Angel Food cake

5 from 11 votes

This angel food cake recipe is nothing like the store-bought ones you may have tried! So light and airy it practically melts in your mouth. If you've never made an angel food cake before, I have all the tips, tricks, and step by step instructions for you to make this angel food cake from scratch.

Prep Time25

Cook Time25

Total Time55

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Calories: 149kcal

Author: Heather Perine

Ingredients

1 ½ cups (300 g) superfine sugar (*see note) divided
1 cup (115 g) cake flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cup (300 ml) large egg whites, about 9 to 10
1 ½ teaspoons cream of tartar lemon juice
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

Prepare oven. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C) and position a rack in the center of your oven. For angel food cake, you will use a tube pan, but you do not want to grease it.
Sift dry ingredients. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, sift together the flour and half of the sugar (¾ cup, 150 g). Add the salt and whisk to combine.
Whip egg whites. In the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment (or in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer) beat the egg whites on medium speed, until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating on medium until the egg whites form soft peaks.
Add sugar. Add the remaining sugar, one tablespoon at a time, continuing to beat at medium speed. Do this slowly so the egg whites do not deflate.
Add vanilla. Once all the sugar has been added, add in the vanilla extract.
Whip to stiff peaks. Increase the speed to medium-high and whip to stiff peaks. The egg white meringue mixture should be glassy and the peaks should stand tall on their own when the beaters are removed.
Fold in dry ingredients. Sprinkle the dry ingredients over the meringue mixture. Using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the egg whites. Do this gently so you don’t deflate the egg whites.
Bake. Gently spoon the batter into the tube pan. Bake at 350°F (177°C) for 30-35 minutes until the top of the cake is golden brown and the top springs back to the touch. While the cake is baking, do NOT open then oven door or the cake may fall.
Cool upside down. Remove the cake from the oven, and carefully invert the pan and set it upside down. My tube pan has “little feet” that it can rest on, if yours doesn’t then place the pan over a bottle place through the center of the pan. Allow it to cool upside down for 1 ½ hours. Once the cake has cooled, turn the pan right side up and remove it from the pan by running a butter knife around the sides and bottom.

Notes

Storage: You can wrap any leftovers and keep stored in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Make ahead: You can make this cake up to one day in advance. Wrap in plastic wrap and store at room temperature overnight.
Freezing: You can freeze any leftover cake for up to 3 months. Wrap well and then when ready to serve, thaw overnight in the fridge and bring to room temperature before eating.
Serving: Make sure to let the cake cool completely before serving. It can taste eggy while still warm.
Superfine sugar: This type of sugar dissolves easily into the meringue. If you can't find superfine sugar, I've used granulated sugar and still had success. Or you can place your sugar into your food processor and pulse until it's finer in texture.
Cream Of Tartar: If you don’t have cream of tartar you can replace it with lemon juice instead.
Egg whites: I recommend using fresh egg whites, and NOT egg whites from a carton or frozen egg whites. You want to make sure they are room temperature before you begin. Separate the egg whites while cold (it’s easier to separate), and then bring to room temperature before whipping. Make sure there is no egg yolk present, which can prevent the meringue from whipping up properly.
Pan: If you don’t have an angel food tube pan, you can bake this recipe into a cake layer or into cupcakes. If baking into a layer cake, use either three 8-inch or two 9-inch round cake pans, or use two 12-well cupcake pans and bake for 22 minutes.
Adapted from Baker Bettie's Better Baking book

Nutrition