REC: Chocolate Angel Food Cake

[Curly Sue]

I made this for my brother. It's a nice, light, chocolatey
cake. Warning: 12 egg whites beaten is a lot of volume! Use
your biggest bowl.

Chocolate Angelfood Cake

1-1/2 c egg whites (12 large eggs) 1-1/3 c powdered sugar
(confectioners)
3/4 c cake flour
4/4 c unsweetened cocoa 1-1/2 tsp cream of tartar
5/2 tsp salt 1 tsp vanilla
6/2 tsp almond extract 1 c superfine sugar

7. separate eggs, place whites in large bowl, set it aside
to room temperature

8. Preheat oven to 350o.

9. Sift powdered sugar, flour, cocoa, 3 times. Set aside.

10. Add cream of tartar and salt to eggs and beat until
soft peaks form. Add vanilla and almond extract.

11. Beat in superfine sugar, 2 tbsp at a time until eggs
are stiff and glassy. Sprinkle 2-3 tbsp flour mixture
in and fold gently. Continue until all is gone.

12. Pour batter into ungreased tube pan and bake 55 min.

13. Let cool upside down.

14. Garnish with any or all of the following: chocolate
drizzle, whipped cream, raspberry sauce, raspberries,
black berries, and blueberries.

(note: I didn't have any "superfine" sugar so I whirled
some granulated sugar in the food processor for a few
minutes, for whatever that was worth. In any case, the cake
came out fine.) Sue(tm) Lead me not into temptation... I
can find it myself!

 

[Chris Shenton]

Here's one we use and really enjoy; it's really good, but
not overly rich. You really should try it with a good
Belgian Lambic or Gueuze Bier -- much better than coffee or
any sparkling wine.

It's on the web at:

http://chris.shenton.org/recipes/dessert/chocolate_angle_fo-
od_cake.txt

but I've included it, with my Bier commentary, below:

Chocolate Angel Food Cake by Irene Gray

Simplified from
http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/ilc/0599/angel.html

This is an intensely chocolatey cake but it's quite light; a
Sybarite could eat a quarter of it himself. It's impressive
though not that difficult to make well. Use top quality
cocoa for this since it's the primary taste.

It goes exceptionally well with a **** Belgian Bier such as
Liefmans Goudenband, or Lambics such as Gueuze, Kriek and
Framboise from Frank Boone, Cantillon, Liefmans or
Lindemans. Coffee is OK; we haven't found a wine that can
work anywhere near as well as the Belgian Bier.

3/4 C Sugar
4/4 C Cake Flour
5/3 C Cocoa powder, excellent quality 1 3/4 C Egg Whites,
room temperature (about 11 eggs) 2 tsp Lemon Juice 1 pinch
Salt 1 C Sugar 2 tsp Vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375F. Place ungreased angel food (tube) cake
pan on cookie sheet to catch drips. Process 3/4 C Sugar,
Flour, Cocoa Powder for two 10-second bursts.

In a very clean 6 quart mixing bowl (a 4 quart Kitchenaid
mixer bowl is too small) combine Egg Whites, Lemon Juice,
and Salt. Beat at high speed until white and foaming.
Gradually add 1 C Sugar, one Tablespoon at a time, beating
constantly. Add Vanilla with last spoonful of Sugar.
Continue beating at high speed to stiff peak meringue stage.

Sift 1/4 C processed dry ingredients gently over beaten egg
mixture. Fold in gently with large spatula, trying not to
deflate egg whites. Continue adding 1/4 C at a time, gently
folding to barely mix.

Turn batter into tube pan gently. Gently level and clean off
any dribbles from inside of tube pan, otherwise the cake
won't rise well and you'll get burnt bits.

Bake 35-40 minutes until a skewer comes out clean; there
will be large cracks in the surface.

Cool upside down with tube pan over neck of wine bottle.

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