Enter the characters you see below Sorry, cake pop mold just need to make sure you’re not a robot. For the similarly named British cake, see Angel cake.

Chocolate angel food cake with various toppings. Angel food cake, or angel cake, is a type of sponge cake made with egg whites, flour, and sugar. A whipping agent, such as cream of tartar, is commonly added. It differs from other cakes because it uses no butter. Angel food cake requires egg whites whipped until they are stiff.

Cream of tartar is added to the mixture to stabilize the egg whites. Remaining ingredients are gently folded into the egg white mixture. For this method of leavening to work well, it is useful to have flour that has been made of softer wheat. Cake flour is generally used because of its light texture.

The cake is often served with berries and eaten for dessert. The name, which comes from the texture, which is “so light that angels could eat it and still fly without being weighted down”, has given it a special association in some communities. The most traditional method, also known as the angel food cake method, is as follows. First the egg whites, and possibly salt, vanilla extract, and cream of tartar, are mixed at a medium speed until a soft peak forms. Whipping continues while the sugar is slowly added. Once a hard peak is formed, the flour is folded into the mixture of egg whites and sugar.

Different equipment is used when preparing an angel food cake at home or in a small bakery as opposed to a large scale production. Many recipes found in cookbooks advise bakers to whip the egg whites in a copper bowl. A planetary mixer, such as a stand mixer or handheld mixer, is appropriate for a homemade or bakery cake. If the cake is being mass-produced, a continuous mixer is preferred. The first method is the foam process or angel food cake method. The egg whites are whipped until a foam is formed before any other ingredients are added.

This method ensures that the foam is not disturbed when it is being formed and that the maximum number of bubbles stay intact. Another method is called the meringue process. This entails whipping all or most of the ingredients together at the same time. This may result in a lower quality foam and a final cake with a reduced volume. The last method is called the continuous process and is usually used in commercial bakeries because it creates a consistent product in large volumes. Ingredients are fed into the continuous mixer in either one or two stages. A one-stage process mixes all of the ingredients together and feeds them into an emulsion head.

Upon entry into the emulsion head, air is incorporated, fully mixing the batter. Normally angel food cakes are baked in a straight-sided tube pan, but similar pans such as a bundt pan are acceptable. It is very important that the pan does not have a non-stick surface and that no grease is applied to the sides or around the tube. As the cake bakes, it expands and rises. The sides and hollow center tube act as supports for the foam as it expands.