Chocolate Angel Food

Chocolatey Celestial Cake

What to do with a metric ton of egg whites? A common problem among bakers and custard makers as I found in my quest for egg white recipes. I had made a couple of half-sheet cakes on comission and one of said cakes required six egg yolks. I ended up making a triple batch. That is a lot of whites. A lot of gooey, yellowy gunk sitting in a bowl in my fridge slowly evaporating.

It seemed inconceivable to throw them out. Surely I could come up with things to bake. Meringues! Marshmallows! Angel Food Cake! Macaroons! The problem is, I do not really like most of those. Meringue is fine in conjunction with a pie, but hell no, I was not going to make a pie. I used to have luck with pies, now I find myself impatient and irritated with them. Pie was out.

Meringue cookies. Well, I have made them before, and let me tell you, you get a whole freaking lot of meringues out of just two egg whites, so I did not even want to contemplate the yield of eighteen. I am not a big fan of them either, so there goes that idea.

Macaroons, feh. Traditional French Macaroons intrigue me, but I was not willing to try it this time around. Heaven forbid I make those coconut monstrosities. All egg whites and sickly sweet coconut is not for me. We made them at a bakery I worked at and while I liked making them because they were fast and easy, I would never steal any. There were tons of things that I would steal, mind you. Nothing wrong with an M&M cookie for breakfast at five in the morning.

I enjoy homemade marshmallows. Making candy is very satisfying although it can be a bit fussy if dealing with sugar syrups at ungodly temperatures. Pouring 260 degree molten sugar into a running stand mixer is a wee bit frightening the first couple of times. So marshmallows, perhaps, but the recipe only takes four egg whites. Fourteen more to go.

Hm. Angel Food Cake. I have been wanting to try it for a while now, so it seemed the best choice. It is a little bland though, so after some searching I found a chocolate version. Intriguing. If only I had a tube pan.

After more store hopping than I would have liked, I found what I needed at Sur La Table, a truly indulgent place for me. The place is pricey and like some kind a chichi baker Valhalla. I found what I envisioned complete with the tiny feet I wanted (see the recipe post for picture).

It turns out that making angel food is damn easy. Whip up eggs, add sugar, fold in flour. That is really about it. For a first attempt, I could not be happier. It is beautiful, slightly sticky and deliciously addictive. Restraining myself from standing above the cake ripping off chunk after chunk until it is gone is difficult. I will have to send it away from me, or I will eat the whole damn thing. It is a bit addicting I think because it is so light and insubstantial. Not rich and filling, it simply dissipates leaving a craving for more, more, MORE!

The recipe calls for a berry compote which I did not try, because no big surprise, raspberries are a bit expensive and the strawberries at the store looked like crap. I did try the yogurt topping and added some cinnamon to it. Good, but I think it would benefit from using Fage (I could live on their tzatziki) or some other thick Greek yogurt. Running down the plate almost overflowing, my yogurt topping was a stark contrast to the beautiful picture on the website. Lying pictures aside, it was good, but a bit of an odd contrast. Perhaps the fruit would have helped.

All in all, operation Angel Food was a stunning success and I will definitely be making more with my fancy new pan.

Chocolate Angel Food Cake

From Self via Epicurious.com

Chocolate Angel Food Cake

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
12 egg whites (or 1 1/2 cups prepackaged egg whites)
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract


Transfer the oven rack to the lowest level. Preheat oven to 325°F.

Sift 1 cup sugar with flour, cocoa, and salt; set aside.

Using an electric mixer set at medium-high speed, whip egg whites, lemon juice, and vanilla in a medium-sized bowl until peaks form. Set mixer to high speed and whip in remaining 1/2 cup sugar until semistiff peaks form (do not overbeat).

With a plastic spatula, slowly fold in the remaining dry ingredients, 1/4 cup at a time, until flour mix disappears.

Scoop batter into a 10" ungreased tube pan and spread evenly. Bake until cake springs back when touched, 45 to 55 minutes.

Remove from oven, invert cake pan, and place upside down* on a cooling rack.

*Some recommend placing the tube pan upside down on a bottle so that you get enough air flow. I have a tube pan with handy dandy feet, like so, that is fab and requires no bottle that will just be accidentally tipped over knocking the precious cake to the dirty ground inciting ire and vulgar language from the baker.