Help! Angel Food cake fell out of pan immediately!

[Pat]

I was making an angel food cake today and diaster struck. I separated the eggs, let them warm to room temperature so that they would beat better, sifted the flour and powdered sugar as instructed, added the granulated sugar slowly as it was beating, folded in the flour and powdered sugar mixture with a spatula. Baked in the oven for the 35 minutes called for and when I inverted it on the funnel, it immediately fell out of the pan. WHY? http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/frown.gif I had intended to use this for guests, but now I will be making something else. Rats!

[dncomom]

I will second what Chefmom said. I don't think your cake was done. Angel food is my dh's very favorite sweet so I hae made MANY of these over the years. I have had a few fall out of the pan upon being inverted and each time the cake was not done. It will be very brown and dry to the touch when it is truly done baking.

[Pat]

It was golden brown and had large white cracks in the top with the beading of moisture that Chefmom described; but, dncomom, it was not dry to the touch.

No, I did not use nonstick because I have made them in the past and know that they need to stick to the pan. And, no, it did not have any grease in the pan because it was a new pan. I bought the new pan because my last angel food cake fell out of that pan so I bought a tube pan to use for angel food cake only.

The only solution that I can think of is that it needed to bake longer.
does anyone have a surefire method of telling when an angel food cake is done?

It tastes fine and I am just going to make a trifle by layering the cake, then a mixture of powdered sugar, cream cheese, and cool whip, and then a layer of strawberries. Maybe everyone will think that was what I intended all along!

Thanks, everyone, for your help.

[This message has been edited by Pat (edited 03-29-2001).]

[Pat]

Bumping this up so it does not get lost.

[Cathy]

I agree, I think your cake wasn't quite done. I had this very thing happen to me when I made a tangerine angel food cake. I just had part of the center come out and was serving it to guests too. So I plopped the part that fell out back into the pan and stuck it back in the oven. Hah! What did I have to lose! It worked! I will certainly bake it longer in the future. It wasn't the prettiest cake ever made, but with a serving of an orange sauce and blackberries, I didn't get any complaints.

[LGBurns]

OMG Cathy! That cake sounds wonderful. Could you please share the recipe (I love orange and blackberry together--yum!). TIA

[Chefmom]

Okay, you mentioned that you "Baked in the oven for the 35 minutes called for" were you SURE that the cake was done baking.

Just because a recipe says bake it for "X" many minutes does not mean that is a guarantee that the cake is done. Was is deep golden with deep white cracks on the top? The crack were dry, with maybe a beading of moisture on the top and when touched it was like a moist sponge, springing back and yet firm?

It really sounds like your cake wasn't done baking. I think that I check my cakes at 30 minutes and check about every 5 minutes until done from there.

Also, did you have ANY grease on your pan? That will keep the mixture from gripping the sides and climbing, then sticking to cool and keep the size of the finished cake.

Tami

[This message has been edited by Chefmom (edited 03-29-2001).]

[junietoo]

Is your pan nonstick? I had this happen to me once when I was using a non-stick tube pan, but never when using a scrupulously clean (grease free) aluminum pan.

Is it just broken or destroyed? You could always make a nice fruity trifle.

[This message has been edited by junietoo (edited 03-29-2001).]

[Peeps]

LGBurns,
I'm not Cathy, but I have a great Tangerine Angel Food Cake recipe that I have made several times that is fantastic. It was from Sweet Dreams on the Food Network:

TANGERINE ANGEL FOOD CAKE WITH TANGERINE GLAZE
Courtesy Gale Gand, “American Brasserie” by Gale Gand, Rick Tramonto, Julia Moskin, MacMillian Inc, 1997

1 1/2 cups egg whites, at room temperature
1 1/4 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/8 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tangerine, grated zest
Tangerine glaze, recipe follows

Tangerine Glaze:
1/4 cup freshly squeezed tangerine juice
1 tablespoon egg whites
8 ounces confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, whip the egg whites until white and foamy. Add the cream of tartar and salt and continue whipping until soft, droopy peaks form. Still whipping, add 1 cup of the sugar in a thin stream and whip until stiff and glossy. Sift the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and the flour together 3 times to aerate and lighten the mixture. Work quickly so the egg white does not deflate (or sift through a strainer onto a sheet of waxed paper). Fold into egg whites 1/3 at a time. Fold in the
vanilla and tangerine zest. Gently spoon the mixture into an ungreased tube pan. Smooth the top and bake 30 to 35 minutes, until golden
brown.

