Angel Cream

An assembly dessert rather than a baking recipe: the original assumes you already have an angel food batter and an icebox. The points below fill in the numbers the text leaves out.

• "Next to ice" means the refrigeratorIn the icebox era, the coldest shelf sat directly against the ice block. Chill the assembled cakes for perhaps 30 to 60 minutes; left much longer, the cream will begin to soak into the crumb.
• Baking the small cakesAngel food in muffin pans bakes at 325-350F for roughly 15-20 minutes, until the tops spring back. Use ungreased pans with no liners, or the batter cannot climb the sides and will collapse.
• Cool upside down, completelyThe recipe's "when cold" is doing real work. Invert the pan and let the cakes cool fully before splitting; a warm angel food cake tears and then weeps into the cream.
• Splitting by handThe recipe says "break them in two" rather than cut. A torn surface may hold whipped cream better than a knife-cut one, though the wording may simply be casual usage; either way, pulling each cake apart with your thumbs follows the text.
• The creamUse heavy cream (36% fat in the US) or whipping cream, which may run nearer 30%; whip to soft peaks with a spoonful of sugar per cup. Ultra-pasteurised cream whips but tends to hold less well, so beat it very cold and use it at once.
• Candied fruit and nutsChop the fruit fine and rinse off excess sugar syrup if it is very sticky. Toasting the nuts briefly gives the only real contrast of flavour in an otherwise sweet, soft dish.
• Yield and servingA standard angel food batter using 10-12 egg whites fills about 24 muffin cups, giving 24 individual desserts. Assemble no more than an hour ahead and serve chilled in shallow dishes or coupes.