve been a scientist without knowing it!
CherylK
I’ve got freshly picked strawberries just waiting to be devoured and this looks like inspiration to me!
Lynne @ 365 Days of Baking
Anything with strawberries is a definite summer treat and they go perfectly with Angel Food Cake. Yours is a beautiful color white and “it’s so FLUFFY” (Agnes from Despicable Me just popped into my head, so I had to share). ;-)
Enjoy your day, Joy!!
Jill
I love me some angel food cake… I could probably eat a whole cake in one setting. This I find comical: the very first thing I baked was angel food cake, but I find many of the things you make (like pudding) frightening to try. We’re opposites. It’s fun that way.
The Hungry Traveler
I’ve always been scared to make angel food cake too! Actually I’m scared of a lot of things that involve whipping egg whites and then not deflating them. I always think I’ll be too vigorous wtith the stirring. Also, I don’t have an ice cream maker, so what the heck am I supposed to do with 12 leftover egg yolks??? But, then again that cake does look scrumptious…maybe I’ll have to buck up and try it soon.
Katerina
What a surprise! I was wondering just this morning how is this very fluffy and light cake I had in China was made (here’s a picture http://www.flickr.com/photos/crazy_athens/5653125921/in/set-72157626519713458) and looking at your blog today… there was the recipe! So this is the Angel food cake. Fits perfectly as a name! Thank you!
Mary Catherine
It looks delicious! I was taught (by my wildly entertaining lush of a grandmother) that you absolutely MUST cool an angel food cake hanging it (upside down) from the neck of a bottle of good brandy. Lie? Maybe. But a nice excuse for a glass of warm brandy.
Mrs. Fish
Angel food cake and strawberries was one of my favorite treats growing up, I love the addition of vanilla to the sugar. Delicious!
Heather (Heather's Dish)
i LOVE making angel food cakes…the whipping of the egg whites really makes me feel pretty fancy. and isn’t fanciness the reason we all cook in the first place? ;)
The Café Sucré Farine
Yum, this looks wonderful! Angel food cake brings back so many memories, my mom always made it by hand with a funny looking whisk and we had to stay outside while it baked so it wouldn’t “fall”. To me it’s just the perfect cake, especially with those yummy looking berries!
Deltha
This is my dad’s favorite cake, so my mother taught me to make it when I was young. I still make it a couple times a year. Always impressive for an office party. I mean, who makes homemade angel food cake??? Looks perfect!!
Julie
Beautiful! And you can make a couple of key lime pies with all of those yolks – YUM!
Megan
Joy! I’ve been scared of angel food cake too. Way to make it not seem scary, but delicious instead!
Sarah
This is beautiful~ Is it weird that 2 minutes ago I was having an anxiety attack over wedding planning- and than I looked at the cake picture and my stress level went down. Who knew cake could have an affect like this? Anyway thanks for sharing- I want to go make one now!
Ashley
I make angel food cake twice a week at work and let me tell you, I was SO terrified in the beginning! I avoided it as long as I could. Ruining one is one thing, but ruining 11 is terrifying! Luckily it hasn’t happened yet *crossing fingers* But let me tell you, your cake is gorgeous! Everything an angel food cake should look like (and i’m sure taste like) YUM!
Cynthia A.
This is the only cake my daughter wants for her birthday. I even found some mini individual serving angel food cake pans at a tag sale. So cute.
The other incredibly cool thing about AFC is you don’t cut it like you would a regular old cake–you rip it apart with forks or some other tonged instrument. Tear me a piece of that AFC, please!
Lauren at Keep It Sweet
Looks like your first angel food cake came out perfectly! Love the addition of vanilla strawberries.
Baking Holly
This looks so delicious !! :D seriously, I love angel food cake and my mom eats eggs whites so it’s basically a win-win-win all around, ya know?
Zanne
Miss Joy – we always make a fairy food cake after we make angel food cake, to use up egg yolks, but I bet ice cream
will be good, too!
