Chocolate Angel Food Cake with Dipped Strawberries
May 14, 2017 to May 23, 2017
“Chocolate Angel Food Cake with Chocolate Dipped Strawberries”
“When you realize you don't have a tube pan with a removable bottom and you have to get creative. Yes, that is a shooter glass.”
A special-occasion cake in four photos: covered in piped chocolate rosettes and topped with chocolate-dipped strawberries, then the stages before, the bare cake with its tube-shaped hole and the first coat of frosting. A later post shows the improvisation behind it, when I realized I didn't have a tube pan with a removable bottom and had to get creative. Yes, that is a shooter glass.
Angel food cake has no fat at all. It rises entirely on whipped egg whites and needs a central tube so heat reaches the middle of the delicate batter. It also has to cling to an ungreased pan as it climbs, and cool upside down so it doesn't collapse. A glass standing in a regular pan does the tube's job.
This article is written in Corey’s voice for this tribute site, based on his captions and blog. His own words are the quotes above.
Chocolate Angel Food Cake with Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries
Angel food cake is an American creation of the late nineteenth century, made with whipped egg whites and no fat at all. Adding cocoa turns the usual snowy crumb a soft chocolate brown while keeping the cake feather light. It bakes in an ungreased tube pan and cools upside down so the delicate foam sets at full height.
Ingredients
Chocolate angel food cake
- 90 g cake flour (3/4 cup)
- 30 g Dutch-process cocoa powder (1/3 cup)
- 300 g superfine sugar (1 1/2 cups), divided
- 360 g egg whites (12 large, 1 1/2 cups), at room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/4 tsp fine salt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate-dipped strawberries
- 450 g strawberries with stems (1 lb, about 20), washed and dried completely
- 200 g dark couverture chocolate, 60 to 70% cacao, finely chopped
To serve
- 240 g heavy cream, whipped with 20 g powdered sugar (1 cup cream, 2 Tbsp sugar)
Method
- Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) with a rack in the lower third. Have a 10-inch (25 cm) two-piece tube pan ready, ungreased and perfectly clean.
- Sift the flour, cocoa and 150 g of the sugar together three times so the cocoa is evenly dispersed and the mixture is very light.
- Whip the whites on medium speed until foamy, add the cream of tartar and salt, and continue to soft peaks. Add the remaining 150 g sugar a tablespoon at a time, then whip on medium-high to peaks that are glossy and droop slightly at the tip. Beat in the vanilla.
- Sift the flour mixture over the meringue in four additions, folding gently with a large balloon whisk or spatula after each, just until no dry pockets remain.
- Spoon into the pan, run a knife through the batter to release air pockets, and smooth the top. Bake 35-40 minutes, until the top springs back and looks dry in the cracks.
- Invert the pan immediately onto its feet or over a bottle and cool upside down for at least 2 hours.
- Run a thin knife around the sides and tube with firm pressure against the pan, lift out the center, and free the base. Cut with a serrated knife or pull apart with two forks.
- Temper the chocolate: melt two thirds to 45-50°C (113-122°F), stir in the rest until it cools to 27-28°C (81-82°F), then rewarm gently to 31-32°C (88-90°F).
- Hold each strawberry by its stem, dip to the shoulders, let the excess drip, and set on parchment. Leave at cool room temperature until set, about 20 minutes, and serve the same day with the cake and whipped cream.
Chef’s notes
- Cocoa contains fat, which deflates meringue, so this batter is less forgiving than plain angel food. Sift it with the flour and sugar and fold with as few strokes as possible.
- Whites whipped to stiff, dry peaks have no stretch left and the cake will rise, then sink. Stop at soft, glossy peaks that still move.
- If the cake drops out of the pan while cooling, the pan was greased or nonstick, or the cake was underbaked. Use plain aluminum.
- Strawberries must be bone dry and at room temperature. A single drop of water makes chocolate seize, and cold berries sweat under the shell.
Drawn from the methods of
- Rose Levy Beranbaum, The Cake Bible (1988)
- Stella Parks, BraveTart (2017)
- Tish Boyle, The Cake Book (2006)
- King Arthur Baking Company
Corey has not published his own formula for this piece. This reference recipe is compiled from the published methods of the chefs and bakers listed above, written in our own words.
