Angel Cakes with Lemon Sauce

Posted by Vanessa in Cooking, March 15, 2010

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Light.  Flavorful.  Utterly delectable.  Really the perfect end to a meal, something sweet, but not too sweet.  Filling, but not too filling.  That is unless you eat the whole batch by yourself because they are just that good.  But that’s definitely not what happened at our house.  We share at The Bird House.  Or at least that’s what we’re trying to teach our kids.

These miniature angel food cakes with lemon sauce are quite good.  The sauce almost fooled me though.  At first taste I thought I might not like it much, so I tasted again…and again…and again.  I couldn’t stop.  Then I decided it was good.  And even The Phoenix agreed.  And he doesn’t fancy lemon much.

Now, to be quite honest, there’s one part of this recipe that threw me through a bit of a loop.  If you don’t have the kind of pan it calls for, then you’re supposed to cut out parchment rounds to cover the bottom of each hole.  Seriously?!  By hand that would take forever.  And I don’t have forever.  I have as long as my baby naps, and that is usually not longer than an hour.  If I’m particularly blessed that day.

So…

I did something a bit unconventional.  After cutting two by hand, I decided to pull out my scrapbooking tools and I used my Cricut to cut the circles, in less than a minute.  Now if this grosses you out a bit, and I hope it doesn’t, at least take comfort that I used a brand-new cutting mat for the circles.  It worked like a charm.  And for the record, if you want to copy my methods, you’ll need 2-inch circles.  If you’re smarter than me, which I’m quite certain you are, let me know what other ways you can think of to quickly cut out these circles.  I’m dying to know.

Once you get your circles cut (by whatever means you choose), stick ’em in your muffin tins.  The recipe says you’ll use 24 cups, but I didn’t get quite that many.

Now stir together the flour and sugar.

And start mixing your egg whites with the other stuff until they get frothy.  Sort of like this.

Then add the rest of the sugar and beat until you get stiff peaks.

And divide the batter between your muffin cups.

While your cakes are baking, you can go ahead and make the lemon sauce.

I wanted to show a picture of the lemon zest because…I just love it.  It really is amazing how a little of this can transform a dish.

Finish up the sauce once it’s thickened, and put in a bowl, cover, and chill in the fridge.

Place your darling angel cakes on a pretty serving platter once they’ve cooled.

And spoon the sauce right over the top.  Dee-Vine.

Angel Cakes

recipe from Petite Sweets by Beatrice Ojakangas
Details
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes.
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes.
  • Ready in 30 Minutes.
  • Makes: 24 Pieces
Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup cake flour
  • 2/3 cup sugar, divided
  • 6 large egg whites, room temperature
  • 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract (or vanilla if you do not have lemon, that is what I did)
  • Lemon Sauce (recipe follows)
Directions
  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  • Have 24 muffin cups ready, preferably with removable bottoms. If not, cut 24 rounds of parchment or waxed paper to fit the bottoms of regular muffin cups. Do not grease.
  • In a small bowl, stir the cake flour and 1/3 cup of the sugar together. Set aside.
  • In a large mixing bowl, stir together the egg whites, cream of tartar, salt and extract. Beat the egg whites until frothy. Slowly add the remaining 1/3 cup sugar and continue to beat on high speed until the whites are stiff but not dry.
  • Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture until completely incorporated. Divide the cake batter between the muffin cups.
  • Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cakes feel dry when touched in the center. Remove from the oven and cool.
  • To serve, loosen edges of cakes with the tip of a thin knife and lift cakes out of the pans. Arrange on a serving platter and spoon the lemon sauce over each cake.

Lemon Sauce

recipe from Petite Sweets by Beatrice Ojakangas
Details
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes.
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes.
  • Ready in 20 Minutes.
Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
  • Juice of 1 lemon
Directions
  • In a large saucepan, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and salt. Gradually stir in the boiling water and simmer over low heat until thick, stirring occasionally.
  • Remove from the heat; stir in butter, lemon zest and lemon juice. Transfer to a metal bowl, cover with plastic wrap and chill.
  • To serve, spoon sauce over angel cakes.
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