Nate's Angel Food Birthday Cake

My boyfriend's birthday was this past weekend so I told him I would bake him a cake and he could pick whatever kind he wanted.  I was secretly a little disappointed when he chose angel food cake because it's one of the few cakes that I would say I don't really like, but I stuck to my word and made it since it's one of his favorites.

Having never made an angel food cake before I did not really know what to expect and it ended up being a little more complicated than I was expecting.  (I guess I should've read the recipe more thoroughly before waiting until late morning of a home Badger football game to bake a cake!)  The cake turned out just fine though. Topped with homemade whipped cream and strawberry bits it received raving reviews, especially from my roommate Tonia. (The birthday boy liked it too!)

Recipe adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups egg whites (I used 11 large eggs.  It is very important that no yolk gets into the cake!)
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup granulated sugar

Directions

Stiff peaks

1. In a very large mixing bowl, allow egg whites to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. Set flour and powdered sugar together in a separate bowl and set aside.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with baking rack at the lowest position in the oven.
4. Add cream of tartar and vanilla to the egg whites and beat at a medium speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. (Soft peaks are when you pull the beaters out of the batter and the batter that pulls up into a peak curls over.)
5. Gradually add granulated sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. (Stiff peaks are when the batter stands strait up when you pull the beaters out of the batter.)
6. Sift flour mixture onto batter in fourths, folding into batter along the way. (To fold the batter, cut down through the batter with a spatula and bring up and around.)
7. Pour batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan. (I greased mine which made the cake come out very easily, but I think it may have stayed a little fluffier if I hadn't.)
8. Cut through batter with a skinny metal knife to release any hidden air bubbles.
9. Bake on lowest rack of oven for 40 minutes or when top spring back when lightly touched.
10. Turn cake pan upside down immediately and let cake cool while still in the pan.
11. Loosen sides of cake from pan and enjoy!