Here's an homemade Angel Food Cake made without all of the preservatives found in store bought versions!

Healthy Angel Food Cake Recipe

Written by Becky

This healthy Angel Food Cake Recipe is made with no chemicals or preservatives like the store bought versions and is low in sugar. It’s definitely a recipe you’ll want to go into your classic repertoire.  After making it once you’ll be making it time and time again.

This Angel Food Cake tastes amazing is made with less sugar than most and none of the chemicals found in store bought versions.

The recipe came from my time in Culinary School but as I compared the recipe to others around the web I noticed how mush less sugar my recipe had yet when I taste it, I can’t tell the difference.  You simply don’t need as much sugar as most of the recipes call for.  This specific low sugar angel food cake recipe does require more egg whites than others but if you buy your eggs in bulk its no extra expense and you’ll have plenty of yolks leftover to whip up some homemade ice cream!

And as far as flavor and nutrition goes, the difference of homemade verses store bought is pretty remarkable here.

This Angel Food Cake Recipe gives all of the tips to making a perfect homemade Angel Food Cake

Though homemade Angel Food Cake is really pretty easy there are a few key steps to success that you really must not mess with.

Here are all of the secrets to perfect Homemade Angel Food Cake

About this Recipe

• Don’t spray or grease the pan for angel food cake. Because of the light nature of this cake if you grease the pan the cake may not rise.

• Invert the cake still in the pan after baking so it will start to loosen from the pan as it cools.  Let cool completely before removing from the pan.

• Cake Flour, sometimes labeled as, Super-fine Pastry Flour really is best for Angel Food Cake because it’s super fine but if you don’t want to buy a different flour you can combine cornstarch with all purpose (2 tablespoons of corn starch per 1 cup of flour).  Sift a few times to incorporate.

• Similar to the cake flour, a superfine sugar is also helpful in this recipe.  You can make superfine sugar at home by pulsing regular sugar in your food processor or blender until fine. I’ve made this cake with regular organic cane sugar before and it worked but it was harder to fold the flour/sugar mixture into the egg whites without making the egg whites collapse. The top right photo is of the sugar after its been quickly processed in a blender.

• An Angel Food Cake ‘Tube’ pan works best for this recipe.  I’ve made the mistake of using a bundt pan that had too pan crevasses and the cake stuck to the sides. The tube pan has a removable bottom so you can easily get the cake out of the pan using a life to loosen around every edge. This pan also has feet on it so when you cool it upside down air can flow through.

• To ensure that no egg yolks get into the egg whites, break each egg dividing the white into a separate bowl before adding it into a larger bowl for all of the egg whites.  This way, if you accidentally get a little yolk into one of the whites you can discard it without having to throw away all of the egg whites you’ve already separated.  See the photo above as an example.

• Most Angel Food Cake recipes require a lot of sugar which is simply not needed.  This cake is perfectly sweet especially topped with whipped cream and berries for a light Summer Dessert.

• Store bought Angel Food Cakes have a lot of artificial ingredients, preservatives and chemicals so homemade is definitely the way to go.

This Angel Food Cake is healthier than most and without any of the chemicals found in store bought versions. This Healthy Angel Food Cake Recipe is perfect for a light Summer dessert.

Healthy Angel Food Cake Recipe

This simple Angel Food Cake Recipe has less sugar than most recipes and no strange ingredients or chemicals like store bought Angel Food Cakes.  
5 from 3 votes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 8 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 1 1/3 cups cake flour*
  • 1 1/4 cup superfine sugar*, divided

wet ingredients

  • 2 cups egg whites
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or 375 for high altitude).  Get out a angel food cake tube pan (the one with a hole in the center) but don't grease the pan.
  • Sift the flour and 1/2 cup of the sugar together. 
  • In a clean stand mixer with the whip attachment, whip the egg whites until foamy. Add in the salt and vanilla, then gradually add in the remaining 3/4 cup sugar and continue to whip until medium peaks are formed. 
  • Fold in the flour mixture in 3-4 additions, using a large wire whisk or a spatula.
  • Pour batter into the tube pan and bake until the cake springs back when you touch with your fingertips (about 40 minutes). 
  • Let cool inverted (upside-down) for one hour then use a knife to loosen all of the edges before removing from the pan.  Once cake is out of the pan, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with whipped cream or ice cream and berries.

