ANGEL FOOD CAKE WITH STRAWBERRIES

I've seen recipes for biscuit-type strawberry shortcake and have never really understood them. Maybe they're absolutely wonderful, but in my mind, biscuits belong with sausage gravy, not strawberries and cream! My all time favorite strawberry-cake concoction is Angel Food Cake. Light, fluffy and with a lovely sweet flavor- yum! You can buy a cake in the store for about $5, but it's super easy to make!

Classic recipes like this lead me to my tried-and-true Betty Crocker cookbook. She knows how to make a good Angel Food cake, so I didn't change a thing. I did half the recipe, since I didn't want to use all my eggs. Also, I don't have a tube pan like she does, so I normally use a bread pan. For the full recipe, I'd use my 10" Norpro bread pan, but since I halved it, I opted to use 3 mini loaf pans instead.

Angel Food Cake

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup cake flour

1 1/2 cups egg whites (about 12)

1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

Move oven rack to lowest position. Heat oven to 375ºF.

Mix powdered sugar and flour; set aside. {If you have a sifter, sift it once or twice to produce a fluffier cake.} Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until foamy.

Mixture after beating for 10 minutes.

Beat in granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, on high speed, adding vanilla, almond extract and salt with the last addition of sugar.

Stiff, glossy peaks= done!

Continue beating until stiff and glossy meringue forms. Do not underbeat. {It took mine about 20 minutes on 6/8 speed with my Kitchenaid mixer.}

Sprinkle sugar-flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time, over meringue, folding in just until sugar-flour mixture disappears.

Push batter into ungreased angel food cake pan (tube pan), 10x4 inches. Cut gently through batter with metal spatula to remove any air bubbles.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until cracks feel dry and top springs back when touched lightly. {My mini loaves baked for 24 minutes.} Immediately turn pan upside down onto heatproof funnel or bottle. Let hang about 2 hours or until cake is completely cool. Loosen side of cake with knife or long, metal spatula; remove from pan.

If your cakes want to stick like mine do, gently run a knife along each side, then stick a small metal spatula in one end and loosen the bottom. The cake is spongy, so it springs back if you smash it slightly getting it out. Make sense?

To sweeten the strawberries , just sprinkle 1-2 tsp of sugar over then after slicing. Stir it up and after about 5-10 minutes, the sugar has dissolved and you're left with this wonderful glazed strawberry/ syrup mixture.

Top with whipping cream and voila! Enjoy!