Heavenly Angel Food Cake

    As much as like to decorate cakes, I'm not really a big cake eater when it comes to traditional American style cakes covered in frosting. Sure, when I was little I enjoyed licking the frosting off, but as an adult even the frosting can be a little much sometimes. To tell the truth, I'd much rather have a birthday pie than a birthday cake. Perhaps cherry, or one of my favorite fruit combinations - blueberry and rhubarb, also known in our house as bluebarb.

   So no yellow cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles for me. But if I'm making a cake that I'd really enjoy eating myself, it's got to be angel food cake; a light and fluffy pillow of delicate sweetness, and the perfect thing to pair with fresh fruit and whipped cream, yum!

  Angel food cake has actually become a Thanksgiving tradition in our family because it is my grandfather's favorite dessert. When I became old enough to bring my own contributions to our annual celebration of Thanksgiving in the barn, I started bringing homemade angel food cake as a special treat for him. When grandpa was not able to come out to the barn anymore, I started making two angel food cakes, one for everyone else, and one just for him. He is a World War II hero who raised nine children, I'd say he deserves it. This does mean we go through a lot of eggs in November! Now I try to bring an angel food cake with me every time we visit, not just for Thanksgiving, so it's kind of my specialty. And trust me, once you've had homemade angel food cake made from scratch, a store bought one just can't compare!

Heavenly Angel Food Cake

12 eggs
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar (optional - I actually leave this out quite frequently!)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
14/ teaspoon salt
1 cup white sugar

1. Seperate the eggs. Put the whites in a large mixing bowl, and set the yolks aside for some other use like fruit curd or pasta. I like to seperate the eggs over a small bowl, and transfer the the egg white into the big bowl after I seperate each egg, so that way if I mess up and break the yolk, I don't mess up the whole thing.

2. Add the cream of tartar, extracts, and salt to the egg whites. As you gradually add the white sugar, beat on high until stiff peaks form. Set aside

3. Sift the powdered sugar and flour together three times. Gently fold this into the egg white mixture. Transfer the cake batter into an ungreased tube pan. (Ungreased is very important! Angel food cakes are cooled upside down. One time my mom wasn't thinking and greased the pan and the whole thing slid out onto the counter making a big mess!)

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 - 45 minutes. Turn upside down to cool completely before removing from the pan. Traditionally you would rest the pan on top of a glass pop bottle or something, but nowadays most angel food cake pans have little "feet" to rest on when you flip them over.

Serve plain or with toppings of your choice, and enjoy!