Lemon Angel Food Cake

by Sheridan Kelley Adams

It’s January, which means it’s time to figure out how to survive winter. One way to do that is to have people over to dinner. And having people over to dinner means there must be cake.

This is the perfect cake to serve after a rich, warm meal, like 40 Cloves of Garlic Chicken. Citrus is in season, embrace it.

You will need:

  • 2 cups of sugar, sifted
  • 1  1 /2 cups of cake flour, also sifted
  • 3 tbsp lemon zest
  • egg whites from a dozen large eggs, room temperature
  • 1 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix that 2 tbsp lemon zest with 1 cup of sugar. Set aside.

Combine 1 cup of sugar with the flour and sift four or five times.

Put the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the whisk attachment, beat on high for about a minute, until medium-firm peaks form.

With the mixer on medium speed, add the cup of lemon sugar by sprinkling it over the beaten egg whites. Whisk for a few minutes more, until the mixture thickens and develops a shine. Add the vanilla and 1 tbsp of lemon zest and continue to whisk until very thick, about 1 more minute.

Add a quarter of the flour mixture to the egg whites and fold it into the batter with a rubber spatula. Continue adding the flour by fourths, gently folding until it’s all incorporated.

Pour the batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan, smooth the top, and bake it for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and invert the pan on a cooling rack until cool. If your cake is especially tall, you can use a wine bottle as a cooling stand. Just flip the cake upside down and insert the top of the wine bottle into the center of the tube pan.

Once the cake is completely cool, you can remove it from the pan by running a knife around the outside edge of the cake. Once you can remove the inner tube, pull that out and run a knife along the bottom of the cake to release.

To make a drizzle for the cake, combine 2 tbsp lemon juice and half a cup of powdered sugar, more or less to get the consistency you like.