I love to bake. However, I am one of those people that shouldn’t keep too many baked goods in the house so I often bake for other people; usually cookies of which I have experimented with a wide variety of recipes. Every once in a while, I get the opportunity to bake a cake. My favorite so far was a vegan orange chocolate Bundt cake I made back in 2012 for my best friend’s birthday. I love this type because all it needs on top is a glaze, no decorating necessary. I love baking, but I intensely dislike decorating cakes. I watch the show Nailed It! on Netflix and even thinking about having to do that myself makes my heart beat a little bit faster.
Recently, my good friend was hosting her mom’s birthday party and needed a cake. She recently had knee surgery and wasn’t supposed to be standing for any substantial amount of time so I volunteered to make one, as long as I wouldn’t have to decorate it. I asked what type of cake her mom wanted and she said angel food cake. I told her, “Sure I can do that. It’ll be super easy.” I talk a big game. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about decorating.
I actually never made an angel food cake before. This would be all new terrain for my baking skills. I was nervous because I couldn’t screw this up. It would be the only dessert at the birthday party. I asked my sisters over our group chat if any of them had ever made an angel food cake from scratch (because, let’s be honest, the box mixes are terrible) and one of them sent me her favorite recipe. I went online and watched YouTube videos of people making angel food cakes and various videos of people whipping egg whites and folding in flour, both of which I’ve never had to do before. Not a whole lot of that is required in cookie baking. I definitely saw too many egg whipping videos, they’re all the same, but I wanted to be absolutely sure I did it right. Gotta love YouTube.
I borrowed the proper cake pan from a friend as I didn’t have one. Then I went to the grocery store for ingredients. I had to buy cream of tartar and had no idea where it should be. I was assuming it would be with the baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch, etc. I asked an employee who said she never heard of it. She asked someone else who had never heard of it. After asking four different people, one of the kids looked it up on his cell phone and we determined it was in the spices. I forgot what it’s like to go shopping at night when the teenagers are running the store.
Back at home, it was time to bake the cake. I put on my apron which I love wearing because it reminds me of watching my mom and grandma bake when I was a kid. I always look for one like my mom had, but they’re impossible to find nowadays. I cracked the 12 eggs and separated the whites from the yolks. Good thing I used a separate bowl to crack into because I had a couple yolks break apart into the white, plus I ended up with a some egg shell pieces I had to fish out—a reminder that I wasn’t using high quality, fresh farm eggs. Unfortunately, my egg lady didn’t have any when I called her. When I was done with separating, it was time to whip the egg whites. I didn’t realize it would take so long for 12 egg whites to form stiff peaks. The YouTube videos always skipped ahead to when they’d be done. I thought I was doing something wrong when after 5 minutes of mixing, they were still frothy. That moment when you finally see them starting to come together is incredibly satisfying. When they were finally perfect, I added the cream of tartar, vanilla extract and almond extract to the egg whites and whipped them again for about a minute. In a separate bowl, I sifted the cake flour, sugar, and salt five times over. Then in three intervals, I folded in the flour mixture. Folding in flour is a slow process but I love watching it all come together. When it was fully combined, the texture and smell reminded me so much of microwaved marshmallows. I poured the batter into the cake pan and ran a knife through it to get rid of any air bubbles. I put it in the cold oven on the bottom rack then turned the oven to 325 degrees. About a half hour into baking, I started to make the 12 yolk pound cake.
I found this recipe while looking up what to do with extra egg yolks. I didn’t want them to go to waste after all. The recipe looked super easy and used no oil or butter. No butter in a pound cake? I was intrigued. I mixed everything up and let the batter sit. I had decided to do two loaf cakes instead of a Bundt. When the angel food cake was done, I took it out, moved the oven rack back up to its normal spot, and put the loaves in, increasing the temp to 350.
My angel food cake was all puffed up. I didn’t realize at the time that it was normal for it to expand so much while baking and was afraid that I must have done something wrong. No angel food cake I’ve ever seen looked like that. I propped it upside down on the counter to cool completely before removing it from the pan. The pound cake loaves were done in just under an hour. I tried to remove the first one from its pan and it broke apart. After re-reading the directions I realized I should have let it cool for 20 minutes before removing it from the pan. The waiting period is crucial as the second one came out perfectly. Oh well, one good one was all I needed. After two hours of cooling, I flipped my angel food cake back over. I saw it had settled down and looked normal; phew. I scraped a butter knife all around the edge to separate the cake from the pan. It was perfect. My first time making an angel food cake and it looked exactly as it should. Fingers crossed that it would taste the way it was supposed to as well.
The next night, before the party, I made a berry compote in the crock pot using raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, maple syrup, and lemon juice and zest. I also made an easy lemon glaze. Using a wooden skewer, I poked holes in the top of the angel food cake, then poured the glaze over the top. The holes would allow the glaze to seep into parts of the cake. The compote would be served on the side. It looked great; hopefully it would taste the way it should.
To my relief, both the angel food and pound cakes were a hit. Everyone loved them. One of the guests, who previously told me he wasn’t a fan of angel food cake, had two pieces. I love to hear that people enjoy what I bake though it also embarrasses me. I’m not sure why, I guess it’s just hard for me to be complimented directly. But I love baking cakes and I’d rather be embarrassed by compliments than by something that tastes terrible. This experience ended up being a good one.
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