I love angel food cake but I’ve never made it before and actually I havent had it since for years, maybe since I was a child. I’m certain that I remember my mother making angel food cake out of a pack too so maybe I havent even had real Angel food cake!

This months Baketogether was Angel Food Cake, arranged by Abby Dodge, using her Tangerine Angel Food Cake recipe when I saw this my first thought was “yes, I love Angel food cake!” I thought of how I would “switch it up” as Abby encourages us to do. Lemon would be my theme, I was looking forward to this! Last weekend, for Easter, I made a different lemon cake that required a lemon curd filling, using 10 egg yolks, this meant I had 10 egg whites ready for the Baketogether, serendipity at work! Then through twitter I found out that the bundt pan I had intended on using wasnt the right pan! In my mind a bundt pan and an angel food cake pan were the same thing, this is not the case, my memory was playing with me again! A few tweets and a forwarded article later and it seemed that although not advisable an angel food cake could be made in a bundt with limited success. What did I have to lose? Anyway those egg whites needed using!

I followed Abby’s instructions exactly, the only difference was swapping in the zest of a lemon for her tangerine zest.  I let it completely cool upside down resting on 4 cans of soup! When it was cool it had shrunk away a little from the middle, I used a small thin spatula and ran it around the top then gently slid it up and down all the way around. I put a plate over the bottom of the pan and turned it upside down and that baby slipped right out! I was so pleased! True it’s not perfect and it has a few little rustic edges, but it’s not the disaster I had dreaded ! This cake is like eating a cloud! Amazingly light and fluffy with a subtle taste of lemon. Whether my mother’s angel food cake came out of a pack or not my memory served me well, I do love angel food cake!

To go with it I did another switch and rather than Abby’s caramel sauce I made a lemon sauce, inspired by the lemon curd I had made the week before. Thanks Abby for another great recipe and a great baketogether!

Lemon Angel Food Cake

See here for Abby’s recipe

Note, superfine sugar is caster sugar and confectioners sugar is icing sugar if making in UK.

Lemon Sauce

Ingredients

• 115 grams butter
• 150 grams caster sugar
• 50 ml water
• 50 ml lemon juice
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp of fresh lemon zest

1.  Put the butter, sugar, water, and lemon juice into a medium-sized pan, heat slowly whisking all the time.
2. When the butter is starting melt add the egg and zest, keep whisking. Heat slowly, constantly whisking until the mix comes to the boil and thickens. If too thick add a little more water, if not so thick don’t worry this firms up as it cools.
3. Sieve the sauce to remove any egg solids. Let cool before serving.