Angel Food Cakes Illustrated

My Grandma is turning 81 in a few days, so we made plans to travel to San Antonio on Sunday for a celebratory brunch. A few minutes and one google search later, I had also made secret plans to surprise her with a homemade version of her very favorite angel food cake. Now I'd never made angel food cake before, but I'm an excellent reader of directions and the science of baking is usually a good fit for my need for precise, don't-you-dare-stray-from-this recipes. I printed off a recipe I found online and made plans for angel food magic on Saturday afternoon while JP was coaching his swim lessons.

Here's my step-by-step, partially illustrated guide:

Step 1: Find your resident superhero and task him with keeping the kitchen clear of bad guys so you can focus on the separating of eggs, because you just re-read the recipe, and holy crap there is a lot of egg separating required and you can't have any distractions.

Step 2: Find your sous chef and tell her about her new job - doesn't she look excited?

Step 3: Gather your ingredients. You'll need 1.5 cups of egg whites, 1 cup of granulated sugar, 1.25 cups of powdered sugar, 1 cup of flour, 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 tsp. almond flavoring, 1/4 tsp. salt, and 1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar. You will also need a special Angel Food Cake pan, which I ran in to Target to buy on Friday night on our way back from dinner, something to sift the flour and sugar, and something with a motor to beat the egg whites (you could probably do it by hand, but you would have to be stronger than me).

Step 3.5: Tell your sous chef to stop crawling on the dogs; your hands must be clean to bake a cake.

Step 4: Separate your egg whites until they total 1.5 cups and let them sit at room temperature. Combine your flour and powdered sugar and sift it 3x. After time 1, hit your powdered sugar bag so it falls over and looks like either snow or powdered cocaine, depending on who you're asking.

Step 4.5:Take a break and clean it up before your sous chef, superhero, or dogs get high (on the sugar).

Step 5: Now that everything is clean and your vacuum is clogged with powder, continue with the sifting. Add your flavorings to the egg whites and get everything organized to start beating them while slowly adding the granulated sugar. According to the recipe, stiff peaks should form.

Step 5.5: Tell your sous chef to stop sucking on the cabinet knobs, the powder is all gone, and send your superhero upstairs to take his nap.

Step 6: Settle for semi-stiff peaks.

Step 7, not pictured: Gently fold in the flour and powdered sugar mixture and spoon into ungreased angel food pan. Put in 350-degree oven for 40-45 minutes.

Step 7.5: Note that your sous chef is falling down on the job. Fire her, give her big hugs, and tuck her in bed.

Step 7.75: While cake is baking, get email from Grandpa saying Grandma is super sick with stomach virus so visit is canceled. Send Grandma lots of love and wish you'd procrastinated a bit on baking the cake.

Step 8: Remove cake from oven and immediately flip upside down on something that will allow air to flow under neath while cooling (I used a raised cooling rack and it worked fine).

Step the Last: While both kids are sleeping and husband is still coaching, eat cake with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. Praise your ability to follow directions and vow to never eat store bought angel food cake again.

The Sequel: Grandma is feeling much better today, so we're planning the birthday visit for next Saturday afternoon. Angel Food Cake part II will be happening next Saturday morning- hopefully skipping the part where I spilled all the powdered sugar, but keeping everything else the same because the cake was delicious!