Angel Food Cake- Han Do

ANGEL FOOD CAKE

Ingredients:

• 1 c. cake flour
• 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 c. egg whites at room temp
• 1 1/2 t. cream of tartar
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 t. 2 t. vanilla
• 1/2 t. lemon extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, sift cake flour and powdered sugar together. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine egg whites, cream of tartar, salt, sugar, and vanilla extract. Beat on medium-high speed until soft peaks form.
4. Gently fold flour mixture into egg mixture in four additions. Fold until four mixture is completely incorporated into egg mixture.
5. Pour batter evenly into ungreased 10-cup tub pan.
6. Bake cake on bottom rack for 30-35 minutes; or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
7. Remove cake from oven; invert pan until cake is completely cool.

Preparation Method:

The method I used in this recipe was the egg-foam method. The idea of the egg foam method is to create millions of tiny bubbles to make the final product airy. The key is to not burst the bubbles. Also, you do not use egg yolk, only whites! The reason is, egg whites have much more fat and it does make the final product fluff up. Also, we have to use cake flour other than all purpose flour because cake flour is much finer than all purpose. In class, we have not created anything using the egg foam method. But I did see my teacher make this Angel Food Cake recipe. Her egg mixture and my egg mixture took a very long time to form soft peaks. Also, I learned that an acid is needed to help stabilize the batter.

I changed up the recipe a little bit because I did not have access to one of the ingredients, LEMON EXTRACT! Instead, I added a little more vanilla. Also, I forgot that the recipe said to use room temperature egg whites but I used cold eggs (I don't know why I should have used room temp, it was fine with cold egg whites). And while I was cracking and separating the eggs, I accidently got a little egg yolk into the egg whites! It was a pain to get it out. Another thing that was hard was I had to use a hand mixer so it was more tiring on my arms. At that time, I wished really bad that I had a stand mixer.

But otherwise, the preparation went well! I didn't have much difficulty besides the egg yolk problem.

Critique:

Taste- The Angel Food Cake tasted very sweet, sugary, vanilla-like, and like marshmallows. Because of the sugar, powdered sugar, and vanilla, it combined to create a very well mixture of flavor.

Aroma- The Angel Food Cake smelled sugary, sweet, the vanilla made it very fragrant. It also smelled fresh-baked.

Appearance- The Angel Food Cake was pure white on the inside, but the outside was a medium-dark brown. It was evenly porous. It looked very soft, and delicate. It also seemed very light. Even though it had many holes on the inside, the outside did as well! The air bubbles did the cake some good.

Texture- The Angel Food Cake was cushiony when I cut it, the inside was soft when I was chewing it, the cake was light when lifted, and the overall texture was smooth.

Assessment:

In my free time, I would totally make this recipe again! My whole family and I really loved eating this cake. My aunt asked my mom why she bought this cake and that it's bad, my mom said that I made it and it was not bad. So when my aunt tried it, she agreed! But next time I make this, I will put in less sugar because my family doesn't really like sweet pastries. Even though it was my first time making this, it turned out much better than I had expected. I learned from this experience that I should get a stand mixer! But that forming many air bubbles is very important in this recipe. Without these air bubbles, the final product would be saggy instead of fluffy. All in all, I would absolutely recommend this recipe to a family member or friend. It satisfied me that it came out well!