One day a girl at work asked for my Angel Food Cake recipe. I wrote down the ingredients and instructions and emphasized that it was very important that she hang the cake upside down on a bottle after she took it from the oven to cool. A couple of days later she said she had made the cake and didn’t know what happened because it was flat. I asked, “Did you hang it upside down on a bottle?” “No. I thought that sounded strange.” “Well, that’s your problem. I told you what would happen if you didn’t.”
My Grandmother made good Angel Food Cakes. As she got older, she often cheated and made it from a mix. Cousin Toni made good Angel Food Cakes. My Mother told me that my Great Grandmother was a master Angel Food Cake baker. She used a utensil with coiled wire to whip the egg whites, on a plate no less. I haven’t tried to whip it on a plate yet. Instead I use a big stainless-steel bowl.
My Mother made Angel Food Cakes on occasion. She had bouts with Meniere’s Disease that put her to bed for days. For a time, it was so severe she couldn’t even get out of bed. Even at her best, there were some duties she could no longer manage. One of those was running a mixer. Daddy took over the cooking. That really was severe and quite interesting!
One day, when my daughter-in-law was having lunch with them, Daddy served Angel Food Cake for dessert. She asked, “Daddy Buck, did you make this from scratch?” He answered, “Yep! I scratched it right out of the box.”
