Angel food cake is a super light donut shaped sponge cake that is egg yolk free, butter free and a really fun challenge to make! It has a very light texture and puffs up into huge wedges when baked. In the UK we have angel cake which is 3 different colour tiers of cake, but angel food cake is a much more meringue like batter, that tastes incredible! I hope you give this a try, it’s a fun recipe project to attempt!
First thing to say is you are going to need a special angel food cake tin for this, they look a bit like a bundt tin except with a removable base.
Pre-heat the oven to 350f/160fan/180c, do not line or grease the angel food tin as this will stop it holding it’s shape.
Get a blender or food processor and whizz up the sugar, it should be more powder like (a bit like icing sugar but slightly more coarse) to help with the structure of the cake. Put half of the sugar in a bowl to one side. Add the flour and cornflour mix, plus the salt and blast in the food processor again until well combined with the sugar you left in the food processor.
Get the egg whites in a large clean bowl, whisk until just starting to foam, then add the cream of tartar and extract, keep whisking slowly as you add the reserved sugar in small batches until it dissolves and you achieve soft peaks (peaks that after holding for a moment fall back into the batter mix) do not over mix the mixture. It should take roughly 4-5 minutes. Fold in the flour mixture in small batches with a spatula until just incorporated, to not over stir / fold the mix, just get it dissolved lifting to keep the air in the mix.
Add the batter to the tin, level off so it is even and bake for a good 45 minutes until browned on the top and a skewer comes out clean in the centre. Allow to cool upside down for 3 hours in the tin before attempting to remove very carefully as per video serving with dusted icing sugar, fruit and cream – so good!