Fool-Proof Angel Food Cake (even at high altitudes!)

Step-by-step instructions for baking a perfect angel food cake at high altitudes (7000 feet), with tips for success.

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It's a little tricky baking a high altitudes. My kitchen is at 7100 feet, and it's been a challenge over the years for me to make some of my favorites up here in the clouds. Like Angel Food Cake. Even though the ingredients and amounts are the same for baking it at 7100 feet, the technique is less forgiving at high altitude.

Angel Food Cake Ingredients

There aren't a lot of ingredients to Angel Food Cake - and you probably have them all on hand right now. Egg whites, cream of tarter, salt, sugar, and flour. Then I add a couple extras - vanilla extract and lemon zest. There's zero fat in this cake. Zero dairy.

Egg Whites

• This is the only leavener in the cake.

Cream of Tartar

• For stabilizing the egg whites when whipped to peaks.

Kosher Salt

• To sharpen the delicate flavors.

Super-Fine Sugar (also called Baking Sugar)

• Super-fine sugar is best for making angel food cake because the only liquid it to dissolve in is the egg whites. The sugar is absorbed by the egg whites during whipping.

Pro-tip: If you don't have super-fine sugar on hand, throw granulated sugar into a food processor and whip it around for a couple minutes.

Extract (Vanilla, Almond, Lemon or Orange) + Zest

• Optional, for added flavor. I typically add vanilla extract and lemon zest.

Cake Flour

• Cake flour is a wheat flour that has a lower protein content than all-purpose flour, and it's been milled to a finer consistency. The lower protein means a more tender cake, and the finer consistency makes it much easier to fold into the whipped egg whites.

Pro-tip: If you don't have cake flour on hand, measure out 1 cup of all-purpose flour. Remove 2 tablespoons, and replace them with corn starch. Whirl it together in a food processor for a couple minutes to aerate the flour, and mill it a bit finer.

Best Way to Separate Egg Whites from Yolks

It's important that absolutely no yolk end up in the egg whites, as the fat in the yolks will prevent the whites from whipping up to a peak. Therefore, I always use a 3-bowl method for separating more than one egg.

• Wash your hands of any lotion or oils.
• Arrange 3 bowls or ramekins on the counter.
• Crack one egg on the counter, and gently pull apart over a bowl or ramekin. Reach your fingers under the yolk and lift it out of the egg white. Rest the yolk in cupped fingers, and allow any remaining egg whites to fall from the egg yolk through your fingers.
• Place the yolk in a separate second bowl, and pour the egg whites into a third bowl.
• Repeat with all remaining eggs called for in the recipe.

Pro-tip: Egg whites separate best from the yolks when cold, but whip up better at room temperature. Therefore, first separate the eggs from the egg whites, and set aside until they warm up on the counter.

Technique Tips For Making Angel Food Cake

Egg Whites

Since whipped egg whites provide the only leavener for the cake, it's crucial not to under-whip or over-whip the whites. This is always important when making Angel Food Cake, but particularly important when baking this cake at high altitudes. If the egg whites are under- or over-whipped, they will not provide a strong enough foundation for the flour.

The egg whites should be whipped to soft peaks only. This means they droop at the top similar to whipping cream when the beater is turned upside down. A stiff peak means the whipped egg whites stay in an upright position. At a stiff peak, the egg whites are whipped to their maximum expansion, and can collapse into a meringue-like flat doughnut either in the oven while baking, or during the cooling stage.

There are also some recipes out there on the internet that include water. If you're making this at high altitude I don't recommend this method. Too much water can prevent the cake from rising, and I know of some home cooks who've had the cake fall out of the baking ban when it's turned upside down to cool.

Use a metal bowl for best results. Plastic bowls can absorb fats like butter over time, which can prevent the egg whites from getting soft peaks.

Add the sugar gradually, not all at once. And don't add any sugar until the egg whites are quite foamy. The risk here is that a creamy marshmallow-like consistency results instead of defined peaks.

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Flour

I always recommend weighing flour for a consistent result.

Angel Food Cake is one of the few types of cakes where I sift the flour, even when using cake flour. And even when I weight it.

Sift only one-third of the flour into the whipped whites at a time, and fold into the whipped whites using a flexible spatula. Only fold the flour in until there are no more streaks of flour. Over-folding can collapse the air in the whipped egg whites.