Healthy Angel Food Cake
This Angel Food Cake recipe is one that was handed down to me in my personal chef days. One of my clients loved it and requested it all summer long. It is light and fluffy and completely fat free. It is perfect for serving with fresh fruit and can be flavored in a variety of ways!
Table of contents
Why We Love Angel Food Cake
This angel food cake is such a simple and light dessert when paired with sweet and tart berries and sliced stone fruit. This is a whole grain angel food cake (read: healthier angel food cake) because it uses a blend of whole-wheat pastry flour and all-purpose flour. Angel food cake typically has fewer calories than regular cake. This one has 160 calories per slice. There are lots of reasons to get excited about this cake!
Ingredients For This Healthy Angel Food Cake Recipe
- Sugar: Regular granulated white sugar is best for this recipe. I wouldn’t recommend switching it out for another type of sugar.
- Flour: I use a blend of all-purpose flour and whole-wheat pastry flour. I prefer to use whole-wheat flour for added nutritional benefits, but if you only have white that will work fine.
- Kosher Salt
- Egg Whites: The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups egg whites, from 10 to 12 eggs.
- Cream of Tartar: This helps to stabilize the egg whites in the cake.
- Flavorings: Both almond extract and vanilla extract add classic taste to the angel food cake.
Step-by-Step Instructions to Make This Healthy Angel Food Cake
Step 1: Preheat oven
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Step 2: Sift dry ingredients
Sift the sugar, all-purpose flour, whole-wheat pastry flour, and salt into a bowl. Repeat the sifting process two more times and set aside. Sifting the sugar and flour multiple times ensures they are well incorporated and there are no lumps.
Step 3: Beat egg whites
Beat the egg whites and the cream of tartar together with an electric mixer on medium-high until soft peaks form. For the ideal volume and stability of the whipped egg whites, you have to wait until soft peaks have already formed. Once they have, increase the speed to high and very gradually add the sugar to the egg whites and beat them until stiff glossy peaks form.
Step 4: Bake angel food cake
Gently fold the almond extract and vanilla extract into the egg whites using a rubber spatula. Gently fold the flour mixture into the meringue 1/3 at a time. Make sure to gently fold the extracts and flour mixture into the whites so that you do not deflate the whites. Spread the batter into an ungreased Angel Food Cake pan with a removable bottom. Bake the cake until it’s puffed, golden and springs back when lightly touched, about 45 minutes.
Step 5: Allow cake to cool
Once the cake has finished baking, invert the cake over the neck of a bottle and let it cool completely. To remove the cake from the pan, run a knife (a boning knife is best) around all the edges and the middle ring of the cake. Invert it onto a cake stand or serving platter.
Chefs Tip: The main thing to keep in mind when making a good Angel Food Cake is that it’s all about putting (and keeping) as much air as possible into the batter. An electric hand mixer or stand mixer is a must. It’s also a matter of knowing what to look for when beating the egg whites. You want to see stiff glossy peaks.
When you fold the ingredients into the egg whites, make sure to go gently and try not to deflate them too much. I use a rubber spatula or bowl scraper to do that.
FAQs and Expert Tips
Make sure your bowl and whisk are clean when beating the egg whites. Any leftover fat or grease may keep the whites from whipping up.
It’s important to cool the cake inverted on the neck of a bottle and to make sure it’s completely cool before removing it from the pan. This helps keep the cake from collapsing on itself.
It might sound tempting, but I would recommend you don’t. Since you don’t grease the pan, you need that inner tube to help break up the surface that’s touching the bottom of the pan. Additionally, most bundt pans are non-stick which won’t work for this recipe. If you don’t have a tube pan you can use a tall cake pan and place an empty metal can in the middle to act as the tube.
Store the cake, covered at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Serving Suggestions For Angel Food Cake
- Serve with fresh sliced stone fruit like peaches, plums and nectarines.
- Try our Rhubarb compote or Strawberry Coulis over it.
- In the summer I make this to serve with fresh berries.
- Whipped cream, mascarpone, creme fraiche or a dollop of Greek yogurt are all nice cooling additions.
Variations To Try
Make It Gluten Free: I made this recipe a lot for a personal chef client who couldn’t tolerate gluten. I just substituted 1 cup brown rice flour for the all-purpose flour and whole-wheat pastry flour and it worked great. I also made sure to use alcohol-free extracts when I was cooking for her.
Flavors To Add: You can add any oil-free flavor to the base of the cake. Lemon zest or orange zest are really nice additions that I have used a lot. You can also add a couple teaspoons of espresso powder.
At Healthy Seasonal Recipes, we specialize in cooking with fresh veggies and creating weeknight meals. Sign up HERE to get more produce-forward dinner ideas for FREE! If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought! Happy Cooking! ~Katie
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Angel Food Cake Recipe
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
Description
Give me a simple, fresh slice of this airy Healthy Angel Food Cake piled with fruit and I am in heaven. It is the perfect dessert to end a warm summer night of grilling and eating outside with family and friends! Not to mention, angel food cake is low in calories and this one is no exception.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup sugar, divided
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cup egg whites (10 to12 eggs)
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Sift 3/4 cup sugar with all purpose flour, whole-wheat pastry flour and salt. Repeat 2 more times and set aside.
- Beat egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer on medium-high until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high and gradually beat in the remaining 3/4 cup sugar and continue beating until stiff glossy peaks form.
- Gently fold almond extract and vanilla extract into the whites using a rubber spatula. Gently fold the flour mixture into the meringue 1/3 at a time. Spread into an ungreased Angel Food Cake pan with a removable bottom and bake until puffed, golden and springs back when lightly touched about 45 minutes.
- Cool the cake in the pan inverted over the neck of a bottle. To remove from the pan, run a knife (a boning knife is best) around all the edges and middle ring of cake. Invert onto a cake stand or serving platter.
Notes
Cooking Note: It’s important to cool the cake inverted on the neck of a bottle and to make sure it’s completely cool before removing it from the pan. This helps keep the cake from collapsing on itself.
0 mg sodium, 24 g added sugars
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/12th cake
- Calories: 160
- Sugar: 25 g
- Sodium: 56 mg
- Fat: 0.1 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 35 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 5 g
I originally shared this recipe on August 5, 2010. I have updated the images and some of the text today.
Isn’t white sugar made from GMO sugar beets or do you use another kind of white sugar? Thank you for responding bc I would like to try this recipe but I don’t use regular white sugar. I use lots of your recipes.
It depends on what you buy. I use regular white sugar for this. If you avoid GMOs you can buy organic granulated sugar.
Hi,
Can I substitute the whole wheat flour with regular all purpose flour?
Thank you
Yes you can use 1 1/4 cup all purpose instead. Let me know how it comes out!
This cake turned out so fluffy and light as air! Great recipe!
I am so psyched you made it! Thanks for letting me know!
Oh I mo d angel cake!! Such a great recipe!
So glad you like it Laura! Thanks for rating!
I have made this several times and it comes out perfect each time. Thank you for a delicious recipe!
homemade angel food cake is one of my favorite things ever! thanks for sharing this recipe
How timely – I’ve been buying the boxed mixes for this but thinking that I probably could do it myself. And your recipes have been stellar, so I’m ready to give it a go.