Angel Food Cake with Raspberries

Angel food cake is a type of sponge cake that is characterized by its ethereal lightness and hence described as the “food of the angels.” In this recipe, angel food cake is decorated with fresh raspberries for a luscious flavor, vibrant color and scrumptious texture. One of the most important steps in making a successful angel food cake is the whipping of the egg whites until they are stiff. Similar to making soufflé, this is a crucial step for ensuring a light and fluffy texture.

To make angel food cake, you need sugar, flour, cream of tartar, salt, wheat flour, and vanilla extract. The dry ingredients are first mixed together and the beaten egg whites and vanilla extracts are incorporated or folded in the dry ingredients. The cream of tartar stabilizes the egg whites and works as a leavening agent to create a light and airy cake. Flour made of softer wheat is ideal for making angel food cake; in this case cake flour is the best type of flour to use since it has a very light texture and contains no fat that creates a light taste and weight.

Angel food cake is typically baked in a special pan made especially for making this kind of cake but a tube pan also works for making angel food cake. This type of pan is tall and has a round shape with a hole in the middle. A bundt pan can also be used to make angel food cake, but releasing the cake from the fluted sides of bundt pan be challenging. The center tube or hole allows the cake to rise better and higher, clinging to all the sides of the pan as it bakes. It is important not to grease the pan when making angel food cake so that it can crawl up to the surface and rise. After the cake is caked, the pan is inverted whole it is being cooled to avoid the tendency of the cake to fall on itself and collapse.