Lemon Angel Food Cake - Barefoot Contessa - Ina Garten

Submitted by Cristina Barry

"www.foodtv.com"

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 7
• Serves: 8

ingredients

• 2 cups sifted superfine sugar, divided
• 1 1⁄3 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising)
• 1 1⁄2 cups egg whites, at room temperature (10 to 12 eggs)
• 3⁄4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 3⁄4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)

directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine 1/2 cup of sugar with the flour and sift together 4 times. Set aside.
3. Place the egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and beat on high speed until the eggs make medium-firm peaks, about 1 minute. With the mixer on medium speed, add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of sugar by sprinkling it over the beaten egg whites. Whisk for a few minutes until thick and shiny. Whisk in the vanilla and lemon zest and continue to whisk until very thick, about 1 more minute. Sift about 1/4 of the flour mixture over the egg whites and fold it into the batter with a rubber spatula. Continue adding the flour by fourths by sifting and folding until it's all incorporated.
4. Pour the batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan, smooth the top, and bake it for 35 to 40 minutes, until it springs back to the touch. Remove the cake from the oven and invert the pan on a cooling rack until cool.

Reviews

[GinaCucina]

Once you make this cake there is no going back to the store bought fluffy thing they called Angel Food Cake. This is what angel food is supposed to taste like. This cake is awesome frosted too. I've made this cake many, many times. I have even sliced it horizontally and filled it with lemon curd and then frosted the whole thing in a meriengue-type frosting with a chunky blueberry sauce on the side.I've also separated the batter into thirds and colored it for a cute birthday cake. To make it easy on myself, I purchase pasturized egg whites in a carton from Trader Joes. They whip up perfectly.

 

[Heather N.]

Just made this and it smells divine! I whipped up some raspberry puree (strained) and added a little left over lemon zest to it with 2T of Chambord liqueur to drizzle over the top as I am serving it. Hint with the left over yolks and lemons you should have you can make a nice batch of Hollandaise sauce for eggs benedict in the morning. :)

 

[nmj]

Delicious cake! I made a simple glaze of powdered sugar and lemon juice to drizzle on top. This is also great with berries and whipped cream.

 

[Antifreesz]

This has become my standard Angel Food Cake I serve and one of the most requested by friends and family. You don’t need to be concerned that the lemon is over powering, it is just right. However, I have tried making the cake without the lemon and adjusted the vanilla to 1 tsp., it was still wonderful and flavorful. Try it- you will love this!

 

[sheepdoc]

I really wanted lemon so was looking for lemon cakes. Didn't have any lemons for zest, though, so ended up using clementines for zest. Make orange juice/powdered sugar glaze. Also used 2 goose eggs and 6 chicken eggs and they didn't whip up quite as well. Stick to chicken eggs.