A Recipe as Reliable as an Old Friend: Espresso Chocolate Chip Angel Food Cake

After making a half-sheet yellow butter cake with lemon mousseline, I had an extra pint of egg whites on hand. (The cake required 16 yolks, the mousseline required 10 egg whites, and the lemon curd I mixed into the mousseline used 8 yolks.) I decided to return to one of my favorite angel food cake recipes, the "Espresso Chocolate Chip Angel Food Cake" from Emily Luchetti's Four-Star Desserts.

The recipe is straightforward. You beat egg whites until foamy; add cream of tartar; gradually add sugar and beat the whites until stiff; add vanilla and lemon juice; and incorporate the sifted dry ingredients (cake flour, instant espresso powder, and salt) and chocolate chips. The recipe says to coarsely chop the chocolate chips; I always use miniature chocolate chips to save time. You pour the batter into an ungreased tube pan and bake.
There are a few reasons I love this cake so much. First, the espresso powder and chocolate chips give the cake a lovely flavor that isn't too sweet, which is sometimes a problem with angel food cake. There are a lot of chocolate chips in the cake, and the only problem with the miniature chips was that quite a few became exposed and fell out of the cake when I sliced it. Second, this cake has the perfect texture for an angel food cake. It's light, soft, resilient, and bouncy, without any hint of stickiness.

I feel like I've been making this angel food cake forever (Four-Star Desserts was published in 1996), but apparently I don't make it often enough. My husband Tom -- whom I've known for almost eleven years -- had never tried this cake before and half-jokingly complained about missing out on it all this time. Because I try more than 100 new recipes every year, I only have so much time to return to old favorites. Thankfully, this recipe never disappoints -- no matter how long it's been since my last visit.

Recipe: "Espresso Chocolate Chip Angel Food Cake" from Four-Star Desserts by Emily Luchetti, recipe available here.

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Comments

Louise said…
You've probably made a thousand desserts since you've known Tom. He probably forgot about it. : )
A thousand desserts is actually probably a conservative estimate. :) But one big reason I have a blog is to jog my own memory... because even I sometimes forget when I've already tried a recipe!
Louise said…
A blog's a good solution. I write in my cookbooks and also use paste it notes. I have an index book that I've had at least 30 years which is meant for cookbooks. It has categories of dishes and space to write the cookbook name, page, and a couple of columns like "Great for Company", time, etc. I'd never find a recipe again if I didn't use stuff like this. And, I have folders by category of recipes I've found on the web.
Louise said…
This recipe caused me to get a copy of "Four-Star Desserts" and I've already flagged a couple other recipes. The Hot Fudge Rum Sauce to accompany this cake also intrigues me, but I know it wouldn't be high on your list.