Incorporating fruit into angel food cake. Have some questions!

[Sandi Jones]

I made my first ever home-made angel food cake. I used http://www.midwestliving.com/recipe/raspberry-swirl-angel-food-cake/ and the cake itself is delicious. Egg whites whipped up beautifully, and the outside had a nice crust, while the inside was super-tender. However, the massive holes where the raspberry swirl was added were a little problematic...

 

 

And ideas/advice on how to avoid this in the future?

[Smithy]

Hmm. It looks as though you didn't keep the berries away from the edges of the pan as instructed. Do you think that's what happened? I've never tried making something like this, and - to be honest - don't know how I would go about doing the swirling they describe to eliminate air pockets around the berries without (a) moving them to the edge of the pan or (b) collapsing the egg whites. I notice, also, that you seem to have used a Bundt pan (or equivalent, with rounded cross-section) instead of an angel food pan, which is more angular. I don't know whether that makes a difference. Some much more experienced baker will be along soon with more ideas, I'm sure.

Welcome to eGullet!

[Mjx]

Berries in batter can be a huge nuisance, since it can be tricky to control where they end up, and tend to want to sink as far down as possible – the eventual top of your cake – no matter what you do, and this recipe may be fundamentally flawed/untested (the lack of any salt is a red flag, to me); you could try making this again, and just spooning the raspberry gloop over the top of the batter, and letting it sink where it will; it should be less far down than this.

[Lisa Shock]

I've never made an angel food cake with a separate filling item. If I were going to do so, berry juice would not be my #1 choice.

 

The recipe has you crushing the berries and using the resulting juice. Problem is, that juice could have wildly differing %s of water and acid, etc. It's also thin and runny, there's no way it would ever wind up looking like that photo.

 

I'm going to agree with Mjx and call this out as an untested recipe. And, furthermore, I think the photo is a picture of a cake made with small, flat dabs of seedless jam/jelly, probably professional grade bakery jam.

 

I only trust a few websites for recipes (hope I can recall them all, forgive me if I miss a couple, other members will undoubtedly chime in with a few more):

 

Cook's Illustrated -behind a paywall, but everything is tested

Epicurious - has the stockpile of Gourmet Magazine's recipes

Food & Wine

Ideas In Food

Raymond Blanc's blog

Real Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum

Bread Hitz

 

Welcome to eG, hope your future baking projects work out better than this one!

[pbear]

The simple solution to this problem is to treat the cake and fruit separately.  Indeed, in my understanding, that's the usual method with angel food cake.  So, make the cake plain and prepare a coulis to spoon over each slice.

[cakewalk]

What everyone else said. Also, this recipe seems to have an enormous amount of sugar, even for an angel food cake (which is generally very sweet). But 2 1/2 cups of sugar to one cup of flour is very imbalanced, and might be contributing to the problems you had. I don't add anything to angel food cakes except some citrus rind and a bit of juice, or some vanilla. It's got enough work to do to rise without creating obstacles, and I think pbear's suggestion is a good one. Lately I started making angel food cakes in my pullman loaf pan. It fits perfectly (large pullman) and I like the way it slices much better than cake from an angel food pan.

[Sandi Jones]

Thank you everyone for all of your replies. All useful information! The berries I used were fresh out of the garden, and thus at their juiciest possible state. If I made this again, I'd boil down the berries to thicken them, and mix them with a small amount of batter. That way I'd still get the swirl effect.
 

 

What everyone else said. Also, this recipe seems to have an enormous amount of sugar, even for an angel food cake (which is generally very sweet). But 2 1/2 cups of sugar to one cup of flour is very imbalanced, and might be contributing to the problems you had. I don't add anything to angel food cakes except some citrus rind and a bit of juice, or some vanilla. It's got enough work to do to rise without creating obstacles, and I think pbear's suggestion is a good one. Lately I started making angel food cakes in my pullman loaf pan. It fits perfectly (large pullman) and I like the way it slices much better than cake from an angel food pan.

It was my first angel food cake that wasn't from a boxed mix. I had accidentally bought an extra dozen eggs and wanted to try it. The texture is absolutely right, and the taste is was WAY better than a boxed mix. Cakewalk, do you have an angel cake recipe you'd recommend? I'd love one with less sugar.

[cakewalk]

You don't need no stinking boxed mix!

 

This is the basic recipe I use (adapted from joepastry.com). If I bake something that uses an extra yolk or two, I put the egg white in a zip-lock bag and freeze it. When I have 12-13 whites, I make an angel food cake. This one has a bit less sugar than the average angel food cake, but it works well and I like it better because it's less cloying. You're very fortunate to have raspberries in your garden! Still, I'd keep them out of the cake and follow pbear's suggestion.

 

1 cup cake flour (4.5 oz)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups (12 large) egg whites, room temp
1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp lemon zest (or orange, or whatever)

 

Preheat to 350 F. Whisk flour and salt. In mixer bowl with whisk, whisk egg whites until foamy, then add cream of tartar. Whisk until soft peaks, then slowly add the sugar and then the flavorings, whipping just to barely stiff peaks.

Sift 1/3 of the flour mixture onto egg whites, fold it in, add another 1/3 of the flour, fold, etc. until all flour is incorporated.

Scrape batter into pan, tap lightly on the counter and/or gently run a fork through center of batter to allow any large air bubbles to escape.

Bake about 40 min until cake is golden and springs back when lightly pressed.

Invert pan and allow it to cool, upside-down, completely. (Do not forget this step!)

Run a knife around edges of the pan and around the tube to release it. The cake is best the day it’s made.

[Blether]

How did you puree your rasps, and how thick was the result?  Is it possible you could apply the rings of puree with either a flat piping nozzle or a small, flat brush?  They didn't bother with the swirl effect in that photo, as far as I can see.

[caroled]

As I read the instructions in the link, there were only 3/4C berries, crushed and strained and of that only 1/4 C of resulting juice/pulp to be used.

It looks as though you used much more of the juice/fruit and all?? How much did you actually put in the cake? I'd likely try the recipe again to the letter as written, or as you mentioned, to fold the juice into the batter and then swirl into the overall batter before the baking.

Good luck with your next try. And welcome to the forum!

Edited July 29, 2014 by caroled (log)

[Sandi Jones]

Thanks yet again everyone!! I feel quite welcomed here. I can only do two posts a day, for now, so I'm sorry I haven't replied earlier. I pressed the raspberries through a sieve, as recommended, but I think there was just too much liquid. I posted on the Midwest Living site to ask a question about it, but no replies yet. 
So, if I do this again:

1. Try Cakewalk's less-sugar recipe.
2. Boil down raspberries to make them thicker, and add juice to a small amount of batter for the swirls.

The cake is LONG GONE. Despite the holes, it was delicious!