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Angel Food
1 1/2 cupfuls of granulated sugar, 1 level cupful of flour, whites of 11 eggs, 1 level teaspoonful of cream of tartar, 1 teaspoonful of vanilla, and a pinch of salt. Spread 2 square papers on your table and place your sieve upon one of them. Have ready some sifted flour and put 1 level cupful in your sieve; to this add the sugar, cream of tartar, and salt, and sift through upon the paper. Place the empty sieve upon the other paper, pour the mixture into it, and so sift back and forth from one paper to the other five or six times. Then beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth; pour the flour mixture into it from the paper, gradually but quickly, stirring lightly just enough to moisten all the flour; a few strokes will suffice, then turn at once into an ungreased tin with a tube in it, and bake about forty-five minutes. Success depends largely upon the baking. A slow, gradual heat is best, but only care and practice will make perfect.
A classic tube-pan angel food, leavened entirely by air beaten into the whites. The two things the original leaves vague are the oven temperature and what to do with the cake once it comes out.
- Oven temperatureThe original asks only for "a slow, gradual heat" and gives no figure; in modern terms around 325F is a reasonable reading. Much hotter and the crust sets before the foam has finished rising; 45 minutes at 325F in a 9- or 10-inch tube pan is a fair starting point.
- Eleven whitesEgg sizes were not standardised, so measuring is safer than counting: aim for roughly 1 1/4 to 1 1/3 cups of whites (about 11 oz), which is what eleven modern large whites will give.
- Whites at room temperatureCold whites will not reach full volume. Let them stand out 30 minutes, and make sure the bowl and beater carry no trace of fat or yolk or the foam will not hold.
- Sifting five or six timesThis is not fussiness. Repeated sifting aerates the flour and disperses the sugar so the mixture can be folded in with very few strokes, which is what preserves the foam. Use a soft cake flour if you have it.
- FoldingThe hinge of the recipe. Add the flour-sugar in three or four additions and fold with a spatula, cutting down through the centre and up the side; stop the moment the streaks vanish. Overmixing deflates the batter and gives a dense, rubbery cake.
- Ungreased pan, and mean itThe batter climbs the sides of the pan as it bakes. Any grease, or a nonstick surface, and the cake slides back down. Use a plain aluminium tube pan, preferably with a removable bottom.
- Cooling upside downThe original omits this. Invert the pan the instant it leaves the oven, resting the tube on a bottle neck or the pan's own feet, and leave it until stone cold. Right side up, the structure collapses under its own weight.
- DonenessThe top should spring back when pressed and the cake begin to shrink from the pan sides. A skewer works but the surface tears easily; the touch test is better.
- YieldOne 10-inch tube cake, 10 to 12 servings. The 11 leftover yolks keep two days refrigerated and are best spent on custard or curd.
Angel food belongs to the American cake tradition that emerged once fine-milled flour, cheap refined white sugar and reliable rotary egg beaters came within reach of the ordinary kitchen in the second half of the nineteenth century. Its whiteness was the point: a cake with no butter, no yolks and no chemical leavening, standing tall on beaten air alone, was a display of both ingredients and technique. Cream of tartar, a by-product of winemaking sold cheaply by grocers, stabilises the egg foam and keeps the crumb pale. The tall tube pan gives the batter a central column to climb and lets heat reach the middle of a mass that would otherwise never set. The author's closing remark that "only care and practice will make perfect" is honest: before thermostatic ovens, baking a cake this delicate was a matter of knowing one's own range.