chocolate angel food cake

Ever since I’ve made a carton of egg whites a staple in my dig around your kitchen, this is one recipe I make over and over, served up in just as many ways! Aside from the sugar, this is a much healthier, lighter alternative to most cakes loaded with fat, flour and other funky ingredients. And when you’re armed with one of these, dessert can be as elaborate as you want to make it – here are a few ways to play dress up with your angel food cake!

There’s just something about a mound of fluffy whipped whites that makes me swoon – and FYI, if you didn’t want to carry on and add the dry ingredients, simply spoon small mounds onto parchment, flatten slightly and bake in a 200° oven for about an hour – meringues anyone?

click here to jump down to the chocolate angel food cake recipe

1. First, grab your tube pan.

2. Get your dry ingredients together.

3. Measure the egg whites – this is much easier than separating a dozen eggs!

4. Put the cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer.

5. Put a pot of water on to simmer that will support the bowl of your stand mixer.

6. Measure the dry ingredients and get ready to load them up into a sieve over a bowl.

7. Get the egg whites into the bowl of your stand mixer and place over the simmering water to warm up – warm egg whites get much fluffier!

8. Add the cocoa powder to the sieve to delump.

9. Once you’ve sifted everything – start stirring.

10. Until it’s thoroughly combined.

11. Meanwhile, start whipping your warm egg whites.

12. Add 1/3 of the sugar and let ‘er rip!

13. It will start to get nice and frothy, time for more sugar.

14. Told ya …

15. Getting there …

16. After the last third of sugar, add the vanilla and give it another spin.

17. And you’re done.

18. Time to fold in the dry ingredients in 3 loads – heres the first load.

19. Gently now, up and over!

20. See? Lots of air still in the batter.

21. Another load of dry ingredients.

22. Keep gently folding.

23. Last load …

24. Batter down, batter done – and get it into your preheated oven ASAP!

25. 45 minutes later.

26. And if you can hang your tube pan while it’s cooling you will get maximum height – let gravity do all the work!

27. Just hanging …

28. Once it’s cooled, run a knife around the edge and it will slip right out.

29. Around the inside edge too.

30.Invert onto a plate and enjoy any way your little heart desires – as is, or all decked out!

31. Nice!

INGREDIENTS & METHOD

Preheat the oven to 350°

1. Put the following into the bowl of a mixer and set over a saucepan with a few cups of simmering water to warm the whites:

1¹/₂ cups egg whites (about 12 eggs)
1 tsp.cream of tartar
1/8 tsp. salt

2. Sift the following into a medium-sized bowl:

1 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder

3. Once warm, move your bowl of egg whites to the mixer and start mixing while gradually adding in 3 parts:

3/4 cup sugar

4. Continue mixing until soft peaks form before adding:

1-2 tsps. vanilla extract

5. Give it another spin in the mixer before folding in the dry ingredients in 3 parts. Do not overmix, you don’t want to deflate your light and airy whites.

6. Load the batter into a dry tube pan and bake 40-45 minutes. Immediately invert the tube pan on a rack or over a bottle to cool completely before running a knife around the edge to remove the cake.

7. Enjoy as is or get inspired by a few of the ideas below!

get creative

Switch up the flavours and push them with extracts: coconut, almond, maple, rum
Prep some toppings in lieu of icing and serve in any combination: toasted coconut, whipped cream, melted chocolate, ice cream, chocolate shavings, macerated strawberries, raspberry coulis, sliced bananas
Morph your angel food cake into a heavenly dessert– 5 ways to dress it up