Heavenly Angel Food Cake

The last time I made an angel food cake it was for AJ's first birthday in Lake Zurich, Illinois. I don't remember that recipe but this one is from Betty Crocker. It's lightly sweet and moist and quite spongy in texture. It uses 12 egg whites, which leaves me with the problem of what to do with a dozen egg yolks. I've frozen them--yes, they do freeze well but are the hardest thing to get out of the ice cube tray. Serve this angel food cake plain, without powdered sugar or frosting. It only has 130 calories per slice!

Ingredients
Have at room temperature~
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cake flour
12 large egg whites (1 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Move the oven rack to the lowest position and preheat the oven 375˚F. Use a two-piece 10 inch tube cake pan, preferably with "feet" for keeping the cake off the counter as it cools upside-down.

Prepare the flour-sugar mixture. In a large bowl, whisk the powdered sugar and cake flour together. Set aside.

Separate the eggs. Eggs are easier to separate at room temperature. Be careful not to get any yolk in the egg whites or they will not whip. If you aren't going to use the egg yolks immediately, freeze them in an ice cube tray, one egg yolk per cube. [Tip: they'll be easier to remove from the tray if they defrost a few minutes. Store the frozen egg yolks in a zip-lock plastic bag. Defrost in the refrigerator 8-10 hours before using.]

Whip the egg whites. In a large bowl  put the egg whites and cream of tartar. Whip on medium speed until foamy. Beat on high speed, adding the granulated sugar 2 tablespoons at a time, until soft peaks form. Slowly raise the beaters. If the peaks fall over, that is soft. Add the vanilla, almond extract, and salt with the last addition of sugar. Continue whipping until stiff peaks form. Slowly raise the beaters. If the peaks stand up tall, that is stiff.

Add the flour-sugar mixture. Dip and sweep a 1/4 cup measure into the mixture and sprinkle it over the whipped egg whites. Gently fold into the meringue.  Scrape into a tube cake pan. Using a thin blade, cut the batter to release air pockets. Here's a video at Allrecipes.com that shows how to fold the flour into the meringue.

Bake. Place the pan in the oven and bake 30-40 minutes or until the cake, when pressed lightly, springs back. Remove from oven and immediately invert over a wine bottle. If you have a pan with feet, let it hang upside down. Cool completely in the pan, about 2 hours. Using a thin blade, loosen the sides and invert onto a cake plate. Then carefully slide the blade between the cake and the pan bottom and  remove it.

Meringue at soft peak stage

Plum Cake

One of the characters in a book I loved to read as a child was named Plum Tucker. The name sounded so full in the mouth; full of sugar, plums, and spices. So I found this plum cake recipe on cooks.com and it has exactly the same feel in the mouth.

Laying out the plum slices on top of the batter

Cutting in the flour to make the topping

Hot from the oven in the Teeny Tiny Kitchen

Ready for slicing

Plum Cake

Plum Cake
I made some changes to the original recipe. The pan size was 8x11 but as that was not an available option in the Teeny Tiny Kitchen, I used a 9 inch square glass dish instead. I reduced the plums from 2 pounds to 1 pound and found that I had about 2/3 of a plum left over. Each prune plum was approximately 2-3 inches long. 
 
Have at room temperature:
1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 pound plums (about 5), pitted, halved, quartered, and cut into eighths
Cinnamon, for dusting

Topping (The original recipe said this was optional, I say it's required!)
1/4 cup unsalted butter (4 tablespoons)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup flour (increased from 1/4 cup in the original recipe)

Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Grease and flour one 9-inch square glass baking dish.

In a large bowl, cream the 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup sugar. Add eggs one at a time and beat after each addition until just combined. Add vanilla. Scape down the sides. Add the flour mixture in three batches, beating after each addition until just combined. Scrape down the sides.

Scrape batter into the prepared dish. Gently press the plum slices into the top of the batter in rows. Sprinkle the top liberally with cinnamon. In the same large bowl and using the same beaters (no need to wash), cream the 1/4 cup butter with 1/2 cup sugar. Add the cinnamon. Cut in the 1/2 cup flour by hand. I pinched off bits of the batter to distribute evenly on top of the plums.

Bake 55 minutes or until a tester inserted near the center comes out clean. There may be some moisture on the tester because of the plums. Cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before cutting into squares.

The top is slightly crusty because of the butter-sugar topping. Serve with coffee or tea, or eat it with ice cream or whipped cream as a dessert.

Peach Kuchen

Kuchen is German for cake. I saw a recipe for it on allrecipes.com but it used canned peaches. Why use canned when fresh peaches are still available? So I searched until I found another recipe. This one comes from the Jackson Rose Bed and Breakfast. After mixing, the cake batter is covered with a layer of peaches. During baking, the batter rose and covered the peaches so that it became a filling. I'm not sure this was the intended effect as there were no photographs to go with the recipe. This cake should be served from the cake pan rather than removed as I had done.

Have all ingredients at room temperature. It is best to position the rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350˚F and grease one 9x2 inch cake pan or one 8 inch square pan. I used a 9 inch spring form cake pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

Set aside the flour mixture. In another large bowl, beat
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup superfine sugar

Add 2 large eggs one at a time. Beat until just blended. Stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, spreading batter evenly.

Scatter on top
2 cups fresh peaches (about 3 large peaches or 6 medium), peeled and cut into wedges
According to ehow.com, blanching peaches for 5 minutes in boiling water will remove the skins. Not so. Not all the skin came off.  I also found it was easier to just cut the peach off the stone rather than trying to remove it. Slice the fruit into wedges. Drain the fruit well. Scatter the cut fruit in a single layer on top of the cake batter.

Combine and sprinkle over fruit
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Imagine my surprise when the peach layer "disappeared" underneath the batter. That's why photos are so important for recipes that could be unfamiliar to other bakers.

I unmolded the cake and put it in a plate. It was too delicate for such rough treatment.

The result was a tad overmixed but it was lightly sweet and slightly crisped on the outside. This cake would also be good with a cup of tea or coffee in the morning!