Scrumptious Cranberry Angel Food Cake

Maito's Note:

This is the best angel food cake! I imagine it would also work well with other types of berries too - fresh, frozen or dried. Be careful when separating the eggs, if you get one drop of yolk in the whites, it won't whip properly.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 25 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 1 cup cake flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar, divided use
• 12 large egg whites
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup cranberries, picked over (or more, if you are really into cranberries)
• 1 tablespoon orange zest (from 1 orange, I use a microplaner)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Clean and dry tube or bundt pan (trace amounts of oil may cause whipped egg whites to deflate).
3. Stir together flour and 3/4 cup sugar, and set aside.
4. In a large bowl, whip egg whites with vanilla, cream of tartar, and salt until medium stiff peaks form.
5. Gradually add remaining 3/4 cup sugar, and continue to whip until stiff peaks form. Batter will fill mixer's bowl and appear very shiny (see note in step 7 also).
6. Carefully fold in flour mixture, 1/3 of it at a time.
7. Carefully fold in cranberries and orange zest (batter should be very thick - when I made it it was thick enough to keep the cranberries in suspension and they did not sink to the bottom during baking - see photos).
8. Pour batter evenly into pan.
9. Bake for 40 minutes, or until cake is light golden brown and springs back when lightly touched.
10. Invert pan over the top of a thin necked bottle and allow to cool completely (this prevents decompression while it is cooling).
11. Loosen cake by running a knife around the edges and center of the pan. Invert onto a serving plate.

Reviews

[Sydney Mike]

I'm not much on making angel food cakes, but This one caught my attention because of those tart red berries & I did use a nicely rounded measure of 'em, as well as all the zest from a rather large orange! Am not sure what I did RIGHT, but my berries were well distributed throughout! Can't wait to make this one again, when we have company over! [Made & reviewed in Healthy Choices ABC tag]

[Colorado Mel]

VERY yummy! However, my cranberries sunk to the bottom. So it wasn't pretty and it was quite difficult to serve. I'm sure there's a way to deal with that particular issue... I'll have to do a bit of research next time and see if I can get it to work. Maybe it's because I'm high altitude?

[Mgnbos]

Overall this is very good. I rolled the whole cranberries in sifted cake flour but they all still settled to the bottom. I think I may chop them next time. I love how the flavor of the cranberries is showcased and not too sweet.