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Hi Guys, I'm Laura Vitale and on this episode of Laura in the Kitchen, I am so excited to
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share with you my recipe for Chocolate Angel Food Cake. Now I made a traditional angel
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food cake here a couple years ago but I was personally craving a chocolate angel food
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cake this morning and my husband was too, and then we decided to just film it for you
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because it's just a great all-purpose cake recipe to have on hand because it's so good
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and I personally love anything angel food cake because it's so light and fluffy.
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Okay so let's go over the ingredients so we can get started.
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You'll need some unsweetened cocoa powder, some cake flour, instant espresso powder,
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granulated sugar, egg whites, some cream of tarter, salt and vanilla extract.
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That's it!
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I know!
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It's one of my favorite things because it's so easy and only requires a handful of ingredients.
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The first thing you want to do is get your oven preheated to 350F, once that's out of
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the way everything else is pretty much done.
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What I have here are some eggs whites, now I've got some regular egg whites and then
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I also have some egg whites that you buy in the carton where it's just all egg whites,
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and I used a little bit of that as well because I wanted to use it up. So I am using a combination
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of the two but you can use - I prefer to use all regular fresh egg whites if I can but
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I rather - I just had a little bit of it left like a quarter cup so I figure I mind as well
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use it.
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I am going to make this in my standing mixer fitted with a whisk attachment because, let's
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face it, to whip these to stiff peaks by hand is going to take a lifetime and a half and
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you'll give up because it's not that easy.
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I'm also adding my cream of tarter and my salt at this point and I am going to whisk
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my egg whites until they are light and frothy.
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Once your egg whites are nice and frothy you're going to start adding your sugar but you are
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going to add it just a tablespoon at a time. I know! It looks like it's a lot of work,
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but it's not. It isn't. Let's be honest.
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And now what you're going to do is you are going to let this whisk until your egg whites
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are nice stiff peaks. It's really important that there are nice stiff peaks otherwise
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your cake will not hold.
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So just - that's why doing in the standing mixer is just so easy.
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That is perfect.
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Now, please do not be discouraged - look at that stiff peaks - do not be discouraged if
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this - if you feel like it is not getting to the right consistency because whipping
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egg whites to this consistency can take a good ten minutes, which is how long it took
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me.
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Now what I am going to do is I am going to just take my flour, cocoa and instant espresso
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and I am just going to pass this through a sieve, only because you know, sometimes the
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cocoa powder tends to be a bit clumpy and the thing about this is that you want everything
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to be super, super smooth because it's meant to be a really light and airy cake. So taking
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a two seconds to pass it through a sieve like I did. See those? You don't want the clumps
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of that to in your cake, so you just take your spatula and you pass it through and you're
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good to go.
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Okay. Now what I am going to do is I am going to add my vanilla, a good teaspoon and a half
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or so, just eyeball it.
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And then I am going to add my dry ingredients in thirds because I don't want to add it all
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at one time, I want to do this very gently and you want to always fold, you don't want
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to whisk this in otherwise you will lose those - the air from the egg whites so just go around
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and then just in the center.
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Around and in the center. And that's how you properly fold in dry ingredients into egg
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whites. And then just continue to do this until you have all your dry ingredients mixed
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in and you'll be pretty much done. That looks gorgeous. It almost looks like a chocolate
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whipped cream. I want to eat it as-is.
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Now, I am going to put this into a ten inch tube pan and now the important thing is, contrary
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to everything else we do, you do not want to grease this.
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It is important - now normally you want to grease everything really, really well to make
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sure the cake comes out but in this case you don't want to grease this, you want it ungreased,
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ten inch and this is a non-stick as well. I'm just trying to get everything out of here
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and then we will even it all out. I just don't want to waste any of this batter because that
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will mean that there is less cake for me to eat. So let me get it all out of here and
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then we are going to even it all out. Now don't worry if you have a little white spot
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from the batter that didn't get completely mixed in with the chocolate, it's fine.
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Think of it as like a marbled piece. It's delicious either way.
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Just even this out with your spatula.
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I think that looks good enough. I'm not quite sure I can get it any more even than this.
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So let's call it day. Let's call it even.
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I mean come on, that looks too good.
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Take a knife and I'm going to run it around the edges and I'm even going to run it in
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the center a little bit, like so. I know that sound crazy and it looks a little bit insane
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but what that does is it settles any air bubbles which is really important. You don't want
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any air bubbles in this. And the I am going to flatten it out one more time, just because
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- I'm done.
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Okay.
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I am going to put this one a baking sheet just because it's easier to get in and out
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of the oven. The oven is preheated to 350F, this will go in there for about 45 minutes
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or so. You'll know when it's ready when you touch the top and it springs back on itself,
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you'll know it's completely done. Then I'll show you what we do as soon as it comes out.
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Once your cake comes out of the oven - now you can - you have to put this to cool upside
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down - you can do one of two things - or more than that if you're craftier. You can put
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this upside down on a wine bottle, or you can do what I'm doing and I just put a couple
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of cans in each corner, like so. It's not as dangerous, we're not living on the edge
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like we were if we were putting it upside on a wine bottle but if you follow me on my
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vlog channel, you'll know I have a tendency to break things.
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And today luck is just not on my side. So I am just going to put it like this because
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it is just the safe thing to do and this needs to cool completely on - upside down like this.
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So don't touch it. Don't go anywhere near it. Let it cool completely and I will show
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you what it looks like when it's cooled and then we can slice and eat. In this belly.
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Now this is cooled completely I just flipped it over. And now I am going to take a butter
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knife and I am just going to run this around the edge of the pan just to loosen things
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up because remember, this has not been greased. Well this was not greased so you just have
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to take your time and run it around to loosen things up a bit.
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And then also, make sure you do the same thing in the center here. Just going to take a serrated
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knife and cut my self a little piece.
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This smells really good, by the way this entire kitchen smells amazing. Oh look at that!
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Ah, it is so - I can't even describe it to you - it's just incredible. That's the marbled
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piece I was talking to you about.
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That's like - that's like lighter than air.
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It totally hits the spot.
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I was wanting chocolate angel food cake and my nonna's ricotta cookies, so I made both.
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Because when all else fails, anything chocolate, and any nonna recipe, always hits the spot.
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This is absolutely delicious.
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It's chocolaty, but yet it's not bitter or too strong. It's almost nice and subtle but
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it really pops through because of the espresso powder. Go to LauraintheKitchen.com to get
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this incredible, light and airy and delicious delicousness over here. Get the recipe at
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LauraintheKitchen.com. Hope you enjoyed spending time with me and I'll see you next time.
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Bye bye!