angel food

Angel food cake was my go-to dessert in college. Mainly because it was a tad healthier than your average cake, but also because the boxed cake mix made it easy to make at home.

Angel food cake has a reputation for being difficult to make from scratch. But I’m here to tell you, it’s really not! It definitely took me a while to build up the courage to ditch the boxed mix and make it from scratch, but once I did I realized it really isn’t so bad.

Plus, when you make it from scratch at home you can play around with the recipe and make it your own! Like adding in blueberries!

Well, freeze dried blueberries.

Which make a super delicious and subtly flavored blueberry angel food cake.

How to Make It

First things first. Process the blueberries until they form a fine powder. You can do this by processing them in a food processor or by tossing them in a zip-top bag and giving them a good wack.

Next, sift all the dry ingredients together. It’s super important to sift everything because you want it to be as light as possible.

Then start making the meringue which is the foundation of the cake.

Slowly start beating the egg whites until a little bit of foam forms, then add the cream of tartar and lemon juice.

After a little more foam builds, add in about a third of the sugar. Beat for another 30 seconds or so and add a little more sugar. Finally, when the egg whites are almost done, add in the rest of the sugar.

The meringue should be in medium stiff peak form, meaning it can form a peak, but the tips fall over.

Now slowly fold the dry ingredients into the meringue a little at a time. Try not to deflate the meringue.

Spoon the batter into your cake pan, or in my case, a mini cake pan, then bake until a toothpick comes out clean. It takes about 15-20 for the small pan and 30-35 for a standard pan.

Once out of the oven, let the cake cool upside down over a cooling rack or balanced on a wine bottle. This helps ensure that your cake doesn’t deflate and lose all that beautiful air you worked so hard to incorporate into the cake.

If all of those things are done well, you should have yourself a beautiful, light, airy, and delicious blueberry angel food cake! Perfect for any occasion, or just to make for yourself.

You definitely don’t have to worry about the guilt with this recipe. It is about as “light” as any cake can be! Plus, it probably packs a full serving of fruit thanks to those freeze-dried blueberries.

Tools and Recipe

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Whenever my husband and I attend a gathering or event where we need to sign up to bring a food item, 95% of the time I will sign up for dessert. I’m sure that won’t surprise anyone who has read this blog before. But even though I like making sweets, I still feel a lot of pressure to make something that all or most people will enjoy. So my rule of thumb is to stick with a classic but with a twist. Take for instance those Mexican Brownies from a couple months ago and this Citrus Angel Food Cake. It is just a plain old Angel Food Cake with a twist. I added some orange and lemon zest. The flavor is evident, but not overwhelming. And the perfect flavor combination for Summer.

If you have never made Angel Food Cake from scratch before, it is actually much easier than you might think. Sure, it does require lots of egg whites. Like a whole freaking dozen of them, but everything else is probably stuff you already have in your pantry.

What sets Angel Food Cake apart, is how light and airy it is. That is achieved through the “meringue” made by whipping up all dozen egg whites with a bit of cream of tartar, water, and sugar. At this point, you could also whip in whatever flavors you like. For instance, you could add vanilla to get a classic Angel Food. Or other extracts to take on any other flavor, like coconut, orange, raspberry, almond, etc.

Once the egg whites form soft peaks (the picture above is probably closer to stiff peaks), I fold in the flour mixture. Because the flavor for this cake comes from the orange and lemon zest and not an extract, I whisked the zest into the flour mixture instead of into the egg whites.

Typically, you will find Angel Food in a tube pan like the one above, but it can be made in any kind of pan you have.

Like any other cake, you will know it is done with the top is brown and you can stick a knife or toothpick in and it comes out cleanly. The difference with Angel Food is that it has to cool completely…upside down. I like to find a bottle with either a tapered neck or a top that is just as big as the hole in my tube pan and flip it over to rest perfectly on the bottle. It may take a bit of coordination, but should balance just fine as long as you leave it alone (lesson learned the hard way for me). Don’t worry the cake won’t slip out!

Once you are ready to serve, take a knife all the way around the edge of the cake, between the cake and the pan. Afterwards, and maybe with a bit of coaxing, the cake should slide right out. Cut into slices and serve with some whipped cream and fruit, or eat all on its own!

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