Angel Food Comparison
I was in the mood for baking on Sunday (it was gloomy and there were snow flurries). I didn’t find a cookie recipe in Grandma’s cookbook that caught my fancy, but I did find five angel food cake recipes.
I had been wondering if angel food cake required that special pan. It seems important since it lets heat into the middle of the cake. One of the recipes is for an angel food layer in a larger cake. That seemed like a good start – and we know that a layer of cake makes a dozen cupcakes. Blame The Laird for the cupcake decision: He bought the silicon cupcake cups.
Angel Food
From: Erna Wrasse
Source: Mrs. Lemke
1½ cups sugar – sifted 5 times
1 cup flour [doesn’t say sift it, but…]
11 eggs – whites only
1 tsp cream of tartar
pinch of salt
Bake 40 minutes
That is not the layer recipe. Nor is this one:
Reliable Angel Food
From: Erna Wrasse
Source: Mrs. Hallandes
1 cup egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
must all be the same size
1 tsp cream tartar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
Beat eggs until foamy. Add cream tartar and beat until stiff and dry. Sift flour and salt 4 times. Add alternatively with sugar and vanilla. Cut with a silver knife.
I find it interesting that it calls for silver knife, but does “cut” mean “fold with” or does it mean “after baking, use a silver knife to cut it”? Silver knives are difficult to find. In most cases, the knife blade on real silver silverware is steel. One could use the handle of something else – or just a serving spoon – for folding; not so much for actual cutting. Silver does react with eggs – never serve deviled eggs on a silver platter – so there might be something to this, but I rather doubt it.
Angel Food
From: Erna Wrasse
Source: Mother
6 eggs – whites only
½ cup flour
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp cream tartar
1 tsp vanilla
Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth. Sift sugar, flour, and cream tartar together. Fold into the white carefully – add the vanilla and bake in an ungreased angel cake pan.
Still not the right one, but noticeably smaller.
Angel Food Cake
From: Erna Wrasse
Source: Happy Hours
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
3 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
Sift together four times.
1 cup milk (scalded)
Pour over other ingredients and beat for a few moments the fold in the beaten whites of 2 eggs and add flavoring to taste.
Only 2 egg whites? That’s very different from the “1 cup eggs, sugar, flour” recipe. It has leavening, too.
Angel Layer Cake
From: Erna Wrasse
Source: Mrs. Gael
5 egg yolks (beaten light)
1 cup sugar (sifted 3 times)
Cream these together.
½ tsp soda [baking] (soda in milk)
½ cup sweet milk
1 tsp cream tartar in ⅓ cup S.D. [Swan’s Down] flour sifted 3 times.
1 tsp vanilla – add to creamed yolks
This makes 2 layers in ungreased tins.
5 egg whites (beaten stiff add pinch salt)
1 tsp cream tartar
add ¾ cup sugar sifted 3 times and beat in whites
½ cup S.D. [Swan’s Down] flour sifted 3 times.
½ tsp vanilla
fold flour in last This makes 1 layer
And there we have it. It’s pretty obvious where this cake came from: I have five egg yolks leftover from the angel food, what do I do with them? (I ate them for second breakfast.) It also has a filling, which is very similar to the old-fashioned buttercream (aka Ermine) frosting (it has an egg; the frosting does not).
I followed the instructions, such as they are, like the good boy that I am. I did assume that “sugar” means “powdered sugar” since sifting granulated sugar is pointless (and I did find lumps in the powdered sugar). If I make this one, again, I think I’ll beat in the flour (if the egg whites can handle 3/4 cup of sugar, they should be fine with a 1/2 cup of flour) and let it sit for a few minutes. It was ever so slightly gritty. Even though sifting cake flour three times turns it into dust, it did seem as if the flour did not properly hydrate. I didn’t frost them, but strawberry jam makes an excellent topping.
Four recipes left to try – and I’m not buying that pan!
BTW: There are two left. Angel food cupcakes do not make a good breakfast; one gets hungry again quite quickly.
Marked Up 