All Cakes Considered - Melissa Gray [74]
Tough love—that’s what Angel Food Cake is all about, Toots.
OK, not really. Tough arms, maybe, but not tough love. I’m thinking about the late nineteenth century, when Angel Food Cake started showing up in American cookbooks. There were no electric mixers, just Pennsylvania Dutch women eatin’ their spinach and whisking and folding the heck out of their egg whites.
Can you imagine getting a spanking from one of those gals? OW-wee OW OW! Now, it’s only believed that this cake originated with the Pennsylvania Dutch. In his book American Food: The Gastronomic Story, Evan Jones surmises that this cake was developed because those thrifty Quaker State women had just finished making noodles, which require egg yolks, and couldn’t stand to waste all those egg whites. Some call it thrifty; I call it Spank-Your-Pennsylvania-Dutch-Grandma delicious!
Unlike most cakes, Angel Food Cake is best cut with a serrated knife, the kind you’d normally use for bread. It also doesn’t make neat thin slices, and because it’s so light and spongy, people tend to want chunks rather than slices anyway. So plan to serve between 16 and 20 people.
This is another gem from that 1969 Culinary Arts Institute pamphlet.
Chocolate Angel Food Cake
For That Saint with PMS
This has much of the same technique as the previous recipe, but the ingredients have slightly different proportions and cocoa has been added. Your Angel Food aficionados will think it’s just OK, but the chocolate hounds will love it.
Just like regular Angel Food Cake, you’ll need to cut this with a serrated bread knife and serve it in chunks rather than slices. Be prepared to serve 16 to 20 people.
This is also from that 1969 Culinary Arts Institute pamplet. A gift that keeps on giving.
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YOU’LL NEED
A 10-inch tube pan
A whisk attachment for mixer
A glass beer, wine, or salad dressing bottle
¾ cup sifted cake flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa (NOT Dutch process)
1¼ cups egg whites (10 to 12 large eggs)
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream tartar
1¼ cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Center a rack and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Do not spray or grease the pan; just line it with parchment paper.
2. Dry whisk the flour and cocoa together.
3. With the mixer on medium-high speed and the whisk attachment in place, beat the egg whites and salt together until the egg whites are foamy. Add the cream of tartar, increase the mixer speed to high, and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
4. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Fold in the sugar, ¾ cup at a time, until all the sugar is fully incorporated. This will take up to 15 full rotations of the bowl.
5. Fold in the vanilla extract. This will take about 1 rotation of the bowl.
6. Sprinkle ¾ cup of the flour and cocoa mixture over the egg whites and fold until incorporated, about 15 to 20 full rotations of the bowl. Repeat 3 more times until all of the dry mixture is fully incorporated.
7. Pour the batter into the ungreased tube pan. Use a spatula to release any big air bubbles and to smooth over the top of the batter.
8. Center on the oven rack and bake 35 to 45 minutes, or until the cake tests done.
9. Cool the cake in the pan for 5 minutes, then invert onto the glass bottle to finish cooling.
10. Turn the pan right side up and insert a rubber spatula or dull butter knife between pan and the sides of the cake. Gently push the cake away from the sides of the pan and the center tube. Invert the pan onto a plate or cake rack. The cake should slide out of the pan. If not, try loosening the cake again by pushing against the sides of the cake with a spatula or knife, then unmold.
Lady and Lord Baltimore Cakes
A Demi-Royal Experience with Divinity Frosting
“I should like a slice, if you please, of Lady Baltimore”, I said with extreme formality. I returned to the table and she brought me the cake, and I had my first felicitous meeting with Lady Baltimore. Oh, my goodness! Did