Angel Food Cake Recipe

This Angel Food Cake is so light and moist that it practically melts in your mouth! It is naturally fat-free and easier to make than you think! Pair it with a blueberry coulis for the perfect dessert.

Way back in 2014 when I first published this recipe, I was downright fearful about attempting an angel food cake. People’s well-meaning advice terrified me: don’t over-whip the egg whites; don’t under-whip the egg whites; don’t fold in the flour too aggressively; don’t open the oven door prematurely or your cake will fall; don’t overbake; don’t underbake. The more I read, the further back in the cabinet went the round tube pan until I decided to tie on my big-girl apron and tackle the challenge.

Let me be the first to tell you that angel food cake should not be that daunting. Every single one I’ve baked has been perfect, from my very first try before culinary school through the hundreds I baked afterward. This recipe is foolproof if you follow the instructions. It has a lovely crunchy exterior and a soft, light, fluffy interior that melts in your mouth! It is tender and moist. The perfect dessert with an easy strawberry jam, a scoop of raspberry sorbet, or just with lemon curd whipped cream!

Ingredients & Substitutions

• Cake Flour: The lower protein content keeps the crumb tender and fine, which is exactly what you need when egg whites are doing all the structural work. Do not substitute all-purpose flour, or your cake won’t be white and have that perfect angel food cake texture.
• Powdered Sugar
• Egg Whites: The entire structure of this cake depends on them, so room temperature whites are key. Cold whites whip to lower volume and take longer to reach stiff peaks. Separate your eggs when they are cold for the cleanest separation, then let the whites come to room temperature before you begin.
• Cream of Tartar: This acid lowers the pH of the whites, which tightens the protein network and makes the meringue more stable at high volume. Do not skip it or substitute lemon juice here; the stabilizing effect of tartaric acid is more reliable and consistent, and you can make the best snickerdoodle recipe after!
• Granulated Sugar
• Kosher Salt
• Vanilla and Almond Extract: Use high-quality extracts for both. The almond is subtle, but it does real work beneath the vanilla, giving the cake a slightly floral, bakery-style depth that makes people ask what is in it.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

Variations on This Angel Food Cake

• Add spices to the dry ingredients. I made a spiced angel food cake by sifting 1 teaspoon of my [apple pie spice] into the dry ingredients. You can also use cinnamon, or 1 ½ teaspoons of this pumpkin spice recipe; this gingerbread spice mix would also be delightful!
• Make it strawberry. Add ¼ cup strawberry powder or ground dehydrated strawberries to the dry ingredients after sifting. This will make the cake ever so slightly more dense. The egg whites are leavening more than just cake flour, so it is to be expected. Strawberry powder is better than processing dehydrated strawberries because it is finer.
• Make it chocolate. Substitute ¼ cup cocoa powder for ¼ cup of the cake flour and sift it into the dry ingredients, then follow the rest of the instructions as written, or head over to my Chocolate Angel Food Cake(coming soon!)!

Professional Tips

• Do not grease the pan. The batter needs to cling to the sides of the tube pan as it bakes and rises. A greased pan will cause the cake to pull away from the sides and collapse inward before it sets. This is the single most common reason angel food cakes fail, and after testing it both ways, there is no version of this recipe that works in a nonstick or greased pan.
• Add sugar gradually and do not rush the meringue. Beat it in two tablespoons at a time on high speed. Adding it all at once deflates the foam and produces a grainy, unstable meringue that will not hold through folding.
• Bake at the correct temperature. The recipe calls for 375°F conventional. Convection ovens run hotter, so reduce the temperature to 350°F when using the convection setting. Check the cake at 30 minutes: the cracks should feel dry, and the top should spring back when pressed lightly.
• Invert immediately and cool completely before unmolding. The moment the cake comes out of the oven, flip the pan onto a bottle and walk away. Cutting into or unmolding a warm angel food cake will compress the crumb and undo everything the bake built. Let it hang inverted until it is fully cool, at least 90 minutes.

How to Make Angel Food Cake

Follow these instructions for a perfectly light and fully angel food cake! Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below.

Make Meringue

Step 1: Separate your eggs and let the whites come to room temperature. Separate the egg whites from the yolks, then use the yolks to make pastry cream or crème caramel!. Transfer the whites to a measuring cup or small bowl and let them sit uncovered at room temperature for a full hour.

Cold whites will still whip, but it will take longer, and you will not get the volume you need for a properly tall, airy cake.

Step 2: Preheat the oven and sift the flour and sugar. Set your oven to 375°F with the rack in the middle position. Sift the cake flour and powdered sugar together into a bowl, then set aside.

Sifting is not optional here: clumps of flour folded into meringue will deflate it faster than almost anything else.

Step 3: Beat the egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or using a hand mixer, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar together on medium speed until the mixture is foamy and the cream of tartar has fully distributed through the whites.

Step 4: Add the granulated sugar and salt gradually. With the mixer on high speed, add the granulated sugar two tablespoons at a time, waiting a few seconds between each addition to let it incorporate. Continue beating until the meringue is stiff and glossy — when you lift the whisk, the peaks should hold their shape without flopping.

If the meringue looks slightly overwhipped and starts to look dry or cottony, it has gone too far.

Step 5: Once you have almost reached stiff peaks, add the extracts.

Occasionally mine have been slightly less stiff than true stiff peaks, and the cake still turned out fabulous, so don’t be too worried, but ideally you should have true stiff peaks.

Step 6: Fold in the flour-sugar mixture. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer. Sift the flour-sugar mixture over the meringue in four additions, about ¼ cup at a time, and fold each addition just until it disappears before adding the next. Use a wide silicone spatula and work in long, deliberate strokes from the bottom of the bowl up and over the top of the meringue.

That double sift ensures no clumping and helps the dry ingredients incorporate better.

Step 6: Transfer the batter to an ungreased tube pan. Gently push the batter into a 10×4-inch tube pan. Use a metal spatula to cut gently through the batter in a few places to release any large air pockets. I don’t tap my angel food cake.

This sounds obvious, but I’ve watched cooks do it a million times. Don’t drop the batter from way up high. When it lands, it will deflate slightly, so gently push the batter from the bowl while holding it just above the pan.

Bake

Step 7: Bake until the top springs back and the cracks feel dry. Bake at 375°F for 30 to 40 minutes, starting to check at 30. The surface will crack as the cake rises, which is exactly what you want to see.

Pulling the cake from the pan while it is still warm will turn your cake into mush.

Step 8: Invert the pan and cool completely. As soon as the pan comes out of the oven, invert it over a long-necked bottle, like a wine bottle, so the pan is suspended upside down above the counter.

Step 9: Remove the cake from the pan. Run a flat offset spatula firmly against the outer wall of the pan all the way around, then use a thin knife or cake tester to cut around the center tube.

Recipe FAQs

Before You Go

If you are ready to put that impossibly light, cloud-like crumb to use, browse more ideas in Cake Recipes or try this lemon olive oil cake next!