Notes

To get superfine sugar you can process your sugar in a food processor or high powered blender until its fine (about 2 minutes). 
If you don't have cake flour on hand use mix all purpose flour with cornstarch (3 tablespoons or cornstarch and 1 cup +2 tablespoons all purpose flour for this recipe).  Sift this a few times to incorporate. 

I first made this cake in a bundt pan but the top of it got a little stuck so I covered it in whipped cream and berries.  Just in case, you don’t have an angel food cake pan, it is possible to make in other pans but make sure to have some whipped cream handy in case it sticks!

Angel Food Cake is the best Summer Dessert and here's a healthy recipe you'll be making time and time again!

Comments (35)

  1. Trying to save this post to Pinterest and keep getting the message that this site doesn’t allow me to save pins. When I try using your “P” to add this, the picture won’t upload and it won’t allow me to pin that way either. FYI

  2. Great cake! I needed something lower calorie to top with strawberries. It was easy and so helpful to give substitutions. It looked just like the pictures and it was perfect sweetness. Unfortunately, it was so good, we ate more than we had intended! Thanks!

    • Great questions Tom. Its really hard to change up the amounts of ingredients in baking without some experimenting. This is the lowest I have tried of sugar in angel food cake. Sugar and fat are what make the texture of a baked good, while flour and eggs are the stabilizers, and since this recipe doesn’t have a fat (like butter) I would be hesitant to alter the sugar much. If you have time to experiment please do let me know what you find out!

  3. 5 stars
    Thanks Becky for a really nice recipe ! I used 1 carton nature egg whites which = to 2 cups. I added a couple tablespoons fresh lemon juice and 1 tablespoon grated lemon rind. Also, reduced the 3/4 cup sugar to 2/3 cup sugar, which did not affect the rising of the cake at all. It rose very high to within 3/4 of an inch from the top of the angel tube cake pan. Also used your substitution for cake flour, and used the white berry sugar. Turned out fantastic ! Thank you !

    • The only tricky part about angel food cakes are that you can’t spray the pan. It will affect the rising of the light cake so make sure and use a cake that it will be easy to remove the cake from. This is why there is a special cake pan for Angel Food Cakes. I’ve made them in other cake pans before then just said a prayer that it would come out of the pan but I wouldn’t recommend that way 🙂

  4. I can’t wait to try this recipe as tree boxed versions don’t rise. Are there any conversions for high altitude? Or will the mixing of the baking powder to make cake flour suffice?

  5. Would you make any adjustments for high altitude? Besides the oven temperature change, which I thought would be lower instead of higher. Thank you!

  6. So don’t spray or flour the pan at all? Just invert right away and cross your fingers? I’ll try this recipe for my mom in law’s birthday.

    • Yes, no spray at all. And invert the cake still in the pan after baking so it will start to loosen from the pan as it cools. Let cool completely before removing from the pan. Let me know if you have any other questions!

    • Yes certainly! The I make cakes the night before I leave them out at room temp. Refrigeration tends to dry out a cake. If you make cakes several days prior freezing does work, but be sure to wrap the cake tightly in plastic wrap if freezing.

  7. 5 stars
    Hi,

    Can you use Raw Stevia in place of the sugar? My husband has chronic kidney disease and a pre-cancer condition so many ingredients (ie, sugar,cornstarch, can’t be used. Glad to know that gluten free flour works.
    Thank You

  8. Hi, I am planning to try this recipe on Saturday. I have never seen an Angel Food cake recipe without cream of tartar. When I whip the egg whites should I expect them to peak like whites with cream of tartar added?
    Thank you

  9. What does leaving out the cream of tartar do? And why mix to medium peaks and not stiff?, Also why use confectioners sugar over granulated? Sorry if I’m asking a lot I’m just genuinely curious 🙂

    • Great questions!! Cream of tartar is a stabilizer but the way this simple cake is make, you just don’t need it. The medium peaks are so the cake is still creamy and not dry. And the confectioners sugar is so that the sugar is light and won’t weigh down the cake and break the whipped egg whites. Hope that helps!

  10. This looks so good! Do you recommend fresh egg whites or using a store-bought carton? A website I referenced suggested that 2 cups of egg whites would require cracking 16 eggs. Thanks!

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