Angel Food Cake Recipe

On it's own Angel food cake is light, airy, and low in fat and cholesterol. Serve this low-fat dessert recipe with a simple topping of fresh berries.

Or make it a non-low-fat dessert and jazz it up with lemon curd, warm chocolate sauce, or strawberries and whipped cream. It's so nice to have options!

Tip: If you are using prepared egg whites for this recipe, the kind you buy in a carton, you will need 1 1/2 cups.

For this angel food cake recipe you will need:

12 large egg whites, at room temperature (see Tip)

1 cup cake flour

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Adjust rack in lower third of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set aside an ungreased 10-inch tube pan.

Into a sifter, pour flour and salt. Sift onto a sheet of waxed paper; set aside.

In bowl of an electric mixer, preferably with a whisk attachment, add egg whites and beat until frothy.

With mixer on medium speed, add cream of tartar and whisk until soft, droopy peaks form.

Continue to beat, gradually adding sugar; beat until stiff peaks form, about 2 minutes.

Add vanilla in the final moments of beating.

Sprinkle a quarter of the flour mixture over the whites. Using a rubber spatula, fold it into the whites.

Repeat with the remaining flour mixture, folding in a quarter of the mixture at a time.

Gently pour the batter into the ungreased 10-inch tube pan.

Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until the top is light golden, the cake feels spongy and springs back when touched, and a wooden toothpick inserted in the middle comes out free of cake.

Invert the cake (in its pan) onto the neck of a bottle, or funnel, or into a large colander. (If you let it cool right-side-up, the cake will lose much of its volume.) Let cool completely before removing from pan.

To remove, slip the tip of a small metal spatula between the cake and the pan. Slowly work tip around the perimeter to release any cake sticking to the top of the pan. Tilt pan on its side and gently tap it against a counter to loosen the cake. Rotate pan, tapping as you turn, until the cake appears free. Cover with a rack, invert and tap pan firmly to release the cake.

This recipe for angel food cake serves 12 to 16.

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