Angel Food Cake Baked Until the Center Springs Back

Set out cake flour — high quality, powdered sugar, and egg whites before you start Angel Food Cake Baked Until the Center Springs Back. The batch is written for 16 Slices.

Count on 25 minutes of prep, 40 minutes of cooking, 2 hours of resting, about 3 hours from the first measurement to the plate.

Ingredients Method

What goes in the bowl

• 1 cup cake flour — high quality
• 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
• 1 ½ cups egg whites
• 1 ½ teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
• ½ teaspoon almond extract

How the cooking goes

1. About an hour before starting, separate egg whites from yolks. Cover yolks with cold water and refrigerate. Let egg whites warm to ambient temperature in a measuring cup or small bowl.
2. Warm the oven to 375°F conventional. Set rack to the middle shelf.
3. Sieve cake flour and powdered sugar together. Keep it to one side.
4. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar in the bowl of a electric mixer or with a hand mixer until foamy and the cream of tartar is evenly distributed.
5. With the mixer on high speed, beat in granulated sugar 2 tablespoons at a time until the meringue is stiff and glossy. Add the vanilla, almond extract, and salt with the last addition of sugar.
6. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Sprinkle the flour-sugar mixture over the meringue ¼ cup at a time, folding just until the flour-sugar mixture disappears after each addition. Do not overfold.
7. Push the batter into an ungreased 10×4-inch tube pan. Run a metal spatula gently through the batter or tap the pan lightly on the counter to settle it and eliminate air pockets.
8. Oven-bake 30 to 40 minutes, until the top cracks feel dry and spring back when lightly touched. A tester inserted into a crack should come out with only a few clinging crumbs.
9. Immediately invert the pan over a bottle and cool until it is no longer warm, at least 1 hour.
10. To unmold, run a flat offset spatula around the outer edge and a thin knife or cake tester around the center tube. Invert onto a cooling rack, lift off the pan, and turn the cake right side up.

After it comes off the heat

Let the pan settle before you slice, so the crumb stays together. Cover leftovers once they are cool.

If you want another plate from Cakes, open Mardi Gras Bundt Cake Baked Until the Center Springs Back and Lemon Cake Baked Until the Center Springs Back.