First Attempt at Angel Food Cake

Come along as I venture into my first attempt at Angel Food Cake, revel in my triumphs, laugh at my errors, and laugh even more at the end result!

Everyone enjoys a light and fluffy angel food cake topped with whipped cream and strawberries. The angel food cake alone is light and sweet and slightly caramelized on the outside. It’s a dessert that heralds in the start of summer and all things berries. And I wanted to contribute with my first ever angel food cake to ring in summer!

It seems that everyone I know has tried an angel food cake recipe at least once in their lifetime. Personally, I never had. The thought of whipped egg whites had always intimidated me. Under-beaten, you wouldn’t get any rise. Over-beaten, you’d whip the rise out of it. But I was feeling courageous one day. It also helped that I had started making cloud bread which made whipping up egg whites less intimidating. Jumping on Pinterest, I looked up some recipes and decided to give it a try!

So come along with me on my first journey into this whipped egg white adventure!

The Angel Food Cake Recipe I followed

In my recipe research, I decided on The Stay At Home Chef. The author, Rachel, is adorable! She makes all her cooks and bakes look so easy and tasty, like anyone can make them. She has recipes for practically everything that are simple, easy to follow, and not that complicated. What makes her recipes seem easy is how she delivers them in her videos. She’s approachable and humble. And just so cute!

But I digress. Following this recipe, I went about my first attempt at angel food cake from Rachel, the Stay at Home Chef.

Her video seemed self-explanatory and easy enough. Separate a dozen eggs, whip up the egg whites til absolutely fluffy and cloud-like, gently mix in other stuff, bake, and viola!

Everything was going along fine. My whipped egg whites were looking deliciously cloud-like and pillowy. It wasn’t grainy so I knew the sugar had dissolved throughout. And it tasted of marshmallows.

Just look at how it turned out! Who would think this would NOT be light and fluffy?

The baking

You’re not supposed to grease the pan or have any oils on the inside at all. The only rising agent is the egg whites. As the cake bakes, it rises not only because of the whites but because it’s clinging to the sides to grow and stay well risen. Any oils or grease will not allow that rise to happen. You’d end up with a flat, dense cake instead. So I made sure not to grease or oil my pan. I dried it and wiped it down just to make sure.

The cake and decorations

Here’s the final product after cooling upside down with no toppings. (I apologize for the image quality. I had to enlarge it and don’t know enough about how to make it sharper. Still learning.)

From this (unclear) image, the final result looks nice, light, and fluffy. What you’d expect to see in stores, right? However, it didn’t feel light and fluffy. When I lifted it, the cake felt a bit weighty, a little dense. But that didn’t stop me from decorating it and trying it.

Because I had lots of berries left over, I decided to top it with a chocolate syrup and berries arranged on top. I tried to get all fancy. But I am no cake decorator. This was the best I could do with two kids running around.

Conclusion to my first angel food cake

Everything looked nice and pretty. It even smelled delicious. I served it alongside not so freshly whipped whipped cream (read from a can) and let’s just say… it wasn’t bad! It wasn’t as dense as it felt. But it wasn’t as light as I know it could be. The taste was more cake-like than angel food cake-like.

What are your thoughts?

The only place I think I could have gone wrong is in the whipping of the egg whites. I definitely don’t think I under beat them. So maybe I over-beat them?

Share your thoughts with me in the comments? How could I improve on this other than trying again? Have you tried making this? How did it turn out? Let me know! I’m curious.

Read my other first attempt recipes

Making pickled watermelon rinds