Mood Food — Chocolate Angel Food Cake with Berries

“The key to flying is to throw yourself at the ground and miss” — Arthur Dent The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Sometimes life is about taking risks and trusting your instincts. In fact, I have found that life is very often about these things. We become complacent. We deal with stresses in life, some that we don’t have to, simply because they are the norm. Well to heck with that! Sometimes it is time to learn to fly. Although I do not recommend throwing yourself at the ground (as missing is unlikely), I do recommend trusting your gut and allowing the past experiences of your own life be a model for your future. Some of us, albeit few, do learn from our mistakes. The topic of mistakes brings me to this week's recipe. I realize that I have been on a big dessert kick lately; apparently I just really want sugar.

Now, with all my talk above about stresses in life you would think I was planning some philosophical topic. Oh no, I am talking about the frustrations of angel food cake. I spend a lot of time talking about the things I can cook, the things I enjoy cooking and things that are relatively easy for me make. Let’s talk about something difficult for me. Angel food cake is bane of my existence. I know, there is nothing to it, literally. It shouldn't even be a cake, or called a cake. It should be called a puff or a cloud or that stupid sinking hockey puck in my oven. Lately however I have decided to conquer the cloud. Let "Battle: Angel Food" begin. Now I realize I could go buy a box of angel food cake and it would most likely come out light and fluffy and delicious. But that would be easy and I have issues with easy. Now I do not want plain angel cake, I want chocolate. However that involves adding ingredients to pastry, uh oh! I have discovered that this cake in particular hates being tampered with. Adding anything to it seemed as effective as adding bricks to your feet before swimming. Now with a little experimentation and some expletives I think I may have done it. So here it is ... Meegan-proof chocolate strawberry angel food cake.


Equipment List
Whisk
Mixer
Large bowl for mixing
Small bowl for sifting
Angel food cake pan
Parchment paper
Sifter (anything with fine mesh)
Oven at 350

Ingredient List
1 ¾ cup fine sugar (not pretty sugar, fine sugar, if you can’t find it give the sugar a spin in the food processor, does the same trick)
¼ tsp salt
1 cup cake flour, sifted (if you do not use cake flour for anything else, use it for this)
12 egg whites (the closer to room temperature the better, really it's very important)
⅓  cup warm water
1 tsp vanilla
½ c cocoa
1 ½ half tsp cream of tartar

For the berries

12 strawberries cut in half long ways (extras for garnish)
½ bag milk chocolate chips
2 tblsp heavy cream (2% milk will work but only use 1 tblsp)

Putting it all Together

Strawberries first. Take the halved berries and lay them on the parchment paper. Take the half bag of milk chocolate chips and pour them in a microwave safe bowl. Now I know the chefs all say never to melt chocolate in the microwave, only in a double boiler. Well, they are wrong. Do it 10 seconds at a time and stir after every 10-second rotation. Even if they do not look melted. They will hold their shape for a ridiculously long time even if they are molten lava in the middle. After they are melted add your cream and stir until smooth. Take a spoon and dip it in the chocolate and shake the spoon back and forth over the berries, one at a time. Don’t worry about being messy, that’s what the paper is for. Put them in the fridge to set while you make the cake. Keep a few berries to the side if you want to garnish, these will not get chocolate.

In the small bowl sift the cocoa powder. Set aside.

In the large bowl, use your whisk to combine egg whites, water, vanilla and cream of tartar. After 2 minutes, switch to a mixer. Slowly add the sugar. Once you have achieved medium peaks, sift enough of the flour mixture in to dust the top of the foam. Using a spatula fold in gently. Continue until all of the flour mixture is incorporated. Then do the same with the cocoa.

Carefully spoon mixture into an ungreased angel food cake pan. Bake for 35 minutes before checking for doneness with a skewer or a long stick or whatever will get half way down the cake. When the cake is done it should look dry on top and the stick should come out clean.

Cool upside down on cooling rack or large glass bowl for at least an hour before removing from pan. This is really important. This cake, if treated properly, will (unlike so many other things) defy gravity.

Once the cake is cool, slice and serve with the berries and some whipped cream. I would love to say I made the whipped topping as well but frankly it is Reddi Whip.

That’s it. It takes a little prep work but is so worth it.

Next Week: Maybe breads; it’s time to get ready for fall and winter food.