Angel Cake

Hey guess what?
My first EVER blog post is a recipe which has no butter.

I'm just so witty!

And so, here's a photo I took a long time ago which may match your facial expression right now after reading that.

This is a blog about a recipe for angel cake.
It's healthy. (gasp)
And it takes like two seconds to make and two seconds to clean up afterwards. Which is saying something, considering I'm quite messy and slow.

Alright, it took 20 minutes to prepare everything and combine and throw into the oven.

Seriously. [although, maybe not throw]

Generally angel cake recipes are all like, take the egg whites of 12 MILLION eggs. A bit of an exaggeration, I know. But seriously, there are so many eggs, the resulting cake is a giant and it needs one of those ugly cake pans with an ugly hole. So, here's a prettier, smaller, more normal sized one with 4 eggs. Yay!~ Oh, and it has no hideous hole.

One thing I wanted to tell you before I start with the recipe. I actually hate to fold. You have to be patient and nice to the mixture when folding, BUT THAT'S OKAY. I don't mind too much. This is where my sort-of OCD side of myself comes in. When you fold, you can't help but deflate it a TAD. Obviously. But I just hate to see it do that. I always think, "IT MUST NOT DEFLATE BY A SINGLE BUBBLE!" By the way, if you don't fold properly, GAME OVER, YOU FAIL.

This recipe also does not have any cream of tartar because honestly, I don't want to buy a container of cream of tartar, only to use about a teaspoon or two before it passes its best before date. 'Cause that really sucks.

Let's see, what else...oh, the lemon juice and salt are to stabilise the egg whites. And here's a reaaaally pretty picture of glossy egg whites just before the flour step. Such pretty stiff peaks...

 

Who would have thought it started from this:~

At the end, it was rather funny when the cake was cooling upside down. It amuses me. Otherwise it just deflates. See? ---->

Oh, I wish I used weights for ingredients like flour because its just SO MUCH MORE ACCURATE, but I just don't have a kitchen scale. T^T

Anywhoo...

Angel Cake

Ingredients:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
~1/2 cup egg whites (4 eggs at room temp) *~59g whole egg.
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180C (~350F) with a rack in the centre of the oven. Keep a springform pan ready (20cm diameter) *PLEASE use something with a removeable base because the pan won't be greased and you end up having to rip the cake out of the pan in 20 pieces.

Place the egg whites in a CLEAN, DRY, GREASE-FREE bowl and beat until foamy(using a electric mixer, or if you're really buff, then have fun and do it by hand). Add the salt and lemon juice and continue beating until soft peaks. Then gradually add the sugar, ~1 tbsp at a time until glossy, stiff peaks form. Add in vanilla and beat until combined. Gradually sift in flour while simultaneously FOLDING it into the egg whites.

Pour the batter into the ungreased pan and gently smooth the top. Bake in the oven for ~30 minutes. Allow the cake to cool for ~1 hour upside down. E.g. a rack. When cooled, carefully use a spatula (or knife) to loosen the cake and then pop it out.

Then you can have it plain, or with whipped cream, fruit etc.
I had whipped cream with a generous splash of hazelnut liquer and strawberries.


Here's a really dodgy photo. I guarantee it looked infinitely times better in real life.