In my family, angel food cake is the standard for birthdays. As a kid, I preferred mine slathered with frosting-from-a-can and decorated with those sugary-candy letters and shapes. As I got older, my preference transitioned to no frosting, but served with ice cream and/or whipped cream and some kind of fruit--berries, peaches, etc. (Although, I still love me some frosting-in-a-can...)
Last week I made an angel food cake from scratch for my grandma's 89th birthday, using her classic recipe. And it was delicious! Now, don't get me wrong, store-bought is fine and angel food from a mix can be really good, but Grandma's recipe makes a cake that practically melts in your mouth it is so good.
The original recipe came from the book that came with Grandma's 1950-era Sunbeam Mixmaster stand mixer. My grandpa gave the mixer to my grandma as a gift after my aunt was born, back when the Sunbeam *the* in-demand kitchen appliance, pretty much like today's Kitchenaid mixer. She used that mixer for decades, and when it finally died, my aunt gave her hers: a late-1970s/early-1980s yellow model. That one is still going strong!
One of the great things about the Sunbeam Angel Food cake recipe is that when you are done, you have a dozen egg yolks to use, which is perfect for the Golden Sunbeam Cake. The recipe was in the Sunbeam Mixmaster cookbook with the Angel Food cake recipe and it makes a lemony, dense, moist cake that is super delicious.
For the birthday celebration, I actually had to make two cakes to get one to turn out right. For the first, I used a hand mixer. It took half of forever to get the batter to form soft peaks, but it wasn't enough. Sadly, that cake turned out to be only about half as tall as it should have. It tasted OK, but it was dense instead of light-as-air.
So, I borrowed Grandma's good ol' Sunbeam and tried again. The stand mixer worked much better and more quickly than the hand-mixer. This time, I beat the batter until it was more like medium-peaks. It turned out wonderfully....so delicious, just like Grandma always makes!
Ingredients:- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sifted cake flour (the original called for Swans Down and I used Softasilk, just DO NOT use a non-cake flour)
- 1 1/2 cups sifted sugar
- 1 dozen egg whites (aka 1 1/4 cups) Tip: Remove eggs from refrigerator an hour or two before using. They will whip up better if they aren't cold.
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1/4 tsp. almond extract
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375°F
- Sift flour once and then measure
- Add ½ cup of the sugar and sift together 4 times
- Place egg whites and salt in large stand mixer bowl
- Beat at No. 10 speed (out of 12, I think) until foamy
- Add cream of tartar and continue beating until eggs are in soft- to medium-peaks. They should be stiff enough to hold up in peaks, but still moist and glossy.
- Add remaining sugar, one Tbsp at a time, beating constantly.
- Beat only until sugar is just blended, then add vanilla and almond
- Remove bowl from mixer and add flour-and-sugar mixture in four additions, sifting it over the egg whites.
- Fold in each addition by hand, using wire whip or large spoon, turning bowl gradually and use 15 complete fold-over strokes each time.
- After the last addition, use 10 to 20 additional strokes to mix in all the flour/sugar mixture.
- Turn batter out into ungreased 10-inch tube pan.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until top is golden brown and toothpick inserted comes out all or mostly clean.
- Remove from oven and invert pan on rack or plate.
- Let stand 1 hour or until cake is cool.
- Loosen cake from sides and center of pay with a sharp knife.
- Sprinkle powdered sugar on plate or cake holder.
- Turn cake out onto the plate.
- You're finished!
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