Angel Food Cake with Chocolate Glaze

Lake Tahoe is beautiful in the snow, isn’t it? We spent last weekend in a cozy cabin, celebrating both Dustin and his sister Courtney’s birthdays. While Dustin was snowboarding on Saturday, Courtney and I made this cake, using a recipe that she had requested from a coworker. Despite the elevation, and the cabin’s lack of a flour sifter and heavy cream (I decided to wing it and use milk and butter in the glaze, but it didn’t thicken up quite as well), we were happy with how it turned out. It was a little tougher than your ideal angel food cake (due to the sifting issue), but the taste was wonderful. So after making snow angels or instigating snow ball fights, or skiing, or whatever it is you do in the snow, come home to a warm kitchen, make some hot cocoa and cut yourself a slice of this light, flavorful cake.

(From The Food Network)

For the Cake:

2 cups sifted superfine sugar
1 1/3 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 cups egg whites at room temp (we used 10 large eggs)
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup coarsely grated semisweet chocolate

For the Glaze:

1/2 lb. semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 CUP + 1 TBS. heavy cream

• Preheat oven to 350. Combine 1/2 cup of the sugar with the flour and sift them together 4 times. Set aside.

• Place egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar in a large metal bowl. Beat on high speed with a hand mixer until the whites form medium-firm peaks, about 1 minute.

• With the mixer on medium speed, add the remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar by sprinkling it over the beaten egg whites. Beat on high for a few minutes until thick and shiny.

• Add the vanilla and continue to beat until very thick, about 1 minute more.

• Sift 1/4 of the flour mixture over the egg whites and fold it very carefully into the batter with a rubber spatula. Continue adding the flour by fourths, sifting and folding until it’s all incorporated. Fold in the grated chocolate.

• Pour the batter into an ungreased 10 inch tube pan, smooth the top, and bake 35-45 minutes, until it springs back to the touch. Remove the cake from oven and invert pan on a cooling rack. When cool, run a thin, flexible knife around the cake to remove it from the pan (it might stick to the sides of the pan a little, but the glaze will cover any imperfections. Don’t worry).

• For the glaze, place the chocolate chips and cream in a heat proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until chocolate melts. Pour the chocolate over the top of the cooled cake to cover the top completely and allowing it to drizzle down the sides. Slice and serve.