Deliciously Unorthodox

Light, soft, fluffy angel food cake. Such a delicate, yet temperamental, cake that is well worth the bake! I have never been asked to make this cake before now, but I was more than up for the challenge. Normally, these are a summertime cake, topped with whipped cream and berries. A light, beautiful dessert that won't hold you down like the humid heat experienced in the summer. I was surprised to be asked to make one in January, but I was thrilled nonetheless! This special customer of mine gave me full creative freedom, as long as Butterfinger candies were somehow incorporated. I did my research and got to planning.

I read so many articles and compared even more recipes. The most important instructions when it comes to angel food cake: do not grease the pan because the cake will not stick to the pan and rise like it's supposed to; do not add anything extra into the batter because, again, it will not bake how it should; and invert the pan after it comes out of the oven. The last thing you want is a flat angel food cake! I'm not going to lie; I was very stressed making this cake. I was so worried it wasn't going to come out like it should. And even after it baked, and I finally got it out of the pan, I was still worried about topping the cake. My method and decorating, I would consider a little unorthodox compared to how you would typically picture an angel food cake. But it turned out gorgeous, all the same!

There weren't too many ingredients to pre-measure, so I started off by separating a dozen eggs. It's best to do this when they are still cold. You don't have the risk of the yolks breaking. Then, let them sit to get to room temperature. This makes the whisking process easier. Waiting on the eggs, I had to make my own cake flour because I didn't have any. Luckily, I only needed one cup of it. Pro tip: if you take one cup of all-purpose flour, remove two tablespoons of said flour and replace with cornstarch, you have cake flour! Pretty cool, huh? The flour and granulated sugar got sifted into a bowl, while the egg whites sat in a separate bowl, almost room temperature. Trying to fill my time, I opened and crushed so many candy bars, readying for the buttercream. Yes, buttercream on an angel food cake. Don't worry, it'll make sense!

Finally, my eggs reach room temperature, and I can begin the whisking process. Now, I don't know if you have ever whisked egg whites by hand, but it is no easy feat. I didn't even get to soft peaks before my arm was about to fall off, and remembering I have a hand mixer! Very thankful for that. The egg whites are detrimental to this cakes process. You want to whip them until you get soft peaks before adding a cup of sugar. After adding the sugar, the mixer speed gets turned up and the eggs get whipped until they're stiff and glossy. Trust me, you'll know when you get there. Now this is where it gets tricky. You have to gently fold in the rest of the ingredients, so air isn't knocked out of the batter. Air is the source that makes this cake so light and fluffy. Hence, whipping the egg whites into submission.

You start by gently folding vanilla into the eggs. Then, you add the dry mix into the eggs in increments of four. Gently folding the ingredients completely. Take your time and make sure everything is incorporated. The last thing you want is to see raw flour showing as you pour your batter into the pan. Which leads me to the next step. Pouring the batter into the pan. I saw many recipes showing tube pans instead of bundt pans. All I have is a bundt pan, so that's what I used, and I didn't have much trouble with it. Just make sure NOT to grease the pan! As with every other part of this recipe, slowly and gently pour the batter into the pan and smooth the batter in the pan.

This baked for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. You want to bake it until it is golden brown and springs back when poked. Once it's out of the oven, you want to flip the pan over while it cools. This is so the cake doesn't fall flat as it rests. Mine cooled for about two hours before I got it out of the pan. You want to carefully run a knife around the edges of the pan to help break it loose. Mine stuck to the pan a little, but not enough to break the cake apart. It looked perfect! I let it cool overnight before the real fun started: decorating!

I pondered and sketched ideas about this cake for what seemed like days. Debating the best ways to incorporate candy into an angel food cake. I finally came up with the best solution! I was going to do a chocolate ganache drizzle over the top of the cake, with a Butterfinger dust on top. I wanted to take it a step further and make a buttercream, too. So, I took my normal vanilla buttercream recipe, added a scoop of peanut butter, and more candy pieces. Voila! A delicious, light and fluffy, flavorful frosting! Now, the question was, how do I want to pipe the buttercream? Dallops? No. Swirls? Rosettes? Everything I thought of just didn't quite fit. Eventually, I came up with the perfect pattern to pipe atop the cake! I did an alternating swirl border and boy, did it look perfect! Especially considering my child was totally over sitting in the high-chair eating bananas... Needless to say, the cake ingredients weren't the only thing being cleaned up in the kitchen.

To finish off the cake, I cut up more candy bar pieces and added them on top of the piped frosting. I used the rest of the tiny pieces to fill in some empty spaces, and I took a step back to admire this creation. I was so very proud of myself. Not just because I delivered a beautiful, delicious cake, which looked just as I had pictured in my head; but because I overcame the anxiety, and challenge, of baking something new, and different.

Moral of this story: don’t be afraid to challenge yourself; don’t be afraid to believe in yourself, either. Great things happen when you put your heart and soul into what you truly believe and work for. I was nervous every step of the way making this cake and it turned out just as I had hoped. Even though I was completely nervous, my family can attest, I still believed that I could make something amazing! We all need to challenge and push ourselves more often. To step out of the comfort zone and do something that hasn’t been done before. You never know what you’re capable of until you try!

Thank you so much for stopping by and a huge thanks to the person who received this cake! Thank you for the opportunity to bake for you and to challenge myself to do something new! It was such a fun creation, it came out gorgeous, and now I know I can make angel food cakes! Stay tuned for this recipe and more uplifting stories. Take a peek at the socials for exclusive shots from this bake. See you next time! <3