Cathy
I just love your pictures of the work. I wish I could take pictures of my cakes that look as true as yours do. Unfortunately, I don’t have an up to date camera and proper lighting. But I would love to see a picture of the cake hanging over a bottle, if that is the way you did it. I have a very old cook book that gives that suggestion for removing it from the pan. I never tried it because I kept picturing the bottle sticking out of the center of the cake once it dropped. So I found a tube pan with the little feet and just dropped my cakes onto the serving plate from there. You did a lovely job for a first try.
jess? @ Multicultural Melbourne
What a beautiful cake… it looks sooooo light and moist… the vanilla strawberries sound incredible too, I’ve never tried that before!
Blog is the New Black
Gorgeous! Something I’ve always wanted t make!
Holly @ Recipes from a normal mum
What a funny little cake wanting to cool in the fridge and not liking butter suncream. Looks yum though. Bit of a diva.
x
Maris(In Good Taste)
This is golden sunshine! No fat cake with a sweet and healthy topping! Oh I am in!
clara
ooh pretty!
would love to learn how to fold in flour properly as my batter clumps up when i do it.
can you please do a vid of how to fold in flour someday?
thanks.
joythebaker
great idea! yes!
Averie @ Love Veggies and Yoga
Ive never made an angel food cake either. I am a cheater and buy them. Even after reading this post, I will probably still buy them. But you have me thinking :)
And I love that plate! I have seen you use it before in another recipe. Pretty sure it’s from Anthro. And pretty sure I’d love to have it :)
kang li
Real talk: LOVE how stunning red the strawberries are. Plus the thought of sinking my teeth into the pillowy goodness.
(P.S. I think u left out the last word ‘cream’, before the recipe..)
Popsie
I made Angel Food cake for the first time recently. It ROCKED with lemon curd and a heap of fresh blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. Yum.
Dawn
Yes, lemon curd- that’s what Joy needs to make with those yolks!
Brenda
I did the same thing for a wedding shower only filled the middle with strawberries and circled it with more strawberries and served the curd on the side. It was awesome!
Stacy @ Say It With Sprinkles
I love that you used Alton Brown’s recipe! He’s the greatest!
Kathryn
This is like a cake made by magic. It looks so light and so perfect for summer, especially with the strawberries. Thanks Joy!
the good soup
You know how sometimes when you’re blog hopping you have the good fortune to hop onto a sequence of good blogs and it changes your whole day and makes everything seem possible again and THEN you land on an angel food cake recipe and you almost cry? Well, that’s my day. Thank you.
joythebaker
wait… is this good or bad!?
Valeria
Oh grandma gave me sooo many eggs, and now I know i to use them. And with the yolks, ice-cream it is! This looks awesome, Joy. I run to buy a fancy pan…:)
Three-Cookies
This looks ‘heavenly’:)
Frances @ TheFoodessFiles
Ok, I’m thinking angel food cake parfait! Cubed and layered with fruit, and cream spiked with a bit of liquor. Almost like a super light and fresh tiramasu! Spongy, creamy, fruity goodness. eh?…Eh…?…EH..?
Love this Joy! Can’t wait to try. :)
lynne
Oh! This looks fantastic! I was just listening to your podcast (while I was baking some s’mores bars, of course!!), and it was super funny! You guys are hilarious!!
Charis
That looks like a cake born in the summer.
Love the freshness of it!
Christianne
How different would this turn out if you use one of the cartons of egg whites?
Aleksandra
Sound delicious! Must give a try:)
Laurie @SimplyScratch
I’m totes gonna make this recipe! ;)
Ethan
Real talk…I thought you were going to call the fancy pan, a fancy pants pan.
Real talk…I like the crooked fork.
Real talk…Looks awesome.
Katrina
Joy, I love this cake! Angel food is one of my favorite flavours. Thanks for this.
Emily@SoDomesticated
Yum… the perfect summertime treat!
Hannah at FleurDeLicious
hooray for science and cakes that hang out upside down!
important question: do you think i could make a pillow out of angel food cake? my dreams would smell delicious. and it would be oh so comfy.
i’m thinking angel food cake is a perfect backdrop for whatever fruit happens to be perfect at the time. (currently peaches in texas.) this makes me want to go make an angel food cake, stat. midnight snack?
beautiful photos, as always, and a gorgeous (anthropologie?) plate too! thanks joy!
srs1972
Dreamtown…