Angel Food Cake (Dairy free)

One of my baking issues is what to do with the yolks when you just need egg whites. If I was super organised I’d make crème brulee or freeze them or something but I never do. Frustratingly most of the things I want to experiment with use egg whites – macarons, meringues, marshmallows – so I end up not practising these because of the dreaded waste of left over yolk. 

However I recently saw that you can buy just egg whites in a carton. I’ve seen this in the USA for years as egg white omelettes are a ‘thing’ there but I hadn't seen anyone selling cartons of egg white in the UK. I’ll probably find out now that this has been available in the UK since the dawn of time but it’s new to me. I got ridiculously excited about it, bought a carton and started planning what I’d make. However after some macarons went badly wrong and I’d made marshmallows I sort of got bored of experimenting.

Luckily an excuse to use the rest of the carton came up. Someone at work had a birthday and she is intolerant of dairy. This cake is basically a meringue that has some flavour added to give it more of a cake texture. It’s not that common in the UK as far as I know but is found in a lot of American baking books.  

You will need a round cake tin with a hole in the middle. 

Ingredients

150g plain flour

320g sugar

12 large egg whites (I recommend buying a carton of egg whites like Two Chicks)

1 ½ tsp cream of tartar

¼ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp almond extract

Seasonal berries - optional

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/GM 5.
2. Put the flour and 170g of sugar in a bowl and set to one side.
3. Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar and salt until you can form soft peaks. Then put in the remaining 150g of sugar until you have glossy stiff peaks forming.
4. Using a low setting beat in the flour and sugar mixture (you are actually meant to fold it in but as long as you don’t over beat you’ll be fine).
5. DO NOT GREASE THE CAKE TIN. I know this is scary as how in the hell are you going to get the cake out?!!! Trust me. It will be fine. Put the cake mixture in the tin and gently move a knife through the mixture as this will remove any air pockets.
6. Bake for 40-45 minutes. You may want to cover the cake with foil after about 30 minutes to stop any over browning.
7. Cool completely before getting the cake out. Run a knife down the side and round the centre. The cake is fairly robust to go as far down as possible and push the cake inward a bit to ensure it is away from the side. Then put upside down on a plate or board and whack the hell out of it. Repeat if it doesn’t come out being braver with how far down the knife does and how much you move it away from the side of the pan.
8. To serve pile the berries in the middle.