For Summer Solstice I decided to make an Angel Food Cake. I thought this would be delicious with all the fresh local strawberries we have been enjoying lately, and I wanted to continue to make 'ring shaped' cakes for the solstice/equinox.
I haven't made an Angel Food Cake but it was fairly straight forward, I used the recipe from America's Test Kitchen, and substituted Domino's superfine sugar instead of grinding sugar in the food processor. Here is a link with great photos:
ATK Angel Food Cake
Two important notes:
Egg whites beaten with sugar combined will not peak as firmly. (They will never form stiff peaks, and if you beat too long the eggs may liquify again.)
and make sure to invert your cake almost immediately do NOT let it stand for 5 min.
I also made Whipped Cream Frosting inspired by this cake and recipe: Angel Food Cake with Lemon Whipped Cream Frosting I think this cake just looks beautiful and I love fresh berries and lemon so much.
I made whipped cream frosting by whipping 2 cups of Heavy cream with two Tablespoons powdered sugar, (makes approximately 4 cups, with extra to spare) And I made lemon curd with this easy recipe: Easy Lemon Curd
I added about 1 Tablespoon lemon zest to my lemon curd. When I made the frosting I added the lemon curd to taste, but it was about 1/2 to 3/4 cup.
The cake turned out so delicious and I decorated it with edible flowers from the garden and filled the center with raspberries. A fun note is that the blue with yellow centered viola flowers were from a plant that lasted all through our mild winter -it is in the ideal location and it is amazing, it has been growing for at least 9 months now!
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Magical Viola pictured on 12/12/11
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