Angel Food Cake Day

What the day is

Angel Food Cake Day is observed on October 10. The cake is a white foam sponge made from egg whites, sugar, flour and an acid, baked in a tall tube pan and served plain or with fruit.

What it leaves out defines it. There is no butter or oil, no egg yolk, and no baking powder or soda. Every bit of lift comes from air beaten into the whites and the steam that expands it in the oven.

Origin and background

The origin of the observance is not documented. The cake is American and nineteenth-century, and it became practical at the point when finely milled white flour, cheap refined sugar and rotary egg beaters were all available at once. Beating a dozen egg whites to stiff peaks by hand with a fork is possible and was not something most households would do often.

The tube pan is not decoration. The central funnel conducts heat into the middle of a very wet, very airy batter that would otherwise collapse before it set, and the tall straight sides give the foam something to climb. That is also why the pan must never be greased: the batter grips the ungreased metal as it rises, and a non-stick or buttered pan produces a short, dense cake.

The acid, usually cream of tartar, stabilizes the egg white foam so it holds air through folding and baking. It is the least glamorous ingredient and the one most responsible for success.

How to take part

• Use a scrupulously clean, dry bowl. Any trace of fat or yolk will stop the whites reaching full volume.
• Bring the whites to room temperature first; cold whites whip to less volume.
• Fold the flour in gently and in stages. Stirring knocks out the air that is doing all the work.
• Do not grease the pan, and do not use a non-stick one.
• Invert the pan immediately out of the oven and leave it upside down until completely cool, or the cake sinks under its own weight.
• Save the yolks for custard, hollandaise or ice cream rather than binning a dozen.