Angel Food Cake

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 an easy blueberry sauce 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 over bake; don’t under bake. 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 afterwards. 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 blueberry sauce, scoop of raspberry sorbet or just with lemon whipped cream!

Professional Tips for Making Perfect Angel Food Cake

• Pre-sift the dry ingredients then sift again. I sift my dry ingredients twice and then I sift them directly into the meringue as I am folding. This virtually ensures there will be no lumps.
• Run an offset spatula through it, don’t bang it! I have made hundreds of angel food cakes in restaurant kitchens, so trust me when I say that the key to an even rise and a tall cake is running a paring knife through the batter. You can also use a small offset spatula. I get into this in more detail in the recipe and video below.
• Don’t stress, it will be beautiful. I’ve included so many tips and my hard-won professional advice below, but please don’t stress about it. Read it all through then just follow the recipe and your cake will be perfection. I promise.

Ingredients needed

• Cake Flour: Cake flour is essential to a successful angel food cake.. The lower gluten content, finer texture, and cornstarch are essential for getting that light, airy finished cake! Be sure you purchase bleached cake flour, it actually improves the rise and makes for a lighter texture.
• Powdered Sugar: Powdered sugar or confectioner’s sugar is used to mix in with the cake flour to add sweetness to the cake without weighing down the meringue or batter.
• Egg Whites: In my professional life I have found that separated fresh egg whites make a more stable meringue than those from a box. Use the egg yolks to make vanilla ice cream and lemon curd (to serve with your cake, of course!).
• Cream of Tartar: Cream of Tartar is a bi-product from the wine making process. In this instance it is being use to stabilize the meringue and also to keep it whiter.
• Granulated Sugar: Sugar is here for sweetness but also to add leavening when beating with the egg whites. It helps create a soft, tender, light texture. I use superfine sugar in cakes whenever possible to allow it to dissolve more easily and keep the cake light and fluffy.
• Kosher Salt: Kosher salt is lass salty than table salt and a teaspoon weighs less than other finer ground varieties. It heightens the flavor here and will keep your cakes from tasting dull or flat. It also stabilizes the meringue if added to the egg whites prior to whipping.
• Vanilla Extract: Vanilla Extract is here for flavoring so use the best quality you can.
• Almond Extract: Almond extract is here for flavoring. I love this almond extract in particular.

Possible Variations

With a temperamental pastry like angel food cake, you need to be careful with variations, but here are some I’ve tried successfully.

• Add spices to the dry ingredients: I made a spiced angel food cake by sifting 1 teaspoon of my apple pie spice recipe into the dry ingredients. You can also use cinnamon or 1 ½ teaspoons of this pumpkin spice recipe.  
• 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.

Troubleshooting Fallen Angel Food Cake

Here is a list of reasons why your angel food cake might fall or not rise to its full potential!

• There is too much sugar in the meringue. Adding more sugar decreases the volume of the meringue and the resulting cake will be more dense. Alternatively you omitted the sugar in the meringue, which stabilizes it and allows you to gently fold in the dry ingredients without too much volume loss.
• Not using cake flour. I only use unbleached cake flour, which is lighter and also contains less gluten than all-purpose flour. Too much gluten can create a strong network, which might inhibit the delicate rise of the egg whites. Unbleached flour also has a different chemical structure and will make more dense cakes.
• Excessive or aggressive folding deflated the batter. Folding in the dry ingredient mixture too aggressively or for too much time, can deflate the French meringue.
• Air pockets in the meringue. Too many large air pockets can cause the cake to rise unevenly and then fall. Swirl a paring knife or small spatula throughout the batter to break up an large clumps. I do not suggest tapping the pan because that might also cause it to fall.
• You used a non-stick tube pan. That’s right, this is the only instance where you want those un-treated, tube pans with the ridges going up the side. The cake needs the ridges and the stickability of a standard tube pan. It is for this same reason that you don’t want to spray the pan.
• You under-baked it. It happens. See my tips below for knowing when it is done.
• You didn’t cool it COMPLETELY upside-down. The single most important step to keeping an angel food cake from falling is to cool upside down! This sets the gluten structure and locks in those tiny air pockets you worked so hard to create.

How to Make Tall Fluffy Angel Food Cake

Use these instructions to make the perfect… every time! Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below.

Step 1: Preheat oven to 375° and set rack to middle shelf. Some say the lowest rack is best but I think that browns the bottom too much.

Step 2: Sift together the flour and powdered sugar twice and set aside.

Step 3: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer, whip egg whites with cream of tartar and salt until foamy and cream of tartar has distributed evenly throughout whites.

Step 4: Beat in sugar 2 tablespoons at a time, on high speed, until stiff and glossy. You do want the meringue to achieve stiff peaks where it will make a stiff point when the whisk is removed and inverted.

Step 5: Add the extracts with the last addition of sugar.

Step 6: Remove bowl from stand mixer and sift flour-sugar mixture, ¼ cup at a time, directly over the meringue, folding it just until the flour mixture disappears.

Step 7: Dollop batter into an ungreased 10 inch tube pan, 10×4 inches. Cut gently through batter with a metal spatula in a swirling motion to eliminate any large air pockets.

Step 8: Bake until the cracks feel dry and top springs back when touched lightly, 30 to 40 minutes. I removed mine when a metal cake tester inserted into one of the cracks came out with only a few clinging crumbs.

Step 9: Invert pan on the neck of a bottle immediately and cool completely.

Step 10: To remove cake from pan, gently insert a flat metal icing spatula against the sides and carefully cut all the way around. You can run a small thin knife to cut around the middle tube. Gently over turn cake on a cooking rack and place it right side up with your hands.

Topping & Serving Ideas

• Add a sauce. I love pairing sweet angel food cake with a tart sauce like my easy blueberry sauce, lemon curd or this easy strawberry jam loosened with lemon juice. You can also go in a chocolate direction with hot fudge or add strawberries to crème anglaise.
• Fresh fruit is always a perfect pairing. You can top the sliced cake with a spoonful of fresh berries such as sliced strawberries, raspberries, blackberries in blueberries or you can take the extra step of macerating the berries with a little sugar and lemon juice to taste. This will break down the berries and release their juices, making a simple, fresh sauce for your angel food cake.
• Top it with something cold. Vanilla bean ice cream or chocolate ice cream are always great accompaniments but semi-freddo or no-churn fruit ice cream is also a wonderful and unexpected choice. One of my favorite desserts from when I was a pastry chef had a miniature angel food cake layered on top of a semifreddo and topped with macerated berries and lemon sorbet. This raspberry sorbet recipe would also be fantastic.
• Roasted Fruit. Roasted or grilled peaches, nectarines, cherries or plums. You can also sauté sliced stone fruit with a little butter, lemon juice and brown sugar to make a simple and delicious sauce.
• Go with a frosting! It is slightly unconventional but I say nothing makes a statement like a mound of toasted marshmallow frosting. You could also top it with swirls of lemon curd whipped cream for a less sweet topping.

Frequently Asked Questions

Before You Go!

I hope you devoured this cake recipe by professional pastry chef! You might also enjoy this lemon pound cake recipe or maybe peruse all of our cake recipes!