MARGARITA ANGEL FOOD CAKE (OLE!) ~ Guest Post for Chef Wannabe

Hi there from me and all of the BITCHES* at Hot Dishes for Hot Bitches* (FB page)!  I am so not a baker. Too precise for me. I am a dash, pinch, skosh kinda cook.  I can clean out cupboards and a fridge and throw something together (usually turns out ok but then sometimes not so much) but baking scares the bleepers outta me!

I enlisted the help of my friend, Myra, who loves to bake and garden. I bribed her by saying I would cook dinner (second night in a row) if she would bake this baby up!  Well neither of us blogs, either sooooooooo, we forgot to take pictures during the process.  Yeah, we suck. We promise to do better if we are ever invited back (ever). 

Myra just moved in earlier this summer, and so was not entirely sure what utensils and things she had or tossed so at first we couldn't find the zester so I tried some piece off of a grater gadget. Didn't work so hot.  I then switched to a steak knife. SO TOTALLY DANGEROUS...don't do it (yes, I have all of my finger tips and finger nails; not the cake did NOT turn out red!).  Then we finally found the zester (ANGELS sang...NOW I know why it is called ANGEL FOOD CAKE! Always wondered, never knew!).  Made things a lot faster and ultimately, prettier, too!

Myra knocked out the cake, dinner (Thin-sliced Sirloin Tip steaks, cut for stir-fry, with basil pesto, sauteed red onion, topped with fresh garden tomatos over, not mixed in with, spiral pasta and garlic knots (store bought....duh! NOT A BAKER!!) was ready as it went into the oven.  We ate, and drooled over the aroma of the baking cake.  

As dinner ended, the cake was ready to come out (yup, managed to remember to take a picture of at least that!).

Well, the heat might have baked our brains a tad because we skipped over "COOL COMPLETELY" part (we were dying to try it and like the little 5 y/o girls we were, rushed things a bit) so it stuck to the pan and came out not so pretty (AGAIN: NOT A BAKER!!!)

Well at that point, since it was a glaze going on top and not frosting you can use to "hide" such calamity of errors, we decided it would be best to cut a piece and purdy it up for you! (taking it out of the pan made it deflate more than it should have; some deflation is supposed to happen, ours compressed a bit more than it should but still tasted amazing and lighter than it ended up looking (thankfully or this would be the How NOT to make a Margarita Angel Food Cake post!).

We glazed up the slice, put on extra lime zest, (since we had done all that darn work to get it off the limes in the first place!)and added a gorgeous piece of mint from Myra's yard to show off a bit (hey, we are allowed!). 

This cake is amaz-balls as Chef Wannabe says, and I plan to actually attempt it at home (OMG, call the medics to be on stand-by just in case, please!).  I hope you will enjoy this as much as we did between making it, decorating it and eating it as we did!

~Kari McLaughlin

Queen BITCH* of

Hot Dishes for Hot BITCHES* (FB page)

Margarita Angel Food Cake (OLE!)

CAKE:

1 cup cake flour (produces a light and airy cake)

1 1/2 cups sugar, divided

12 egg whites

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons grated lime peel (fresh is best)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons lime juice (fresh is best, not from that little plastic lime dealio)

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

GLAZE:

1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice (see above...USE FRESH)

1 1/2 tablespoons tequila OR 1 tablespoon water and 1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice (did I mention to use FRESH?)

1 1/2 tablespoons Triple Sec (liquor) (could use Grand Marnier for top shelf cake) OR orange juice (ok, fine, use the bottled kind if you want)

2 to 2 1/4 cups of powdered/confectioner's sugar

3 tablespoons butter, softened (not melted)

2 tablespoons grated lime peel (LAST TIME: USE FRESH (please/thank you!).

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees F.  Whisk flour and 1/4 cup of the sugar in a small bowl.

2. Beat egg whites in large bowl on medium speed for 1 to 2 minutes or until foamy.  Add cream of tartar and salt, beat until soft peaks form.  Add remaining 3/4 cup sugar 2 tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat until stiff but not dry peaks form, being careful not to overbeat.  Beat in all remaining cake ingredients except flour mixture.

3.Sift 1/4 cup of the flour mixture over beaten egg whites; fold in with wide spatula.  Repeat, adding 1/4 cup flour mixture at a time and folding until no steaks of flour remain. Spoon batter into the ungreased 9-inch tube pan, smoothing top.  With knife blade, cut through batter in broad swirls, to break any air pockets.

4. Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until cake is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed.  INVERT pan (turn it upside down, literally/seriously) on legs of tube pan or onto neck of bottle (glass soda or wine bottle) to suspend above counter; COOL COMPLETELY (not hot, not warm but COOLED/COLD).  Run thin knife around center and edges of pan; invert cake onto wire rack.

5. Combine 1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice, tequila, triple sec, in medium bowl (if not using alcohol, this is where you sub out for the juices mentioned above).  Whisk in 2 cups of the powdered sugar, adding additional powdered sugar if necessary for glaze consistency.  Whisk in butter (SOFTENED (not melted)) and 2 teaspoons lime peel; spoon over cake. Let stand until glaze is set (yeah, right, like that will happen after all that baking and cooling time!). Cover and store at room temperature.

16 servings (if you are fairies or gnomes...)  (I'm a big girl who eats big girl slices!) :)

*Original recipe from Melanie Barnard, a cookbook author and writer from Connecticut