Best Chocolate Angel Food Cake

This chocolate angel food cake is the lightest possible chocolate dessert, with no butter, no oil, no yolks, just whipped egg whites carrying cocoa into a tall, ethereal sponge. The result is fat-free, dramatically tall, and has a soft tear that’s nothing like a butter cake.

The sifting steps aren’t busywork. Cocoa with sugar gets sifted twice and the flour-sugar mixture three times because angel food cakes have so little structure that any clump of unsifted flour creates a heavy spot that will sink the cake.

Inverting the pan to cool is critical. Hot angel food cake will collapse under its own weight if you cool it right-side up, gravity literally pulls the airy structure down before it sets.

Pro Tips

• Use room-temperature egg whites, they whip to a higher, more stable volume than cold ones.
• Make sure your bowl and beaters are spotlessly clean and grease-free, even a speck of fat will keep whites from whipping properly.
• Fold the flour and cocoa mixtures in by hand with a rubber spatula, an electric mixer at this stage knocks the air out of the whites.
• Use an ungreased tube pan, the cake needs to grip the sides to climb during baking.

Variations

• Top with fresh strawberries and a dollop of whipped cream for the classic summer presentation.
• Drizzle with a quick chocolate ganache once cooled for a richer, more dessert-y finish.
• Add a teaspoon of espresso powder to the cocoa mixture for a deeper, mocha-leaning chocolate flavor.