Angel Food Cake, from Scratch

Angel food cake is a deliciously light and mildly sweet cake. The storebought versions are good, but I think every one ought to taste a homemade version at least once before they die. It does require a lot of eggs-but please. Don't just throw away the yokes (as they are not used.) Save them. Use them. FREEZE them, for heavens sake. But please, don't just throw them out. Thank you.

What you need:

*18 egg whites
* 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
* 1 pinch salt
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar
* 1 cup cake flour
* 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract



1. Preheat oven to 350.. Sift cake flour and confectioners sugar together 5 times and set aside.

2. In a large clean bowl, whip egg whites with a pinch of salt until foamy. Add cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar while beating, and continue to beat until very stiff. Add vanilla.

3. Quickly fold in flour mixture. Pour into a 10 inch tube pan (don't grease).

4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.

5. When cooling, oddly enough, you need to turn the cake upside down so that it doesn't lose its height. You can do this by inverting the pan onto an upturned metal funnel. When you take it out of the pan, you will need to gently scrape the sides of the pan with a butter knife to loosen the sides but the bottom should pop right out with a hearty thump.