Vanilla Angel Food Cake

📝 Ingredients

• 10 egg whites at room temperature (about 330 g, from 10 eggs)
• 220 g caster sugar
• 90 g plain flour
• 30 g cornflour
• ½ lemon (for 1 tbsp juice)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt
• 250 g strawberries (to serve)
• 200 g plain skyr, 0 % fat (to serve)

🍴 Utensils

• Electric hand mixer
• Large mixing bowl
• Sieve
• Silicone spatula
• 24 cm angel cake tube tin
• Serrated knife

📖 Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 170 °C, conventional (no fan). Crack each egg over a small bowl to separate the white from the yolk before tipping the white into the large mixing bowl: the slightest trace of yolk would stop the whites from whipping up. Keep the yolks for another recipe.
2. Sift the flour, cornflour and half the sugar together into a bowl, then sift a second time. This double sifting makes the mixture very light and prevents lumps when folding it into the meringue.
3. Whisk the egg whites with the pinch of salt using an electric whisk on medium speed until foamy. Add the lemon juice and continue for about 2 minutes, until they form soft peaks that droop slightly.
4. Switch to high speed and add the rest of the sugar a spoonful at a time, then the vanilla. Stop as soon as the meringue is glossy and forms firm peaks that hold when you lift the whisk: over-whipped, it would turn grainy.
5. Sprinkle a quarter of the flour and sugar mixture over the meringue and fold it in with a silicone spatula, lifting the mixture from the bottom up while turning the bowl. Repeat three times with the rest, never stirring in circles: the batter must stay airy, with no streaks of flour.
6. Pour the batter into the ungreased tube tin (it needs to cling to the sides to rise), smooth the top, then run a knife blade through the batter in a circle to burst any large air bubbles.
7. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes without opening the door for the first 25 minutes, until the top is golden, dry to the touch and springs back when pressed lightly with a finger. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean.
8. As soon as it comes out of the oven, turn the tin upside down, resting on its feet or with the tube slipped over the neck of a bottle, and leave to cool completely for 1 hr 30 min. Without this step, the cake would collapse in on itself.
9. Run a thin blade around the sides and the tube to loosen the cake, then turn it out. Slice with the serrated knife using a gentle sawing motion without pressing down, and serve each slice with a spoonful of skyr and the strawberries, washed, hulled and quartered.