Angel Food Cake

Angel Food Cake

Ingredients:
110 g plain flour (405 flour)
100 g powdered sugar
¼ tsp. salt
12 large egg whites, at room temperature
140 g castor sugar
1 ½ tsp. cream of tartar (Deutsch: Weinstein)
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract (Or the soft center of a vanilla pod!)

Preheat oven to 180C. Have ready an ungreased angel food cake form (A Gugelhupf Form; if the form is not coated then greasing with butter or margarine is necessary!)) 25 cm in diameter and ca.10 cm deep.

Sift the flour, powdered sugar, and salt together (twice) onto a sheet of waxed paper. Set aside.

Using a mixer, beat egg whites with whisk on medium speed until they start to foam. Add a third of the fine sugar and beat until the whites are opaque, then add another third of the sugar and the cream of tartar and continue beating. When the whites start to increase in volume and become firm, add remaining sugar and the vanilla and increase speed to high. Beat just until the whites form very soft peaks. Do not overbeat. Sift a third of the flour mixture over the egg whites and carefully fold in with a large rubber spatula. Sift and fold the remaining flour mixture in two more additions.

Pour the batter into the cake form and smooth the top. Bake (180°C) until the top of cake is lightly browned and feels springy when touched (ca. 40-45 minutes. You can check this by looking rather than opening the oven!). Take the form out of the oven and invert on a serving plate. By covering the form with a cloth for about 5 min. the cake can (should be able to be!) be removed from the form with a few careful movements of a knife around the edges. Cut the slices with a serrated knife and serve with a chocolate sauce…in winter warm is better!!