Happy Martin Luther King Day! To celebrate, I’ve been making some of our favorite Southern foods, including Angel Food Cake.
We love Angel Food Cake, but I don’t make it often enough. Part of the reason is I never know what to do with the 12 leftover egg yolks, and the other part is that I can never find my angel food cake pan – the one with the removable bottom and legs. To solve the problem, I decided to try baking it in loaves.
First, I made a couple of versions using small 3×5 inch loaf pans. The first recipe got thrown out because it was too eggy, while the second version was just right. In fact, it was so good that both loaves were gone in a day, and while I like cakes to disappear quickly, that was a little too quickly.
So for the next cake, I doubled the mini-cake recipe and used a regular 9×5 inch loaf pan. Perfect! Of course it would have been better if I’d lined my pan with foil. The cake would not come out, which is why angel food cake pans have removable bottoms. We were able to lift one serving at a time out of the pan, but next time I’d line the pan with foil and peel it off, which is what I did with the very tiny loaves I’d made previously.
Here’s the recipe. It’s a scaled down version of a recipe which has a higher proportion of flour and seems a little less egg-y than others. The cake is still very much angel food cake, but it’s denser and has more structure to it. And while I did cool the cake upside down in the loaf pan by balancing the edges on two bowls, I think it would have been fine cooled right side up.
Update: I’ve since made this multiple times and have added a few more pictures.
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (6.1 oz/171 grams)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup cake flour plus 1 tablespoon (2.2 oz/60 grams)
- 6 large egg whites at room temperature
- 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x5 inch loaf pan with regular foil. Do not use non-stick.
- In a food processor or small coffee grinder, grind the sugar until it is very fine. Mix half of your ground sugar in a small bowl with the flour and salt. Set aside.
- In a large metal bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy. When foamy, add the cream of tartar and beat until medium peaks form. Slowly beat in the sugar. Beat in the vanilla. With a large scraper, fold the flour mixture in in four parts.
- Carefully spoon mixture into the ungreased loaf and and bake for 35 minutes. Test with a wooden skewer or pick. Let the loaf pan cool, then carefully lift from pan and peel away the foil. Also, you can try cooling it upside down for nostalgia’s sake, but this cake is fairly sturdy and has enough flour so that it shouldn’t need to be cooled upside down. It’s not the lightest angel food cake, but it’s really good.
I always line the cake with foil and I use a loaf pan that is around 9×5 — just slightly larger.
I love the idea of making this in a loaf pan!
Ooh, a smaller angel food could be handy! I did a full sized one with the egg whites in a carton once and it worked fine and avoided the heaps-of-yolk problem.
Would the recipe work with superfine sugar since you grind it up anyway?
Angel food cake has always been a favorite of mine. I made a full size CI’s angel food for my son’s birthday. It went over so well!! Everyone loved it. Good to have this scaled down version for when we don’t need so much.
My last angel food cake didn’t turn out so great (tasty, just not structurally sound) but I love angel food cake and I too kind of neglect making it. For me it has to do with its size. Not because it won’t be finished, but because it will be; which is why this is probably the perfect compromise. And using a loaf pan just seems easier :).
Use the yolks to make lemon curd. It’s easy and it tastes oh so good on top of Angel Food Cake!!
Great idea! I ended up making vanilla ice cream.
the small cakes are a great idea. And seeing Perry’s suggestion to use the yokes for lemon curd, well, that will be a win-win plan.
How would you go about making a chocolate version of this using natural cocoa powder? Sub a couple (?) Tablesoons for flour – or just add in as an additional ingredient. This is the perfect size for our small family – but we’ve come to really love a chocolate version.
Tip: Angel food cakes can be frozen! When we buy the full size version, I slice half of the rest and put it in a Rubbermaid freezer container. Then you can just pull out however many slices you need. Still frozen is a cool summer treat – but it also thaws quickly.
Love all the experiments you do for us!
Hi Nancy,
Believe it or not I’ve never tasted a chocolate version! Maybe I need to get on that. As for this recipe, I suppose adding a tablespoons or two of cocoa powder and reducing the flour very slightly would do the trick, but I might looks at some other recipes and see how they do it. Thanks for the tip on freezing.
Wow what a great idea. I guess I’ll be running to the store to pick up some strawberries to put on top of my Angel food cake.
Oooh I love that this is baked in a loaf pan! I love angel food cake, I need to make some soon!
I live on a farm in PA and raise fancy breed chickens for fresh eggs… angel food cake is a family favorite, with no resemblance to “store bought”! I usually make creme brulee with the yolks, by popular demand. Anna, I found you searching for a rocky road recipe, are you on Facebook? Great blog, Thanks
Yes! Friend me on Facebook. I’d love that.
thanks for the recipe! can i sub ‘unbleached all-purpose flour’ for the cake flour? if so, do i need to adjust the amount? thanks!!!
Yes, you can. Cake flour has less protein and usually gives baked goods a softer and more tender texture. It also weighs less. 1 cup cake flour generally weighs 4 ounces, while a properly measured cup of all-purpose should weigh about 4.5 ounces. The usual substitution for cake flour is to take 1 cup of all-purpose flour, remove 2 tablespoons of flour and add in 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. With this recipe, I think you can just skip the cornstarch altogether and weight out 2.2 ounces of all-purpose. If you don’t have a scale, just use 1/2 cup of well-aerated (stirred) all-purpose flour. Good luck!!! I hope you like the loaf pan sized angel cake.
thank you so much for your quick and thorough response, Anna! i really appreciate it!
Found this post while looking for mini angel food cakes…
My mom, growing up on a ranch in the 30’s, retold how she and her mother would make angel food cakes with the whites and with the yokes they made a jelly roll. The family had dessert all week.
Found this post while looking for mini angel food cakes…
My mom, growing up on a ranch in the 30’s, retold how she and her mother would make angel food cakes with the whites and with the yokes they made a jelly roll. The family had dessert all week.
Just another yolk idea for you
Can angel food cupcakes be made and if so how much batter in each cupcake mold? I just found this blog and love it!
Hi Tanya! I’m so glad you found me :). Unfortunately, I don’t have a great answer for you. I’ve made angel food cupcakes once or twice, but wasn’t very impressed, therefore I didn’t really log the amount of time needed to bake them. My best advice is just to experiment with some of the batter. Luckily it’s not an expensive cake to make, so you could just make a few different size cups and see how they turn out.
Hello from Spain! Thanks for sharing this recipe… I did it and it resulted perfect!
Just made this and can’t wait to try it. It was easy and looks perfect.
Sue, I hope you like it! I haven’t made the loaf pan size version in a while, but have been thinking about it. The last one I made was a full size.
I am so glad I found this recipe for loaf pan angel food cake. We do unleavened breads for Passover and angel food cake has been a life-saver. One year we made “French toast” using angel food cake. Back then I used a regular angel food cake pan and trying to cut slices for French toast using an angel food pan was a trial. Going to try this loaf pan recipe, easier to slice 🙂
Good luck, Kathy! I hope it works for you.