Strawberry Short Cake

Angel Food Cake is perfect for Strawberry Shortcake.  I used to watch the Strawberry Shortcake cartoon.  I used to play with Strawberry Shortcake dolls.  I even had the Strawberry doll house.  Every once in a while I like to pretend that I am inviting all the dolls over to my house for dessert.  Except the Purple Pie Man, he was a jerk.  I love this cake recipe because it delicious, fairly quick to make, and I only need a few ingredients so I rarely have to run to the store in the middle of baking if I forget something.  I have also been able to successfully make this recipe with half the ingredients if I don't want to eat that much cake.

Angel Food Cake

12 egg whites, room temperature

1/4 tsp salt

1 and 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

1 and 1/2 cup sugar, divided

1 cup cake flour

Bake 375 degrees for 30-35 min.

The hardest part is all the eggs.  What is the phrase, "To make an omelet you have to break a few eggs."  To make Angel Food Cake you have to break a dozen eggs.

Whip together room temperature egg whites with a pinch of salt until fluffy.  Add Vanilla, Almond, and Cream of Tartar and mix that in.  Then add half the sugar (3/4 cup) 1 Tbs at a time until stiff peaks form.

Sift together the other half (3/4 cup) of sugar with cake flour and fold into the egg whites 1/4 of the mixture at a time until it is thoroughly incorporated.

I was itching to use my heart-shaped silicone baking tray.  These little guys bake in 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

My big pan took 40 minutes to bake.

While I was waiting for it to finish baking I whipped up a dish of heavy cream.  Strawberries and Cream are my favorite thing to eat.  I added Orange extract instead of vanilla this time to change things up a bit.

Both cakes turned out great.

And now for the strawberries.

Enjoy.

K.