I had 18 egg whites in my freezer leftover from various recipes I've made through the year. Thus, I decided to make an angel food cake to take to a potluck.
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I decided to start with what I figured should be a straight-forward recipe - the Angel Food Cake recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook (affiliate link).
Before starting the process of baking the cake, I did a bit of reading up on egg whites and angel food cakes. Alton Brown's baking book, I'm Just Here for More Food (affiliate link), was pretty useful. I also watched a video of Ina Garten (the Barefoot Contessa from Food Network) making an angel food cake, which was perhaps the most useful thing I've found since it actually shows how the egg whites will look once they have stiff peaks.
I used my stand mixer to beat the egg whites since it was the largest metal bowl I had. Even so, I was a little surprised at how quickly my egg whites whipped up. It seemed so easy! Using the stand mixer also made it easier to add the granulated sugar and vanilla and almond extracts. Folding the powdered sugar and cake flour (which I got to use for the first time) into the egg whites seemed a little intimidating, but again, it was useful to watch the video to see how she did it. I baked the cake in a square angel food cake pan because all of my pans were 9-inch pans, rather than the 10-inch pan that the recipe called for. I didn't bother with doing the math, but I just figured that a 9x9 inch square pan would hold more volume than a 9-inch round pan - even when accounting for the holes in the center of the tube pans, which were different sizes.
This baked just over 35 minutes. Although this recipe didn't say to use a toothpick test on the cake, Alton Brown's recipe did, so I made sure that a toothpick came out clean to double-check my cake since it's my first time making an angel food cake. I removed it from the pan the next day, right before I took it over to the potluck.
To go with the Angel Food Cake I made, I made the straightforward recipe for Strawberry-Mango Margarita Compote.
There wasn't much left over the potluck. The compote was pretty tasty! I think that mango-strawberry is a great combination for fruit, and they both go well with the lime and citrus flavors of margarita. I would make it again.
Everyone there complimented the cake, and while you're always supposed to compliment a cook on their food, I believe them this time. I was pretty impressed with how it turned out. It was fluffy and light and fairly sweet. I was a little nervous about it before, but it really had a good texture. I will try other angel food cake recipes when I want a flavored cake, but I will also make this standard recipe again.
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