Glaze: Whisk together the tangerine juice and egg whites, then add the confectioners’ sugar and stir until smooth.
Remove cake from oven and turn the pan upside down and hang it around the neck of a wine bottle to cool to room temperature. Slide a butter knife around the sides of the pan and put a serving plate on top. Turn over and knock the cake out onto the plate. (The browned crust of the cake will stick to the pan.) When the cake has cooled thoroughly,
make the glaze and drizzle the glaze evenly over the cake. Let set in a cool place.

[Cathy]

Hi LGBurns, The recipe that Peeps posted is the recipe I use. It came from a show I saw Emeril Lagasse do and was called "Gail Gand's Tangerine Angel Food Cake with Tangerine Glaze." It looks like Peeps recipe and mine come from the same source but the recipe Emeril posted has a few more instructions that I'll include here: Starting where Peeps recipe stops, until golden brown. Turn the pan upside down and hang it around the neck of a wine bottle to cool to room temp. Slide a butter knife around the sides of the pan and put a serving plate on top. Turn over and knock the cake out onto the plate (The browned crust of the cake will stick to the pan) When the cake has cooled thoroughly, make the glaze: Proceed with Peeps recipe here.


I will give you my comments and an orange sauce I use that I like better than the tangerine glaze. In the cake, for the 1 1/2 cups of egg whites, I use a dozen eggs. I think it may have come out to a tad more than the 1 1/2 cups but after whipping the whites, it didn't seem to make a difference. I have also made this cake using orange zest which is sometimes easier to get and fresher. It was wonderful. I personally did not care for the tangerine glaze. I left out the egg white entirely when I made it & I don't know that it made that much of a difference in the finished glaze, taste wise, that is. I don't like a glaze that has a lot of powdered sugar taste to it and the way it feels on the tongue. I tried to compensate by adding more juice, and I still didn't care for it so I chose to use a different 'orange sauce' that I suppose you could make just fine with freshly squeezed tangerine juice. Here is that recipe which also happens to be extremely easy:

1 pkg 'cook & serve' vanilla pudding mix
(the smaller pkg & it must be cook & serve)
1 1/2 cups orange juice
1 cup vanilla non-fat yogurt

Cook the pudding in the microwave according to the directions on the box (6 minutes) substituting the orange juice for the milk. Stir every 2 minutes during the process. Remove from microwave, set aside to cool. When cooled, stir in the vanilla yogurt and refrigerate.

To serve with the cake, place a slice on a plate and spoon the orange sauce slightly over and around on the plate. Serve with berries. For the berries, I simply took frozen blackberries (others would work too), placed them in a bowl and sprinkled sugar on them. When they thaw, you will have sweetened berries with a sweetened juice you can spoon on the plate too if you wish.

This makes such a wonderful & light spring dessert that I have gotten many compliments on. I am planning on trying the cake with lemon zest and serving it with lemon curd and blueberries. BTW, another use for the orange sauce that I found timely during the holidays, was to layer it in a parfait dish with crushed gingersnaps. Allow the parfaits to sit refrigerated for quite a while to soften the cookies. When I serve them, I just place another cookie or two on top. I hope you enjoy these recipes as we do.

[Melina]

Hi Cathy,
I took down your great idea for the Orange Sauce Parfait. I love parfaits and I love orange. Thanks.

I really don't like the mouth feel of the powdered sugar glazes either. I tried a few things in order to mellow them out a bit, and found that if I add some light corn syrup it changes the texture remarkably. (I use Karo's). I start with a tablespoon, and I go from there. It also gives the glaze body. This replaces the egg white and gives me better results. Hope this works for you too.
Melina

[JA]

I just took an angel food cake out of the oven while reading this, what a disaster! My pan wasn't big enough, and it rose, fell all over the oven, burned, what a mess...
On the bright side, my husband just came home and commented on how wonderful the house smells!!!
(imagine a smilie right here - I don't know how to do it)

Julie

[Cathy]

Thanks, Melina, for the Karo syrup suggestion. I'll give that a try the next time I need a glaze. I would imagine it would work well with a lemon glaze too.

[LGBurns]

Cathy & Peeps: Thank you so much for the recipe and tips! Cathy, your idea of making the cake with lemon and using lemon curd for a topping sounds delicious too. I can't wait to try both! Thanks again to both of you!