Aside from the drawbacks of being left with a challenging-to-clean pan and 14 egg yolks, Chocolate Angel Food Cake is worth trying. It's especially worth trying if you already know how to make angel food cake and are just in the mood for something different. If you've never made this type of cake, you might want to start with a more traditional vanilla flavored one.
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Is Chocolate Flavor Worth It?
But if you are ready to try the chocolate flavor, it's good! The only downside is that this cocoa-heavy cake leaves you with a pan even more difficult to clean than the vanilla flavor. Is it worth it? Yes! Like vanilla flavor, chocolate angel food cake is a perfect blank slate for adding plain or flavored whipped cream and whatever type of berries are in season. To date, I’ve made the chocolate variety once as a loaf and once as a full cake. I’m still partial to the vanilla flavor, but this was an interesting change.
If you like the idea but don't have the right pan (or don't need a full batch) and want to try making chocolate angel food cake in a loaf pan, here's a link to Loaf Pan version.
Recipe
Chocolate Angel Food Cake
Ingredients
- 14 large large egg whites
- ¾ cup cake flour (84 grams)
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (40 grams)
- 1 ½ cups sugar divided use (300 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoons cream of tartar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Put the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and bring them to room temperature.
- Sift together the cake flour, cocoa powder and ¾ cup (150 grams) of the sugar. After sifting, stir well and make double-sure everything is well mixed. Set aside.
- Add the cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat with the whisk attachment until frothy. Continue beating, increasing speed gradually, until the egg whites are soft, but not quite stiff. Continue beating, gradually adding the remaining sugar one tablespoon at a time, until the egg whites are thick and billowy. Beat in the salt and vanilla.
- With mixer on lowest speed, gradually add the sifted flour mixture. When flour mixture is fully blended, remove from the stand and with a heavy duty scraper, fold in any unevenly mixed cocoa mixture.
- Scrape the cake batter into the angel food cake pan. It should come a little over half way up the sides.
- Bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn upside down on the pan’s legs. Allow the cake to cool for about an hour, then carefully slide a knife between the edges of the pan and the cake and push the cake out. Slide the knife between the cake and the pan bottom to loosen.
- Let the cake cool completely.
Anna says
Sara, I love those old tunneled out angel food cake recipes. There's one in particular that I need to make. It's a tunneled out angel food cake filled with a mixture of strawberries, whipped ream and condensed milk.
Sara says
After reading some of the comments, I thought of how my late Mother-in-law used to make Angel Food Cakes. She would tunnel them out and put pudding in the tunnel, then she would frost the cake with a whipped cream frosting. Also, don't forget the "torn" angel food cakes, mixed with jello or pudding in a bowl and then poured into a 9" x 13" pan, or placed back into the Angel Food Cake Pan, lined with waxed paper. You can also fill them with ice cream, after they are tunneled out. Also, cherry pie fillings.,,this off the top of my head. Thank you for your recipes. I love your honest comments on your recipes.
Sue says
There are directions for the freeze dried fruit whipped cream on page 89 of Bravetart. I’ve done it twice with freeze dried raspberries. It is so incredibly good. You’ve got to try it.
I’m glad Cindy mentioned cherry angel food cake. I had that as a kid too and remember it fondly. That’s a memory that might have faded forever if she hadn’t mentioned it.
Anna says
Cindy, I may try that very soon since I happen to have some leftover Maraschino cherries. Thanks for the idea! Anybody have a recipe that calls for 42 egg yolks??? 🙂
Sue, I'm not familiar with fruit flavored whipped cream. I was thinking mocha whipped cream or something like that.
Cindy Deatsman says
If you want another variation, my mother made cherry angel food cake. She would use a scissors to cut up marachino cherries very very fine, and drain them on paper towels before adding them to the cake batter at the end. Save some of the cherry juice to use as liquid in a basic cake glaze recipe.
Sue says
I’ve always liked angel food cake. I’ve never made a chocolate one though! When you mentioned flavored whipped cream I immediately thought of that whipped cream made with freeze dried fruit. It would be amazing with angel food cake.