Last week the latest series of The Great British Bake Off got off to a cracking start! In Cake week the contestants had to make a sandwich cake as well as a showstopper chocolate cake. But what of the Technical Challenge, the bake that has everyone worried and panicking that it will pass muster from Paul and Mary. I know I couldn’t have managed the Technical Challenge. I would have been like Ruby, the youngest contestant in this series. It all got too much for her and she burst into tears. In the end Toby left, which was sad to see. I liked him, he seemed a crazy kind of guy but genuinely nice. There were lots of disasters this time and a huge abundance of blue plasters being used!
The Technical Challenge this week was a cake that I’ve heard of and tasted but never attempted myself. An Angel Food Cake is an American recipe, I believe where the rise comes from whisking egg whites to make them light and airy. The cake does not contain any fat but lots of sugar! It isn’t something I would choose if one was on a menu in a cafe or something I would bake. Judging by the experiences of the GBBO bakers, ranging from raw cakes to a cake containing salt instead of sugar, it sounded like it was tricky. I was determined to have a go myself though.
Separating eggs is one of those skills I either get right or wrong. I find if I don’t need the egg to be perfect it comes out neat or if I need a perfect separated yolk everything leaks and the eggs don’t come out right. Today though they did work out, I separated them by hand easily enough. You need 10 egg whites for the cake but luckily the egg yolks get used in the lemon curd. I hate recipes that involve waste like that!
I came to realise at this stage that this isn’t a cake you can make when you have lots of distractions. Not long after I started getting the ingredients out, my teenage daughter decided to saunter down for breakfast and she began to make pancakes for herself and her brother. Normally I don’t mind them doing this on a Sunday but the timing was completely out. Then I left the ingredients out on the side as my mum phoned for a catch up. As I got to the whisking stage I was distracted by nagging at my children for not putting things back in the cupboard. I realised when my cake didn’t look like other angel cakes I had seen that there must have been something wrong. One of my friends on Twitter asked if I had added the sugar? I remembered I had about 200g to add that was still on the counter! Back to the beginning I went. Of course I couldn’t use the first attempt cake, it went in the bin and the tin went in the sink to soak! As the mix was stuck to it (you don’t grease the tin but I think you should do it lightly!) I had no luck. I had to use my other ring tin, a Bundt style one.
There are two distinct camps here- the Greasers and the Non-Greasers. IF and this is a big IF, I make this cake again I will grease the tin lightly. Unless I buy a special tin marketed as an Angel Cake tin. It’s just I didn’t want to go out and buy a tin to make a cake I might not bake ever again!
Making the Lemon Curd wasn’t stress free either. The remaining egg yolks, caster sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest went into a pan and was heated on a medium heat. It didn’t seem to want to thicken up. I added the butter to it but it still seemed to take ages. I wasn’t convinced. I felt like cheating and running up to the supermarket for a ready made jar! In the end it got taken off the heat and about an hour later it looked more like it should do. It then had to be strained through a sieve. At least there was some spare to put in a jar for toast!
Then I realised I hadn’t got any double cream to decorate the cake with. I was doing really well here, so organised or what? I had to go up to our local Morrisons and grab a pot. It ended up being a shopping trip for several items we were low on like milk and bread! I certainly wasn’t sticking to the 2 1/2 hour time limit that they had on the Bake Off! I had started this at 10am and it was now about 2.30pm!
The cream was whipped up but I think I whipped it up too much. It just wouldn’t spread properly and it didn’t look very much. You could still see the crumbs through the topping. What a mess!
So what was the verdict? My hubby found the cake to be very sweet and sickly. He didn’t like it and fed it to our dog! The children didn’t fancy it because they didn’t like the lemon curd on it. I had a small piece, the sponge tasted light and airy but it wasn’t worth all the faffing and the effort. If I make it again I will make it when I have no distractions or time constraints!
I would love to know how you’ve got on if you have baked the cake .
Here is the recipe if you are brave enough to have a go yourself:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/angel_food_cake_with_04002
Happy Baking!
Love Sam xx
SmartCookieSam 
4 responses to “Mary’s Angel Food Cake With Lemon Curd- The Great British Bake Off Week 1(Series 4)”
You could grease and then flour the tin – that’s the best thing if the tins are ‘non’ stick, I used my bundt tin too! x
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Thanks for the tip! I’m grateful for the advice. I might be tempted to give it another go if I get the time! x
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[…] difficult technical challenges were meant to be done. I had attempted a couple of them like the Angel Cake and the English Muffins but now I have a little more confidence to have a go at some of the […]
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I know I am late to the party, however…
I am an American living in England. I was brought up with this cake as my birthday cake (my mother used my Barbie doll and the cake was the skirt of the dress, with icing making up the bodice and intricately decorating the skirt).
Anyway, I digress… I was a bit surprised to see this cake made with plain flout. My recipe calls for cake flour.
Cake flour is milled from the innermost part of the endosperm of soft wheat. It has a higher percentage of starch and the least amount of protein (7-8%) when compared with other wheat flours, which keeps cakes delicate.
When I couldn’t get cake flour, I would use plain flour cut with cornflour. (Put 2 tablespoons of cornflour into a measuring cup and fill with PF.)
Cornflour (and sugar) makes the flour share liquid, easing the gluten development and creative beautifully tender cake texture.
The cake climbs the pan beautifully, it’s light and airy and very tender.
Traditionally I will add lemon or orange zest to the mix, or make it plain and serve with fruit – strawberries, raspberries, etc., to counter act the sweetness.
An angel food tin is a must. I inherited my mom’s 2 piece tin, made from a thin aluminum, which is probably about 75 years old!. It is never, ever greased. The egg whites need to be able to climb the walls of the tin.
It’s cooled completely while upside down, a flat bladed knife is run around in a sawing motion all around between the cake and the tin, push up the bottom, run the knife around the center post, and the underside. and turn out.
The tin is not limited to Angel Food Cakes, but can be used for making beautiful chiffon cakes as well.
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