Until a few weeks ago, I had never made an angel food cake. Whaaaat? I know, right?
I have my own chickens, I love sweets, I can bake up a storm and I have never even attempted it. Why? Because to me, angel food cakes have always been the loafer of the cake world. Boring. Plain. Overused. The many times I’ve had it, it’s always been store bought, drenched in slimy store bought “glaze” or used as a base for sad out of season strawberries. A “healthy” dessert. Blah. Please, smother mine in three cups of whipped cream, some fresh raspberries and some shaved chocolate. Okay, now we’re talking. Oh, does that defeat the purpose of the whole egg white based cake thing? Yeah… so you see my dilemma.
But then came the day when I looked in the refrigerator and saw four dozen eggs. We’d had a bit of a backup on egg eating and an explosion of egg production. Damn those unpredictable hens. So there were choices to be made. What recipe uses a billion eggs? Cheesecake? Zabaglione? Frittata? Omelettes? While these recipe use at least four or six eggs, it didn’t quite use up the dozen or so I had my mind to get rid of. Oh sure I could sell them, but I have trouble parting with my hard won eggs. Even produce of the kind people strive to get rid of in the summer (zucchinis?) I hoard them. My basement right now is filled with pumpkins that I refused to give away before Halloween for fear people would carve them instead of eat them.
And so I came to the thought that I needed to use the whites and yolks separately. Whites….hmmm. Meringue. Barf. Macarons? Failed too many times. Pavlova? I wouldn’t even know where to start. So I settled on the ubiquitous angel food cake. Like, hello, everyone has made it. I should too! I even had a bundt pan that I could use…I thought. So I started my cake, I whipped my whites, I diligently folded them with flour and cream of tartar. I poured them into said ungreased bundt pan and I shoved them ever so undelicately into my top oven (there’s enough room for it to expand right? It won’t expand that much right? There’s no leaveners…)
When the burning smell attracted me to turn the oven light on, I saw my cake had flung itself into the top elements of the oven. I opened the oven (is that bad with angel food cake?) and scraped as much of the cake back onto the barely cooked centre and shoved into the ice cold bottom oven. I figured it would be fine. 25 minutes or so later..it was done!
I popped it out of the oven, hung it upside down on the neck of a bottle and awaited. I picked at the delicious crispy bits that peeked out of the pan. Damn, that was a million times better than store bought!
An hour or so later I pried it out of the ungreased bundt pan with a bread knife, as it had not come out on it’s own. The rest of the cake was pretty blasé. The best part was the crispy bottom I had eaten without even a second thought.
So now I had a dozen egg yolks to contend with. I made sure to include pasta in my plans, but what of the other six yolks? And then it came to me. Why not reunite these lost soul egg whites with their dear departed brethren yolks? And so I hatched (HA! pun!) the idea of curd. This may have been one of the best reunion stories of the year (in my kitchen).
The best part about this recipe is you can use any citrus you have on hand. Grapefruits, oranges, limes, lemons, Meyer Lemons, tangerines, clementines, mandarins, kumquats….you get the idea.
One year ago: How to Make Goat Cheese
Two years ago: Lamb Stew
Citrus Curd
Yield: 1 1/2 cups
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar (note: I like my curd a little on the tart side. Increase to 1 cup if you like yours sweet)
1/2 tsp vanilla
juice of 2 lemons (or Meyer lemons) and 2 limes (you could also use one orange or one grapefruit instead of 2 of the lemons or limes), about 3/4 cup liquid
zest of half a lemon
1/2 cup butter, cold and cubed
1. In a small pot, bring 2″ of water to a slow simmer.
2. In a bowl that will fit over the pot and fit snugly without touching the water, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and vanilla until very smooth. Whisk in the citrus juices and zest.
3. Place the bowl on top of the simmering water and begin to stir constantly with a rubber spatula (rubber scraper). Continue to cook this way for 8-10 minutes or until the mixture is thickened. (To test the thickness, run your finger over the spatula after stirring and if the space where you ran your finger remains clean, it’s thick enough. If the curd comes together, continue to stir.)
4. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter one piece at a time.
5. Pour curd into a large bowl or a few smaller bowls and cover in plastic, pressing the plastic directly onto the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming. Place in refrigerator. Will keep for 2-3 weeks.
6. Serve the curd over ice cream, as a filling in cakes (mixed with buttercream frosting) or pour it over an angel food cake.
Similarly delicious recipes from other fabulous food blogs:
Pineapple Curd from T and T Kitchen
Passionfruit Curd from Eden Kitchen
Lemon Curd Macarons from Bake Bike Blog
Raspberry and Thyme Curd from London Bakes
Cranberry Curd from Kitchen Confidante
Blueberry Curd from Manu’s Menu
This looks fabulous! I love the contrast of colors with the cake! Beautiful darling!
Thank you Brian! I figured the blue would contrast nicely too.
Yes! I needed to make a sugar/egg white coating for candied pecans last week, and I had 12 egg yolks just sitting there. I made lemon curd. Best use. And for the record, the pecans and curd are all gone now. Just 7 days later 🙁
Huzzah for citrus curd, my favorite thing in the world… lemony, silky and I dig that pucker Lemon gives me – my idea of heaven! I randomly found a bag of Meyer Lemons at the grocery store, unsure if it was even in season(well, Hubs did, but I’m gonna be the one harvesting it’s loveliness:-) I see this curd in my future – cake, shmake! It may be just in a bowl!
Oh yes, straight out of the bowl is ideal really.
1. Love the color of that curd.
2. Great post.
3. Why am I commenting in list form?
Too many xmas to do lists. Oh…
4. Mwah.
1. I love lists.
2. Thank you so much!
3. I wish I could share an egg nog latte with a mountain of whipped cream on it with you right now.
4. Mwah!
This looks delicious! When angel food cake tastes kind of boring, I toast it – you generate that lovely brown crust all over again.
Had me laughing recalling when you were making this. The string of profanities coming from the kitchen would make a seasoned sailor blush. I just laughed.. probably didn’t help did it?
Great pictures Elizabeth!
Very intresting post, I needed to make a sugar/egg white coating for candied pecans last week, and I had 12 egg yolks just sitting there. I made lemon curd. Best use. Keep up good work, thanks for sharing.
Can you tell me how you shot that picture?
Sure Paul, which one?
I often have egg whites hanging around most recently because I made two large jars of lemon curd. There are so many uses for it, and like your angel cake, so much nicer than the bought stuff.
Elizabeth, the first two with eggs basket…..and the cutting board.very crafty Excellent.
What a great recipe! I just found your blog, and already I’m a big fan :-). Love both the photos and the recipes! And it’s always great to find great food bloggers here in BC :-). I am going to look for a way to subscribe and will be back soon.
Hi Cooking Rookie. The RSS feed subscription is in the right hand side of the margin on the top. It is shaped like a steak.
Ah, you had us all in stitches! I can readily recall your Aunt Annes first attempt at an Angle food cake and as I recall the situation was very similar. Amazing the words you find you know isn’t it?
Wow, what a save of an angel food cake! At least you attempted to make one and when it didn’t quite go as plan you hatched (no pun intended) another plan that made everything perfect.
I have never actually made angel food cake, but I’m strangely terrified of it. And, your story isn’t making me want to give it a try any time soon. Though, I do love lemon curd. And, I have about 8 egg yolks hanging out in my fridge right now just waiting to be used.
I think I will try the earlier commenters idea of toasting it next time. It’s a *forehead smack* moment really.
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