Ultimate Cook Book_ 900 New Recipes, Thousands of Ideas - Bruce Weinstein [337]
To store: Lightly wrap with plastic or set under a cake dome and keep at room temperature for up to 2 days. (Not recommended for freezing.)
Variations: Substitute any drained, canned fruit in juice for the pineapples and cherries. Try 1½ cups canned blueberries (not blueberry pie filling); a 20-ounce can pitted plums, halved; or a 20-ounce can pears, thinly sliced. In all cases, omit the rum and reserve 2 tablespoons of the juice in the can to add to the cake batter.
Angel Food Cake
This light-as-air egg white cake has to be cooled upside down; the crusty top will cause the light cake to collapse if cooled upright. You’ll need a small bottle to fit into the cake pan’s tubular center to hold the cake upside down—or buy an angel food cake pan with feet around the rim. Makes one 10-inch round tube cake
Canola oil or nonstick spray for greasing the pan
1 cup cake flour
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
12 large egg whites, at room temperature
½ teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Lemon Drizzle (recipe follows), optional
Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease the bottom of a 10-inch round tube cake pan or angel food cake pan with a removable bottom. (Do not grease the sides or the inner tube; the cake will rise up and attach to them to build structure in the oven’s heat.) Whisk the flour and confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl; set aside.
Beat the egg whites and salt in a large bowl, using an electric mixer at medium speed, until quite foamy, about 1 minute. Add the cream of tartar, increase the speed to high, and beat, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally with a rubber spatula, until soft peaks form in the place when the beaters are turned off and lifted out of the mixture, about 4 minutes.
Reduce the speed to medium and beat in the granulated sugar in 1-tablespoon increments. Once all the sugar has been added, continue beating until you cannot feel any sugar between your fingers, until soft, glossy peaks can be formed when the turned-off beaters are dipped quickly back in the mixture, about 4 minutes. Beat in the vanilla.
Scrape down the beaters and remove them. Fold in the flour mixture with a rubber spatula, using long, slow, even arcs that do not deflate the meringue. Fold just until the flour is evenly distributed; the flour should not be visible but the meringue may be grainy. Pour and scrape into the prepared pan.
Bake until puffed and lightly browned, about 45 minutes. The cake should feel set when touched.
To cool and unmold: If the pan has feet, turn it upside down and set aside for 1 hour. If not, invert the cake pan onto a small bottle, sticking the bottle through the center hole and tipping the cake pan to one side to balance it. Set aside for 1 hour, then remove the bottle and lift the cake, still attached to the pan’s bottom, out of the removable sides. (You may need to run a knife around the sides to loosen the cake—be careful of nonstick surfaces.) Slice it off the bottom and the inner tube by running a long, thin knife between the cake and the pan; transfer the cake to a cake plate or serving platter and cool completely. Ice with Lemon Drizzle, if desired.
To store: Forgo the icing until you serve the cake; store it under a cake dome for up to 2 days.
Chocolate Angel Food Cake: Omit the confectioners’ sugar; reduce the egg whites to 10. Beat in the granulated sugar as directed, but also beat in one additional tablespoon sugar. Fold in 8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely grated through the small holes of a box grater or a microplane, with the flour.
Lemon Drizzle
The lemon juice keeps the sugar in a semiliquid form,