Recreated Angel Food Cake

[donna]

Today, Aug. 10th is my twin cousin's birthday. Their favorite cake was Angel Food Cake. Their Mother, my Aunt made a wonderful version of this cake.

Angel or Angel Food Cake been around since 19th Century. One of earliest recipes was from "The Boston Cooking School Cookbook".

Angel Cake

white 8 eggs
3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Beat white of eggs and add cream of tartar, continue beating until eggs stiff. Add sugar gradually. Fold in flour mixed with salt and sift 4 times. Add vanilla. Bake 45 to 50 minutes in an unbuttered angel cake pan. After cake rises, cover with a buttered paper.

This makes a heavenly cake for any birthday.

 

[JOHN42768]

Sugar twice, no flour. Which amount of sugar should read flour. Thanks

 

[bayouace]

Top with strawberries and whipped cream! IMHO

 

[donna]

I fixed recipe. Thanks for catching my mistake.

 

[Tennessee Union Gal]

We raised chickens when I was a kid and they produced. If they didn't, well...
In any case we always had plenty of eggs and Angel Food Cake made a regular appearance. Vanilla buttercream, chocolate glaze, strawberry glaze, peach glaze, penuche frosting (sort of like caramel frosting). a homemade Angel Cake is a joy.

 

[bdtex]

This was served often during the Civil War?

 

[lelliott19]

This was served often during the Civil War?

Back then it was generally called "sponge cake" or "light sponge cake." Lots of mentions of them in period newspapers. I just picked this one because it includes a recipe for one described as "...real nice, and so light; just what a sponge-cake oughter be." This recipe must have been for a really large cake though. And Kate doesn't bother to say that you need to separate the eggs, use only the whites, whip them to hard peaks before you fold the flour and sugar in slowly, so as not to deflate the peaks. I'm pretty sure Kate left those instructions out on purpose. Seems she was a bit irritated with whoever was asking for all of her recipes. But here's the recipe she gave:

Kates Real Nice Sponge Cake
Two cups flour
Two cups sugar
Six eggs
One teaspoon essence of lemon
One tablespoon water.

Yorkville Enquirer. (Yorkville, SC) , July 22, 1869, page 1.

 

[bdtex]

Back then it was generally called "sponge cake" or "light sponge cake." Lots of mentions of them in period newspapers

Thanks. I wasn't aware they were the same thing and hadn't heard the term sponge cake in a long time.

 

[lelliott19]

hadn't heard the term sponge cake in a long time.

Yeah, well the term sponge cake is probably not really appealing today. I mean who wants to eat a sponge? But they were called sponge cakes not because you used them to clean the sink - but because of how easily the light airy (no butter or fat) cake absorbed the flavor of fruit topping, custard, or sauces that were often served over them.

 

[donna]

Some interesting history on Angel Food Cake.

Angel Food Cake is a take off of Sponge Cake. It is related to also Cornstarch Cake, Silver Cake, and Snowdrift Cake. It is also similar to ice cream cake which is known as Pennsylvania Dutch Wedding Cake. Southern Pennsylvania was know for production of molds and said Angel Cake dated back there. These molds made in early 1800s.

Angel Cake was a favorite dessert of Lucy Webb Hayes, wife of Rutherford Hayes. She was an excellent cook. I have posted several of her recipes.

Abby Fisher (African American cook and author of Cookbook ) also made what she called a Silver Cake which very similar to Angel Cake.

Also as I stated the Boston Cooking School had recipes for Angel Cake.