Angel food cake for Mother's Day? Some might see it as punishment. I taste possibilities.
At a time when the nation is watching its waistline in virtually every sense, this light, airy dessert lets a mom have her cake and eat it, too.
Made from scratch, perhaps scented with a bit of rosewater or lemon zest, angel food cake is lovely and dialed down, a dessert without regrets. Add a delicate glaze, a berry garnish, a dab of whipped cream or a sweet sabayon sauce, and you've created options for the lady of the day to add on as she pleases.
Or take angel food cake right over the top. It's a delicious vehicle for French toast - the airy slices absorb an egg mixture beautifully, and stay moist and fluffy on the griddle. It's a great way to offer dessert for Mother's Day breakfast. (We adapted a recipe that will use up some of the egg yolks you may have left over from making angel food cake, if you like.)
You can also stuff angel food cake with preserves or lemon curd, glaze, and then frost with whipped cream. Or cube it and build a luscious trifle.
Because it's made without butter - its structure comes from egg whites - the typical angel food cake has no fat or cholesterol, and only about 150 calories a slice. That's before you've added frills to your cake, of course, so be careful before you pile on the whipped cream or the buttery lemon curd. Fresh fruit makes a healthful, pretty accompaniment.
If time and money are a factor (using 12 egg whites, the amount for the typical homemade angel food cake, can seem like a waste) and kids want to help, these angel-food-as-base creations needn't take long. A quick version made from a good box mix or bakery cake will work just fine.
Making your own angel food cake seems worth it to us, though, if the cake is the main attraction. For best results, use cake flour, say a number of cookbook authors; its lower protein content will give you a lighter, fluffier cake without deflating egg whites.
The secret to cookbook writer Roy Finamore's unusual version - flavored with Chinese five-spice powder and finished with a maple glaze - is sifting the dry ingredients together four times to "aerate" the flour. The flour mixture is sifted again over the wet ingredients just before being folded into the batter. (If the spices sound too exotic for Mother's Day, Finamore offers a more traditional variation, scented with lemon.)
