Angel Food Cake

Angel Food Cake, as this peculiarly white and light sponge cake is fancifully named, has quite a history to be recorded. It is said to have originated in St Louis in the 1880s and was often seen in the hotel bills of fare of that city more than anywhere else. It came into such great demand that not only was no fine party supper complete without it but it was shipped to distant cities, orders coming even from London.

 

For some time the method of making angel food cake was kept a profound secret but at length the inventor yielded so far as to sell the recipe for twenty-five dollars, having it understood that it could not be made without a certain powder that could be obtained from him alone. It did not take long to discover that the powder was nothing but cream of tartar and the recipe once discovered gradually became common property. Many of the era’s caterers make a specialty of it for parties, for it was a difficult cake to make.

 

Angel  Food Cake Pans

Special angel food cake pans are used to prevent the tendency of the cake to fall in at the center after baking. These tube pans are the best for baking this specialty cake as they are a tall round cake pan with a center tube that leaves a hole in the middle of the cake. This ungreased cake mold holds the cake up to its shape until cold. Angel Food Cake will be better when a day old than when first baked. But to keep the outside from drying, as it has no richness in its ingredients, it is always covered with a flavored sugar glaze or icing.

 

Angel Food Cake Recipe

Ingredients: Whites of 11 eggs, 1 cup flour  sifted, 1 teaspoons baking powder; sift the flour and baking powder 4 times; beat the eggs to a stiff froth, then beat in 1-1/2 cups of granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add the sugar gradually to the beaten whites, beating constantly until it is all mixed in. Add the flour and beat lightly and thoroughly. Put in an ungreased cake pan. Bake slowly 40 minutes. Put a pan of water in the oven above it to prevent scorching. When the angel food cake is done, turn it upside down on the edge of 2 other pans so that the air can circulate around it. Beware, the slamming of a door will probably cause it to fall.

 

Angel Food Cake Favorite Recipe

This angel food cake needs the whites of 12 eggs, 10 tablespoons sugar, 3-1/2 heaping tablespoons flour, 1 teaspoon cream tartar. Beat the eggs stiff, sift the flour 3 times; add the cream tartar and sift again, use powdered sugar and sift it twice, and add it to the beaten whites of eggs; stir lightly. Put the angel food cake mix in a pan slightly greased, put in the oven on jar top, or something that will prevent any part of the pan from touching the oven. Place a pan of water in the oven above the cake to avoid scorching. Bake moderately fast.