Angel Food Cake

This weekend, I decided to make Alton Brown's Angel Food Cake. I think I've only had Angel Food Cake maybe a couple of times in my like and they were the store bought kind, not impressive enough for me to remember more than I had a slice. Angel Food Cake (or Angel Cake) is a true foam cake. Just sugar, (lots) egg white, extract, and maybe a little water. That's it. As far as being healthy? For a cake, it fairs much better in the calories and definitely in the fat department than most cakes. No fat and around 120-160 calories per serving. I would even call it a "healthier" kind of cake. (Wonder how it holds up with Splenda?)

I highly recommend watching Alton's Good Eats episode on Angel Food Cake first for those who've never whipped egg whites. He talks about the difference between soft and medium peaks. A visual here is much more helpful and it's something you can't get from reading the recipe. He also provides several other good tips that will come in handy (aside from all the scientific mumbo-jumbo, which I find interesting--yeah, yeah, I know, I'm such a geek). If you don't get the Food Network, you can watch the episode on YouTube.

In the episode, Alton had to loosen the cake away from the pan to remove it. Uh, yeah, I didn't have that problem. As a matter of fact, I had a hard time keeping the darn cake in the pan while I inverted it. Darn thing decided to just flop on one side. Overall appearance was not too bad but lopsided enough where I decided not to take a picture of it. Besides, it looked similar to the final product in the episode, so there.

Overall taste? Not what I remembered Angel Food Cake to be. It was incredibly "fluffy" and tender but dense. It almost melts in your mouth. I used 1 teaspoon real vanilla extract but would have liked a little more next time, maybe even scrapings from a vanilla bean. But in all, a very nice delicate cake that I can have without feeling too guilty. And it's a good way to get protein with minimal fat!

Now if I can only figure out what to do with those 12 egg yolks that doesn't include lots of calories. Think the dogs will be getting these as a snack tonight.

Have a wonderful week. Now go and eat well.