Eggstra Egg White Use #2: Angel Food Cake

The second recipe I wanted to try was Angel Food Cake. A few weeks ago I was watching the Martha Stewart show and she made an Angel Food Cake. I remember her listing 10 egg whites as one of the ingredients. What a PERFECT way to put egg whites to use?!

Angel Food Cake

(Source: Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:
1 cup sifted cake flour (not self-rising) [I used whole wheat flour... it's what I had on hand]
1 1/2 cups sugar
12 large egg whites [I used 10 egg whites. Again, it was all I had on hand.]
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees, with rack in lower third of oven. Sift flour and 1/2 cup sugar into a bowl.

Whisk whites with a mixer on medium speed until frothy, about 1 minute. Add cream of tartar, vanilla, and salt; continue whisking until soft peaks form, about 2 1/2 minutes. With mixer running, gradually add remaining cup sugar. Increase speed to medium-high; continue whisking until firm, not stiff, peaks form, about 2 minutes.

Sprinkle whites with 1/3 of the flour-sugar mixture. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold to combine. Sprinkle remaining flour-sugar mixture over whites in 2 additions; gently fold to combine.

Transfer batter to a 10-inch angel food cake pan with legs [I used a loaf pan and 6 cupcake molds]. Gently run a knife through the center of the batter to remove any air bubbles. Bake until a tester inserted into center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes.

Remove pan from oven, and invert onto its cooling legs (if your tube pan doesn't have legs, invert it over the neck of a wine, or similarly shaped, bottle to cool); let cool, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Run a knife around the inner and outer edges of cake to remove. Invert onto a serving platter. (Use a knife to separate cake from bottom of pan.) Let cool on a wire rack. Unfrosted cake can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

At this point I tasted the cake and it was D-R-Y!! It could have been that I used 2 less egg whites or used whole wheat flour, but the cake was dense and dry. Thus it needed toppings to add moisture.

So I ran to the store and picked up Cool Whip Free and strawberries. I cut up the strawberries, sprinkled them with 1 T. sugar and allowed them to mascerate for a few hours.

When I was ready to serve the cake, I split the loaf in half and layered the middle with 1/3 the Cool Whip, 1/2 the strawberries and another 1/3 of the Cool Whip and put on the second layer. I topped that with another 1/3 of Cool Whip and the remaining strawberries.

The moisture from the strawberries and Cool Whip helped, but the cake was still dry. Next time I would use the full amount of egg whites and consider changing the flour or add a syrup that could soak into the cake.

{I cut the cake loaf into three very large servings; I gave one to Rich and two were mine. Rich was only able to eat half of his (I served this after a large dinner) so I ate his too. Granted this was over the course of a few days, but soooo tasty!!}