FSL Kitchen Test Drive: Jessica’s Angel Food Cupcakes

Jessica over at How Sweet It Is is out to kill me, I swear.   She’s been posting the most ridiculously drool-worthy recipes lately.  This particular recipe haunted me for days.  It was the only thing on my mind all week.

 

I contemplated making them for a while.  Angel food sounds pretty uncomplicated to some people, it’s white cake with a different texture and some extra egg whites right?  Nope.  It is notoriously difficult to get just right.

In fact, Jess wrote this to introduce the recipe:

“I made my first angel food cake a few years ago and assumed it would be soooosoo easy. Like, embarrassingly easy. I mean, it normally just looks like a plain, fluffy, fat life-size donut. It doesn’t taste like tiramisu layered cheesecake with chocolate mouse filling and graham cracker crust and mascarpone frosting and fresh truffles on top of a bed of creme brulee and… and… yeah. Angel food cake is simple and light and people eat it so they can feel better about themselves ingesting cake. I didn’t expect it to be all “beat the egg whites! watch for stiff peaks! sift the sugar! sift the sugar again! don’t stir the egg whites! fold the stuff in! no, FOLD the stuff in! don’t mix it in circles!” and stuff. I’m much more of a mix-all-this-junk-in-a-bowl-and-who-cares-when-you-add-the-dry-ingredients-and-oh-cracked-two-entire-eggs-plus-their-shells-in-the-batter?-just-scoop-it-out-with-your-fingers-and-move-on kind of person.”

Yeah.

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I thought it was only for “real bakers and chefs” to attempt.   I needed a pep talk for this one. Since when am I a wuss in the kitchen?!  I’m the kamikazi chef that never follows the rules!

Bravery is doing something even when you’re scared right?!  Right.  Let’s do this.

*Pops Collar*

(That’ll do)

Onward.

I made 1/3 of the recipe.  I had to make as few as possible to ensure that I won’t be left alone with more than 3 or 4 at a time.

What I used:

* 4 large egg whites

* 1/2 t cream of tarter

*1/4 c  granulated sugar

* a little more than 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

* 5/8 cups sifted powdered sugar (sift before measuring)

* 1/3 + 1/16  cups sifted cake flour (sift before measuring)

* a pinch of  salt

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What I did:

I left the eggs sitting on the counter, I did a load of laundry, vacuumed, fought/wrestled attempted to brush Rocco’s teeth, listened to the new M.I.A. single “Bad Girls” and decided I like it.  This sucked up about an hour and allowed the eggs to come to room temperature.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.

Sift, then measure powdered sugar and  flour.

 

Sift powdered sugar, flour and salt together. Sifting is messy. Brush the white dust off of your once-blue-now-it’s-white sweatshirt.

Set these sifted ingredients aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 F & place rack in the bottom 3rd of the oven.

In my stand mixer, I beat the egg whites until frothy.

 

Once frothy, add in cream of tarter, then beat at medium speed until soft peaks form.

Little by little, add granulated sugar with the mixer still on medium speed, continuing to beat until egg whites thicken a bit more with opaque, meringue-ish peaks.

Beat in vanilla extract for a few seconds.  At this point, remove the bowl from the stand mixer.  It is perfectly acceptable at this time to do this

It’s not a pretty sight in our kitchen when I am involved with baking batter of any kind.  This kind happens to be fluffy perfection. So if you’re proper, have manners, or never allow yourself to taste test, give yourself the green light on this one mmmkay?

In incriments, fold in the dry ingredients a little at a time.

Plop batter into lined cupcake tins and bake for about 17 minutes or until tops are light golden brown.

These actually have a marshmallow-y flavor.  Angel food cupcakes would be perfect for a Valentine’s Day treat!!

To make your next batch a cinch, browse our selection of stand mixers!

Tomorrow I’m posting the most freaking delicious frosting recipe in the history of frostings.   It is the perfect compliment to these cuppies.