Angel Food Cake Topped with Meyer Lemon Curd

Everyone needs their own cake. Everyone. I have mine, do you have yours?

Okay, truth be told, my birthday cake is not fancy, I love a simple poppy seed cake dusted with powdered sugar. But my Mom had her special cake; a Chocolate Devil’s Food Cake with whipped cream frosting. My Step Dad had his favorite: a black walnut yellow cake with milk chocolate frosting. My husband likes a Pennsylvania Dutch vanilla cake with whipped cream frosting and loads of berries and Hettie Rose, my sweet little surprise, has her cake too (for now at least), an angel food cake topped with Meyer lemon curd and beautiful little frais de bois for decoration.

Hettie Rose is truly my angel (hence the angel food cake and not the devil’s food cake!), not just because she is a super happy little baby but because I found out I was pregnant when I least expected another child just before my 45th birthday. She also made her debut a whole month early. However, she has no idea she is a premie and she has crushed all her developmental markers including averaging out in height and weigh. Her personality brings so much sunshine into our lives, hence the sunny Meyer Lemon curd topping. As soon as she wakes up, she is smiling – it’s just nuts! I’m like: who does that? Who wakes up and just instantly smiles? Hettie Rose, I guess, Hettie Rose…

Hettie Rose is constantly curious, always ready to giggle or crack one of her enormous smiles that literally engulf her little face in happiness, she is determined to swipe anything in sight and put it straight into her mouth, she enjoys grabbing her toes and she thinks hats, swings, sunglasses and mirrors (her reflection) are hilarious. She loves to eat/drink: boob, banana, avocado and prunes – she is a little chunky milk monkey with big ol’ baby fat rolls that I absolutely adore! She is my angel, it is a miracle that she is here and she has truly completed this little family. Hettie Rose balances all of our personalities in a way I never could have imagined.

Okay, enough goo-goo gah-gah, so angel food cake, how to make it? Good question. Believe it or not, this is my first one! I know, I know – I totally nailed it! I thought it was easy as far as cakes go, so I’d like to demystify the process below. I have always been afraid to attempt angel food cake because my Mom told me when I was a kid that it was extremely difficult to make (probably because she just didn’t want me to eat it) so I just never thought to bother! See how parents damage their kids?!?!? Kidding, kidding…

For the Meyer lemon curd I used David Lebovitz’s recipe. Meyer lemon curd is easy but time consuming. However, if you make it in a large batch you can keep it in the fridge for a few weeks and spread it on toast in the morning or use with other desserts – or just stick your tongue in the jar and devour while nobody’s watching! Not everyone has the time to make lemon curd and there are great store bought options these days that you can squeeze some Meyer lemon juice into in a pinch.

One thing you can’t mess up in an angel food cake is the egg separation process. A little egg yolk in the egg white mixture is going to ruin the meringue. I was hesitant to let Layla help out because, although her egg cracking game is pretty good, it’s not perfect. And she’s two years old. Which means she has selective hearing. Needless to say, she did a good job and she was careful. We cracked the eggs whole into a dish and then used our fingers to scoop out the yolks, letting the whites sift through our fingertips back into the bowl. This is also the way I do it in a professional kitchen when I’ve got trays and trays of eggs to separate. I do not sit around rocking the yolk back and forth between shells for 100 eggs.

Pro Tips: separate eggs when they are cold. The yolk is less likely to break. Use fresh egg whites from fresh eggs for this recipe so the moisture content is high. Whip meringue when whites have warmed up from the refrigerator to about 65˚F.

When you finish whipping up your meringue, it should look like the picture below: glossy and almost stiff but not dry – pourable not like little dry cloud clumps. The whites should be around 60-65˚F, just under room temperature in order to whip perfectly. And I would highly advise using the proverbial angel food cake pan. The meringue needs to cling and climb and this cake pan works best. A non-stick bundt pan is a no-go. Do not grease the pan either.

The recipe can be divided into 4 quarters according to my old edition of the Joy of Cooking (don’t even bother with the new one when it comes to cake recipes, I use the 1975 JOY which still includes fascinating tips on how to set up a champagne tower and how to cook squirrel and I find the dessert recipes to be less about weight loss and cutting calories and more about technique).

In the first quarter of the recipe, the egg whites are beaten gently until foamy. Then salt and cream of tartar is added midway which helps to stabilize the foam. In the second quarter the granulated sugar is added gradually on high speed until soft glossy peaks form – the granulated sugar helps to guard against over whipping. The third part consists of folding the meringue into the sifted dry ingredients quickly and lightly. with an over-under motion. And the fourth, pouring the mixture into the non-greased tube pan and baking on 350F˚.

I think most bakers today (like Flo Braker) would recommend using both granulated sugar AND powdered sugar unlike my old JOY recipe, so I’ve adjusted that below Granulated sugar should be used to whip into the meringue because using powdered sugar turns it into a gooey icing. And powdered sugar should be used with the dry ingredients – this keeps the structure light all around.

Flo Braker (my baking Goddess) says the golden crust should come off in the pan. Mine did not and I was okay with that. My old JOY recipe didn’t say anything about that either. So, I get a ding there on my first angel food cake but I though the taste and texture was perfect.

The funniest thing about angel food cake is what you do when it’s done baking: you invert the pan onto a bottle. I used a wine bottle and let it hang out for about an hour and a half. This helps to set the cake. It makes it awfully hard to pour the wine though…

All in all, this was not a difficult cake to bake. But it sure was beautiful. And so light and fluffy. Layla sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Hettie Rose and blew out her candles and we all enjoyed a slice except Hettie of course, sigh, she’s just a baby after all, but she seemed content just to be part of her party.

Angel Food Cake with Meyer Lemon Curd Frosting

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups (11 to 12) large egg whites
• 1 cup sifted cake flour
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Adapted from Both the 1962 JOY of Cooking and Flo Braker's Recipe...

Place fresh cold egg whites (not fresher than 3 days old) in the bowl of a Kitchen Aid mixer. Set aside until they reach 65 degrees, slightly below room temperature.

Pour flour, powdered sugar and salt into a sifter. Sift onto a sheet of parchment paper; set aside.

Adjust rack in lower third of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat egg whites, with a whisk attachment, until foamy. Add cream of tartar and whisk on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add granulated sugar, whisking until the whites form soft, glossy white peaks. Add vanilla at the end and beat a few more seconds to incorporate. 

Gently sprinkle a quarter of the  flour mixture over the whites. Using a rubber spatula, fold it into the whites using and down and around hand motion. Repeat with the remaining flour mixture, folding in a quarter of the mixture at a time. Gently pour the batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan.

Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until the top is light golden, the cake feels spongy and springs back when touched, and a wooden toothpick inserted in the middle comes out free of cake. Invert the cake (in its pan) onto the neck of a bottle.  Let cool completely before removing from pan.

To remove, slip the tip of a small metal spatula between the cake and the pan. Slowly work tip around the perimeter to release any cake sticking to the top of the pan. Tilt pan on its side and gently tap it against a counter to loosen the cake. Rotate pan, tapping as you turn, until the cake appears free. Cover with a rack, invert and tap pan firmly to release the cake.