Who says you have to wait until summertime to enjoy this heavenly dessest? Try strawberries (soaked in a little sugar or agave) with homemade angel food cake. It’s fluffy goodness is the perfect balance to winter heavy meals.

Recipe adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Magazine

Ingredients

1 cup + 2 Tbls. cake flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cups white sugar
12 large egg whites
1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Eggs have to be room temperature. This makes them easier to beat to a fluffy white. Be sure to pull them from the refridgerator at least 30 minutes before use. Unless you’re in France and your already one step ahead.

2. Heat oven to 325 degrees.

3. Grind up your sugar. This seems an uncessary step…how much finer could sugar be? To the naked eye, not much, but toss the sugar in a food processor on high for a few minutes. It will keep the sugar from weighing down the eggs. Separate into two equal parts–one part in a bowl, the other in the food proccesor.

4. Add the cake flower the sugar left in the food processor. Pulse it for a second to blend the ingredients. Set aside.

5. Separate your eggs. Make sure you fully separate the yolks from from whites. Even a little bit of yellow in your whites will keep them from whipping to a fluffy peak. If you use your hand as a cradle, it helps.

6. Put the eggs whites in large mixing bowl, or in your stand mixer. You can do this by hand, but a mixer makes life easier. Add your cream of tartar. It helps stabilize the eggs.

7. Beat or whip the egg whites and tartar until white and frothy. Takes a few minutes.

8. Slowly add 1/2 your sugar (not the sugar and cake flour mixture) and beat the mixture for another 5 minutes, or until the egg whites form soft peaks.

9. Add the vanilla extract. Blend into ingredients.

10. Take the remaining flour and sugar mixture. Sift half of it into your beaten egg whites to remove any clumps.

11. Fold the sifted flour into the egg whites.

12. Repeat with the second half of flour and sugar mixture.

13. Transfer batter into ungreased tube pan .  Smooth down mixture with spatula so that it’s nice and even.

14. Transfer to oven, bake on lower-middle rack at 325 degrees for approx 40 minutes. You want the outside golden brown.

15.  When done, remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes.

16. Now it’s time to invert, and we don’t mean do some yoga. Take a bowl, turn it on it’s head so that you can rest the upside down tube pan on top. Flip your cake and let it rest on top of the bowl until it is completely cooled.

17. When it’s cool, turn the pan back over, and run a knife around the edges. Remove from pan.

18. Serve with fresh whipped cream and blueberries.