When Magen requested an angel food cake for her birthday this year, I was delighted. Angel food cake is light and delicious, and best of all, requires no frosting or decorating talent! (I’ll admit that I was slightly disappointed that I wouldn’t have an opportunity to improve my pathetic cake decorating skills, but mostly I was relieved.)
I cook and bake from scratch as much as possible, but for some reason I’ve never made an angel food cake from scratch. It’s so different from other cakes, so I guess the process just seems a bit daunting. During last week’s grocery shopping trip, I mustered up my good intentions and bought an extra dozen eggs, but I also bought a Betty Crocker mix just in case I ran out of time… which I did.
Since an angel food cake doesn’t need any icing, the candles were the only decoration, so I knew they needed to be special. We had plenty of the classic striped candles on hand, but I left them in their boxes and hit up a few of my favorite stores in search of some tall spiral candles.
Party City was sold out of spiral candles, so I don’t know what I was missing out on. I liked the shape of the spiral candles that I found at Target, but I wasn’t too excited about the colors. (I am, however, generally in favor of the concept behind Target’s new line of “Spritz” party accessories.) I finally found some candles that I liked at Michaels ($3 for a box of 12). I poked eight of them into the cake and the cake was ready for the party!
I love how Magen’s birthday cake turned out — simple, sweet, and classy.
Have you ever made an angel food cake from scratch? How did it turn out?
Joy
Jul 05, 2011 @ 21:54:17
Love the way the candles are the finishing touch on the cake. GREAT candles!! Your searching paid off. Magen is a lucky girl! I not only made an angel food cake from scratch, I beat it by hand – in Haiti. Just didn’t get as high, but it was good…not the same as the box mix that most of us were raised on.
r8chel
Jul 06, 2011 @ 22:13:03
Joy: Wow – I’m so impressed! Your cake sounds like the ultimate DIY! 🙂
Krystal
Jul 10, 2011 @ 14:16:16
I did try to make an angel food cake from scratch once. I remember thinking that it was a lot of work, made too many dishes, and cost the same as a box mix. I’ll stick with the box. 🙂
r8chel
Jul 12, 2011 @ 22:45:17
Krystal: Good to know! I think I’m going to have to make one, just to see how it goes.