The Pink Whisk Brilliant Baking Step-by-Step Cake Making (12 page)

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Liquid pasteurised egg whites can be bought in cartons from the refrigerated section in the supermarket which saves you having 9 egg yolks to be used up. Alternatively use up leftover egg yolks to make custard (see
Troubleshooting
section).

4 Sift the flour onto the egg whites and gently fold in using a spatula or metal spoon, cutting through the pockets of flour, lifting and turning until everything is fully incorporated and any major lumps are worked out.

5 Place dollops of the angel mix into the angel cake/tube tin carefully, to avoid knocking out the air. The tin should not be greased, the mixture needs the sides of the cake tin to cling onto and climb up as it rises.

6 Roughly level the mixture with the back of a spoon and bake in the oven for 45 minutes until golden brown and springy when touched lightly with a fingertip.

7 Remove from the oven. Now, to stop it from sinking inwards take a small, squat glass bottle, a beer bottle is ideal. Turn the cake upside down. Trust me, it won’t fall out. Place the central tube of the cake tin over the neck of the bottle. Hold it steady and then gently let go. The tin should sit suspended on the top of the bottle. Allow it to cool completely like this.

8 Prepare the fruit. Reserve 8 stems of redcurrants for decoration, then hull and quarter the strawberries, and toss them together with the raspberries and remaining redcurrants.

9 Once the cake has fully cooled remove the tin from the bottle. Using a palette knife loosen the cake from the tin around the sides and gently flip out onto a serving plate. Pour the raspberry coulis over the cake and top with the fruit. Finally lay the reserved redcurrant stems over the top and serve.

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Don’t use a plastic bottle for inverting the Angel Cake – it’ll melt with the heat from the tin!

Orange Angel

Make a citrus Angel using grated orange zest which perfumes the cake beautifully, or make it lemon if you prefer and finish simply with orange icing for a less dressy affair.

Makes one 27cm (10
³
⁄
₄
in) round cake

Prep: 30 minutes plus cooling

Bake: 45 minutes

Oven: 160°c (fan)/180°c/350°F/Gas Mark 4

Ingredients

Cake

100g (3
¹
⁄
₂
oz) plain (all-purpose) flour

9 egg whites (approx. 310ml/10fl oz)

Zest of 1 orange

1
¹
⁄
₂
tsp vinegar (malt or white wine)

220g (8oz) caster (superfine) sugar

Topping

150g (5
¹
⁄
₂
oz) icing (confectioners) sugar, sifted

Juice from 1 orange

Zest from 1 orange (optional)

Equipment

Angel Cake/Tube/Ring tin (pan) approx. 27cm (10
³
⁄
₄
in) diameter, 11.5cm (4
¹
⁄
₂
in) depth

Stand / electric whisk

Chopping board

Glass beer bottle

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You do need a ring tin/Angel cake pan to bake an Angel in – the structure won’t hold up in a large round cake tin. Ring tins are widely available but you could use a Bundt tin instead. If you’re investing in a tin a silicone one does the job well and takes up very little cupboard space too.

1 Following the same method as the regular Angel Cake whip up the egg whites with just the vinegar, omitting the vanilla extract. Once the sugar has been incorporated whisk in the orange zest.

2 Once baked and cooled mix together a glacé icing combining the icing sugar with juice from the orange, adding just a little at a time until you reach a thick, pourable consistency. If you run out of juice, add a little water. Pour over the top of the Orange Angel and finish by grating over a little more orange zest. Serve.

Summer Fruit Genoise

Genoise sponges are the lightest type of cake you can make – they weigh almost nothing. A little bit tricky to do but follow the steps and you’ll be there in no time.

Makes one 20cm (8in) cake

Prep: 45 minutes plus cooling

Bake: 30–35 minutes

Oven:160°c (fan)/180°c/350°F/Gas Mark 4

Ingredients

Cake

8 eggs

250g (9oz) caster (superfine) sugar

100g (3
¹
⁄
₂
oz) butter, melted and cooled

200g (7oz) plain (all-purpose) flour

100g (3
¹
⁄
₂
oz) summer berries – blackberries, raspberries, blackcurrants etc

Filling and topping

350ml (12fl oz) double (heavy) cream

2 tbsp icing (confectioners) sugar

350g (12oz) summer berries

220g (8oz) blackcurrant preserve

Equipment

Electric hand mixer

Silicone spatula

3 × 20cm (8in) sandwich tins (layer cake pans)

1 Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan)/180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Grease and line the bases of three 20cm (8in) sandwich tins. Check the shelves of the oven, positioning them in the bottom half, making sure you can get all 3 tins in at the same time.

2 Place the eggs and the caster sugar in a large bowl – it does need to be large as the mixture doubles in volume. Using an electric hand mixer begin to whisk the eggs and sugar. Keep whisking: they will turn pale and fluffy but it will take between 5 and 10 minutes. When it’s ready the mixture will have doubled in size and as the mixture drops back down from the whisk into the bowl it should fall in a ribbon and the trail will stay visible in the bowl. It takes a while to get to this stage, don’t give up – just keep whisking!

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When whisking together the eggs and sugar you can speed things up a bit by placing the bowl on top of a pan of steaming water. It’s a bit of a balancing exercise but the heat helps them whisk up faster.

3 Ensure your butter is properly cooled – if it’s added red hot the cake mixture will instantly lose all of its volume and you’ll have a bowl of soup instead. Take a large spoonful of the cake mixture and add it to the cooled melted butter. Beat them together vigorously and add this back into the cake mix and fold in. Concentrate on the sides and base of the bowl to check the butter isn’t hiding in a pocket anywhere.