What Is Angel food cake and How Can I Use It?

Wondering what to do with angel food cake? This guide covers how to pick it, cook it, store it, and swap it, plus 54 recipes to put it to work.

Key Points

Tall snow-white sponge leavened only with whipped egg whites; no butter, oil, or yolks.
Serve in wedges under macerated berries and whipped cream, or cube it into trifles.
Never grease the pan: the batter must cling to bare metal or it slides down and collapses.
Cool the cake upside down so the airy foam does not sink and deflate before it sets.
Stores about two days wrapped at room temperature; freezes well for a couple of months.

What is angel food cake?

Angel food cake is a tall, snow-white sponge cake leavened entirely with whipped egg whites and no fat at all. No butter, no oil, no yolks. That is what gives it the cloud-like, springy crumb and the pale color.

The structure comes from a meringue of egg whites and sugar, folded gently with flour and a little cream of tartar to stabilize the foam. Because there is no fat to weigh it down, the whipped air does all the lifting, and the cake bakes up light and slightly chewy.

The flavor is mild and sweet, with a faint note of vanilla. Like any sponge, it is more a blank canvas than a star, which is why it almost always shows up under fruit and cream.

How to Use Angel Food Cake

The classic serve is a wedge topped with macerated berries and whipped cream. The sweet-tart fruit and the airy cake are made for each other, and that pairing carries desserts like Angel Food Cake Ala Mode with Berries & Grand Marnier.

Because it is sturdy yet light, angel food cake cubes beautifully for trifles. Tear or cut it into chunks, layer with pudding and fruit and cream, and let it soak up the juices. English Berry Trifle and Razzle-Dazzle Berry Trifle both build on cubed cake this way.

It also takes well to toffee and caramel and candy mix-ins folded into a whipped topping, as in Rich Angel Food Butterfinger Cake and Butterscotch Toffee Angel Food Cake. Split into layers, it makes a quick icebox cake or an ice cream cake base.

Pairing and the Pan Rule

Angel food cake loves bright, acidic partners: strawberries, raspberries, lemon, orange, and passion fruit. A simple glaze or a dusting of powdered sugar is often all it needs.

Here is the rule that trips people up. Never grease the pan.

The batter has to climb and cling to the bare metal sides as it bakes. A greased pan gives it nothing to grip, so the cake slides down and collapses.

For the same reason, bake it in an ungreased tube pan and cool it upside down, propped on the center funnel or a bottle neck. Cooling inverted keeps the delicate foam from sinking under its own weight before it sets. Skip that step and you get a dense, deflated cake.

Substitutes

For trifles and layered desserts, a sponge cake or chiffon cake is the closest swap, since both are light and absorbent. Pound cake works too, but it is rich and dense, so it makes a heavier dessert.

Lady fingers can stand in when you want something to soak up liquid in a trifle or icebox cake. For a fat-free, lower-calorie profile, though, nothing else quite matches angel food cake, since the no-yolk, no-butter formula is the whole point.

Buying and Storing

You can buy angel food cake ready-made in the bakery aisle, often as a ring or in pre-cut loaves. Store-bought is convenient and consistent, while a scratch cake has a fresher, springier crumb and a cleaner egg-white flavor, so bake it from scratch when the cake itself is the centerpiece.

Keep it at room temperature in an airtight container or wrapped tightly, where it stays good for about two days. Its airy structure dries out and goes stale faster than a buttery cake, so do not leave it uncovered.

It also freezes well. Wrap the whole cake or individual slices and freeze for up to a couple of months, then thaw at room temperature. Slightly stale cake is no loss for a trifle, since it soaks up the cream and fruit juices even better.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 piece (1/12 of 12 oz cake) (28g)

Amount per Serving

Calories 72Calories from Fat 2

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 0.2g 0%

Saturated Fat 0.0g 0%

Trans Fat ~

Cholesterol 0mg 0%

Sodium 209mg 9%

Total Carbohydrate 16.2g 5%

Dietary Fiber 0g 2%

Sugars ~

Protein 1.7g

Vitamin A 0% Vitamin C 0%

Calcium 4% • Iron 1%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your caloric needs.

recipeland.com/nutrition

Quick facts

Where to find angel food cake: Angel food cake is usually found in the bakery section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

Food group: Angel food cake is a member of the Baked Products US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese: 天使蛋糕
British (UK) term: Angel food cake
en français: gâteau des anges
en español: pastel de ángel

How much does angel food cake weigh?

Amount	Weight
1 piece (1/12 of 12 oz cake)	28 grams
1 cake (9" dia x 4")	340 grams

Baked Products

Biscuit baking mix (bisquick) 416 Cornbread 49 Bread, french baguette 56 French bread 203 Bread, italian 56 Crusty bread 16 Pita bread 88 Rye bread 48 Bread 571 Bread, white 169

Recipes using angel food cake

There are 54 recipes that contain this ingredient.

More angel food cake recipes

List of all ingredients

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