I bought myself an angel food cake pan recently and I've been dying to try it out. I've eaten my fair share of store-bought angel food cakes, but I've never attempted to make one from scratch before. I think my first experiment with them was quite successful! It had about the same texture as the store-bought cakes. (It might have been ever so slightly firmer, but not by much.) The main difference was that it seemed to be much less sticky on the surface. I think this is probably just down to having less sugar in the batter. I don't think it tasted quite as sweet as the commercial cakes either. I quite like it.

Vanilla Bean Angel Food Cake

Slightly adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients

Cake

• 200mL egg whites (~6 or 7 large eggs)¹
• 1/2 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 3/4 c. sugar, divided
• 1 vanilla bean/pod²
• 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar (optional)³
• 1/8 tsp. salt

Icing (optional)

• 400mL heavy (35%) cream
• 3 Tbsp. icing sugar

Directions

1. Place egg whites in a bowl and set aside at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 325°F (160°C).
3. Sift together flour and 3/8 c. (6 Tbsp.) sugar.
4. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add them to the egg whites.
5. Add cream of tartar and salt to egg whites.
6. Beat whites on medium speed until soft peaks form.
7. Gradually add remaining sugar, 1-2 Tbsp. at a time, beating on high after each addition.
8. Continue beating until soft, glossy peaks form.
9. Gently fold in flour mixture, a little at a time.
10. Carefully pour batter into an ungreased 7" (18cm) tube/angel food cake pan.
11. Bake at 325°F (160°C) for 35-45 minutes.
12. Remove from oven and immediately invert.
13. Allow to cool completely in the pan (upside down).
14. Once cake is completely cool, run a blunt knife around the edges of the pan to loosen it.
15. Press to pop the loose bottom out.
16. Run a blunt knife along the bottom of the pan now that the sides are off.
17. It should now be possible to remove the cake and transfer it to a serving plate.
18. If desired, combine cream and icing sugar in a blender and blend on high speed until cream is stiff and spreadable.
19. Spread whipped cream over top and sides of cake and serve.

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¹ Fresh egg whites will whip up best and give the most volume. In a pinch liquid whites out of a carton will work, but the volume will be noticeably less than if fresh whites were used. Previously frozen whites also will not whip up as well, sadly. ^Back
2 Whoops! Just realized that I completely forgot to halve the vanilla when I was halving everything else! The original recipe called for a whole vanilla bean for twice this amount of batter. No wonder my cake came out so vanilla-y! I mean, I quite like it. It's very nice. But if you're not looking for a very intense and in-your-face vanilla flavour, then I'd recommend only using half a vanilla bean for this recipe. ^Back
3 The cream of tartar was not listed as an optional ingredient in the original recipe. I didn't have any on hand when making this though, so I just left it out and my cake came out fine. I imagine that adding the cream of tartar would have resulted in an even more stable meringue, but I'm happy with the results anyway. ^Back