Angel Food Cake

My dad's favorite cake is Angel Food Cake. Every year for his birthday, my mom buys Angel Food Cake from the grocery store and we eat it as a family with berries and whipped cream. I have been thinking that home made Angel Food Cake has to be way better than store bought, right? I found this recipe in William Sonoma's Cakes book. I made the cake with my roommate for the month for the Dining For Women meeting. I consider this very first attempt at Angel Food Cake a dry run for making it someday for my dad's birthday. This year I won't be able to go home to celebrate with him, but one day I will. So overall, Angel Food Cake needs to be a part of my cake repertoire.


Ingredients:
12 cold large eggs
1 cup cake flour
1 3/4 granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract


Directions:
1. Preheat the oven and prepare the pan
Position a rack in the lower middle of the oven, so the cake will be evenly surrounded with heat and preheat to 325 F. Have ready a 10 inch tube pan, preferably with a removable bottom and small feet spaced evenly around the rim. If the pan does not have feet, have a narrow necked full wine bottle or similar bottle over which the tube pan can be slipped with it is cooling. You won't need to grease the pan as you do with most other cakes because any fat, such as butter, can deflate the delicate batter. The batter needs to adhere to the pan and climb the sides while it bakes.
2. Separate the eggs
Take the eggs from the refrigerator. Have ready 2 medium bowls and 1 large mixing bowl. The bowls must be perfectly clean, because even a speck of fat can prevent the whites from reaching the necessary loft when whipped. Working over the first medium bowl, crack 1 egg and pass the yolk back and forth between the shell halves, allowing the white to drop into the bowl. Drop the yolk into the second medium bowl. Transfer the white to the large bowl. Repeat with the remaining 11 eggs/ Reserve the yolks for another use.
3. Sift the dry ingredients
Suspend a fine mesh sieve over a small bowl and add the flour and 3/4 cup of sugar. Lightly tap the rim of the sieve to encourage the ingredients to pass into the bowl. This both combines the ingredients and aerates the flour. Set aside.
4. Beat the egg whites with the cream of tarter
Add the cream of tartar and slat to the bowl with the egg whites. Fit a stand mixer or a handheld mixer with the whip attachment. Beat on medium speed until opaque white and foamy and cream of tartar has dissolved, about 1 minute.
5. Beat the egg white mixture to stiff peaks
Increase the speed to medium-high and continue beating, moving the whip around the bowl if using the handheld mixer, until the whites look white, shiny and smooth and the movement of the whip forms lines in the mixture 2-3 minutes. Stop the mixture and lift the whip. The peaks of the whites should be slightly bent; these are soft peaks. Turn the mixer on medium speed and beat in the remaining 1 cup sugar, at a rate of about 2 tablespoons every 15 seconds, until all the sugar is incorporated. (Remember to move the whip around in the bowl if using a handheld mixer.) The egg whites will be shiny. Stop the mixer and lift the whip. The peaks of the whites should be firm and straight; these are stiff peaks. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and beat on medium speed for 1 minute.
6. Mix in the dry ingredients
Reduce the mixer speed to low. Add 1/2 cup of the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated and no streaks are visible. Repeat with the remaining flour mixture in 1/2 cup additions. When all of the flour mixture has been incorporated, the batter will look soft and fluffy
7. Transfer the batter to the pan
Using a large rubber spatula, scrape the batter into the prepared pan, then use the spatula to smooth the top. You want to eliminate any large bumps and distribute the batter evenly, but the top does not need to be perfectly smooth.
8. Bake the cake
Bake the cake undisturbed for 40 minutes. If the top looks set-that is the batter no longer looks wet and the top is lightly browned, touch it gently. If it feels firm, insert a thin skewer or toothpick near the center of the cake, equidistant from the pan sides and the tube. If it comes out dry the cake is done. If it comes out wet, set the timer for another 5 minutes and continue to bake. Repeat the process until the cake is done---which will probably take a total of 50 minutes.

Overall, I give this cake 4 out of 5 stars. The taste was good. However, in the midst of cooling, the cake deflated somewhat. Therefore the cake was denser tasting than a typical Angel Food Cake that tastes somewhat light and fluffy. I think that next time I should use an Angel Food style pan instead of the silicone bundt cake pan that I used. The change in pan may help during the cooling process from inhibiting the deflation of the cake.