Introduction:

Growing up on a farm, we had a lot of eggs, especially in the spring.  Angel cakes are a delicious way to use up extra eggs, the older the better (as long as they are still in date).  This recipe is a combination of mine and my sister’s alterations of an old classic.  I’ve also included some tips from my mother.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup cake flour (you can substitute, see below)

1/3 cup cocoa powder

¾ cup white sugar

1 ½ cups of egg whites (12)

1 ½ teaspoons cream of tartar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup, 2 tablespoons white sugar

1/3-1/2 cup chocolate chips, chopped if you prefer

Things you’ll need:

Small bowl  or dish – custard size

2 cup glass measuring cup

Large bowl

Oven

Mixer  - hand is fine. Some people use a whisk!

Rubber spatula

Two cup flour sifter

Measuring cups

Measuring spoons

2 Pieces of clean paper

10 inch tube pan – NO nonstick coating!

Glass beer or coke bottle

Step 1:

Heat oven to 375◦C.

Step 2:

Note:  My mom always told me not to get any yolk into the whites.  That is why I separate each egg over a small bowl before adding it to the rest.  If you raise your own chickens, it is also a good idea just in case one of your eggs goes bad before you get to it.

Separate the yolk and white of each egg by passing the yolk between half shells while the white falls into a small custard bowl.  You can also dump the egg into your hand and let the white run between your fingers or use an egg separator.  If the yolk breaks, do not use that egg in your cake – save it for something else.  Dump each egg white into your 2 cup measuring cup until you reach 1 ½ cups.  You may need fewer than twelve eggs if your eggs are large.  Let the whites come to room temperature if you have time.

Tip: I tried once to beat pasteurized egg whites which I bought in a carton from the grocery store.  It was a disaster, so stick with the real thing.

Step 3:

Pour flour, cocoa powder and ¾ cup sugar into flour sifter sitting on paper.  Sift. Repeat by pouring mix from first paper to sifter sitting on second paper.  Repeat one more time.  Set aside on paper or store in small bowl

Step 4:

Add egg whites, cream of tartar, and vanilla to large bowl.  Beat on high until stiff enough to form soft peaks but still slightly foamy looking.  Sprinkle remaining sugar over batter two tablespoons at a time and mix in.  Continue to beat on high until egg whites hold stiff picks and you can turn the bowl upside down without the batter sliding out.  Really!  To test the eggs using this method carefully tip the bowl until it is upside down, just in case the eggs are not ready yet. 

Step 5:

Sift ¼ of the flour mix over batter and fold it in.  My mom always uses a large rubber spatula, and beginning at one side of the bowl, scrapes the spatula down the side of the bowl, under the batter, up the other side of the bowl, and then over the top of the batter, ‘folding’ the batter on the spatula over the flour and repeating until the flour is mixed in.  I’ve read that other people use the fold setting on their mixers.  I don’t see why that wouldn’t work just as well, but I’ve never tried it, not wanting to destroy what I’ve already tried so hard to make.

Step 6:

Sprinkle your favorite chocolate chips over the batter and fold in using the spatula method.

Step 7:

Gently glob your batter into an ungreased tube pan.  The cake won’t rise properly if the pan is greased.   To avoid large air bubbles, place your globs where they won’t trap large pockets of air and run your spatula gently around the outside of the pan after you are done.  Don’t tap your pan – remember, the only leavening agents in this cake are the air bubbles you beat into the egg whites.

Step 8:

Bake your cake for 35 to 40 minutes until it springs back to the touch.

Step 9:

Remove cake from the oven and invert over a glass beer or coke bottle and cool completely.

Step 10:

Run a knife around the edge of the cake to remove it from the pan. Be careful not to scratch up your pan with the knife.  If you’re lucky, you have a tube pan with a removable bottom, which makes it very easy to run a knife around the bottom of the cake too.

Substitutions

If you don’t have cake flour (which I rarely do), you can substitute with all purpose flour by…

1) Measure out 2/3 cup or more of all purpose flour

2) Sift flour onto paper.  Pour back into sifter.  Repeat one time.

3) Sift flour a third time back into the measuring cup.  Gently level the flour

to equal 2/3 cup. 

4) Continue onto Step 1.