THE ORIGINAL ‘RECEIPT’

ANGEL OR WHITE SPONGE CAKE. –

Whites of nine large eggs, one heaping cup fine granulated sugar, one cup of flour sifted five times before measuring, one-half teaspoon cream of tartar, a pinch of salt, one-half teaspoon each of lemon and vanilla extract. Separate eggs, add salt and cream of tartar to the whites, and beat till very stiff, add sugar and flavoring, beat thoroughly, then carefully fold in the flour. Put in moderate oven at once. Bake from forty to fifty minutes. Invert pan to cool when cake is done.

~Karn, W. A. (Druggist). The Art of Cooking Made Easy. Woodstock, 1903.

THE UPDATED RECIPE

• whites of 9 large eggs
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp. Cream of Tartar
• 1 1/4 c. granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp. lemon extract
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 c. cake and pastry flour.

Sift the flour five times, and then measure one cup.

Preheat oven to 325F.

Separate the eggs, and put the whites into a large mixing bowl.

Add the salt and Cream of Tartar to the egg whites, and beat vigorously with a rotary beater, until they form stiff peaks.

Gradually add the sugar, beating after each addition.

Add the lemon and vanilla extracts, and beat in thoroughly.

Then gently fold in the pre-sifted flour, and combine thoroughly.

Pour the batter into an ungreased nine-inch diameter tube pan, and carefully draw a knife through the batter, to eliminate any air pockets.

Bake immediately, in a preheated oven, at 325F for approximately one hour, until puffed and golden.

Cool the cake, upside-down, on an inverted glass (which will allow steam to escape) for about an hour, and then carefully remove the pan.

Yield: 10 to 12 servings.

Angel Cake is excellent to serve with fruit or ice cream (it’s wonderful with Miss Beecher’s Strawberry Ice Cream). Ice if desired. It is also suitable to use in Trifle.

Angel Cake is indeed a white sponge cake. Other early twentieth century cook books contain similar recipes, under the names “Archangel Cake,” and “Angel’s Food.” This version is gossamer light, and delectably sweet.

Pans with a hollow tube going up from the centre, are supposed to diffuse the heat more equally through the middle of the cake.

~Leslie, Eliza. Miss Leslie’s Complete Cookery – Fifty-Ninth Edition. Philadelphia: Henry Carey Baird, 1861.