Cocoa Angel Food Cake
Cook Time 1 hour 25 minutes plus cooling
Servings makes 1 cake
Ingredients
The Cake
480g egg whites (from around 16 large eggs, I get that this is huge but you can freeze whites and make a freezer stockpile. I bake this after making lots of custard at Xmas)
380g caster sugar
½ tsp cream of tartar
150g self-raising flour
30g Dutch cocoa powder
¼ tsp bicarb soda
¼ tsp fine sea salt
60g golden syrup
20g/ml water
Milk Chocolate Ganache
150g good milk chocolate
150g full-fat sour cream
To Decorate
Raspberries
Method
Heat the oven to 170°C. Grab your two-piece angel food tin out. Do not grease the tin!
Weigh the flour, cocoa, bicarb and salt together in a large bowl. Set a sieve on top ready for the mixing step. Weigh the golden and water together and get ready to heat (later) in the microwave or stovetop.
Whip the egg white and cream of tartar with an electric mixer until the whites have become fluffy and white. When you dip your finger in then out, the tip of mix on your finger will not droop. Add the sugar in a steady stream – not too slowly until you have a medium stiffness meringue.
Off the mixer, sift half the drys on top and fold in with a hand whisk. Then gently fold in half the remaining meringue, then fold in the remainder until it is thoroughly incorporated. Heat the golden syrup water and pour around the side of the bowl and fold until there are no streaks in batter.
Scrape the mix into the ungreased angel food cake tin. Wipe any batter smears that are around the side of the tin or the centre tube, as they can impede the rise. Swizzle a small knife through the mix to even out the air pockets.
Bake for 45 - 50 minutes until the top feels dry and springy. Don’t worry about a little cracking on top as this will be our base when serving. Remove from the oven and immediately invert onto a cooling rack. Let it hang for 2 hours until the base of the tin is completely cool to the touch.
When the cake is cool, melt the milk chocolate very gently over a double boiler.
To release the cake, run a thin knife or metal offset spatula around the inner edge of the tin. Lightly run a knife around the centre tube, as angel food cakes can get sticky there. Turn the angel food cake out onto the serving plate and cut it from the base plate.
Make the ganache by gently melting the milk chocolate over a low heat double boiler. While it melts, take the sour cream out of the fridge so it loses its chill. When the chocolate has melted, mix the sour cream in with a stiff plastic spatula to combine to a creamy and spreadable. If the ganache seems too firm, gently warm over the turned off double boiler.
To ice the angel food cake, set up a turntable and arm yourself with an offset spatula. Smooth the ganache evenly around the top of the cake. We are aiming for a thick top layer and thin sides. With an offset spatula, working in small sections, push a little ganache to slightly tip over the sides and as it tips, guide the ganache down the cake side and smooth evenly.
Decorate the top with raspberries.
