I have always considered myself quite a nice person. I like food of all shapes, flavours and colours. From every country and continent. I don’t discriminate, I am an equal opportunity eater. It’s only the doctors who say I’m intolerant. And certain foods who refuse to tolerate me. They certainly refuse to recognise and respect my right to eat them without major physical discomfort and distress.


Gluten and lactose are not my friends.


Despite the negative attitudes surrounding me from many of those I love best, (cakes, ice cream, hot toast) I decided to become a chef. Not always easy when you live in a bread and milk filled world. I like to think that this has helped me become a better person as I embrace my differences and refuse to let the gluten get me down. I believe InTolerance. I am the InTolerant Chef.

Food should not be about what you can’t eat, but what you can and what you enjoy eating. This blog is about my journey of cooking and eating and discovery. It’s not a definitive guide to allergy awareness nor do my intolerances make me an expert. Your body is your responsibility, not mine. I only know what works for me.


I can tell you this..... No glutens were harmed in the making of this website.

August 20, 2012

Slice Of Heaven

















In the hope of encouraging an early Spring, I'm sticking with my botanical theme today and creating light-as-air Angel Food Cakes flavoured with Jasmine.

The air outside my window is full of the scent of Daphne at the moment, and in a few weeks it will be heavy with the smell of blossoms competing with fresh cut lawn on the weekends. It will be a couple of months until my jasmine blooms, but if I close my eyes and eat one of these little cakes, I can imagine myself away from frost and freak snow showers and basking in the sunlight of Spring.

I collect weird and wonderful flavour bases, I've recently acquired this lovely Monin syrup in some great flavours like violet, jasmine and cucumber, and I found this great concentrate at an Indian Supermarket. Perfect for my baking needs




















Angel Food Cake isn't one I've ever actually tried to make before, or one I've actually ever eaten before, but the name is so lovely and the idea of a fat free-gluten free-dairy free cake was just too hard to pass up, I would really be doing us all a favour by taste testing this recipe- wouldn't I? I thought so, so I will!

I did learn some lessons along the way that will make my next attempt at heavenly snacking a bit easier: don't use fancy-pantsy cake tins just because they look cute, it's the same with shoes- sometimes function over form actually is important; don't forget the flavouring ingredient until after you have mixed the cakes- it's not as easy to re mix without losing air bubbliness as you might think; don't infuse stain inducing berries on your favourite blouse just because you think it would make a pretty backdrop for your photo and you don't have anything else those colours to use.

Words of wisdom People


The recipe for today actually comes from a ratio

I got this recipe from Michael Ruhlman's aptly named cookbook- Ratio. 'The simple codes behind the craft of everyday cooking' 
It breaks down a variety of recipes into their simplest form, a ratio that works every time if you just follow a few simple rules. It's so handy, and much easier to remember than a full recipe when you're in a hurry and don't have time to muck about finding a full recipe.

Angel Food Cake= 3 parts egg white: 3 parts sugar: 1 part flour (in this case, gluten free of course)

The only other ingredients needed are a dash of flavouring essence, a pinch of salt and a few drops of lemon juice to help stabilise the whites when beating. Easy Peasy



















Instead of whole eggs today I used just egg whites, available at Woolies etc. in the refrigerated section. Much handier for these type of recipes that don't need the yolks























Divide the sugar in half, then mix one half into the flour and mix together





















Now the tricky bit.... beat the egg whites on medium then add the salt, lemon juice and flavour essence. Once the mixture is opaque, start to drizzle in the half measure of sugar




















According to Ruhlman, 'the egg white and sugar mixture should not be whipped feverishly; it should be whipped on medium to medium-high in order to prevent over mixing. If it's whipped to hard and becomes to stiff, it won't rise properly. There's a point in the mixing when it's white and fluffy but still pourable, and then a few moments later it's just stiff enough that it won't quite pour but neither is it so stiff that it holds a stiff peak'
Got all that?




















Sift the rest of the sugar and the flour over the egg whites, then gently fold it in







































Pour into your un-greased pan. The traditional pan is a tall straight sided tin with a central core that leaves a hole in the middle of the cake. The centre tube means the batter can raise from the middle as well as the sides and allows a larger surrounding edge for the cake to stick to as it rises.

As I didn't have a proper Angel Food cake tin, and wanted individual sized ones anyway, I  used some pretty little heart shapes that were just to intricate with all the ridges on the sides. Next time I'll use my straight sided individual push-up tins with a removable base, or even cupcake pans, they should work much better




















I baked these little lovelies for 20 minutes at 180*, or until a skewer comes out nice and clean when stuck in the middle of one of the cakies



















After baking, the cake pan should be inverted while cooling to prevent the cake from falling in on itself, then left until completely cooled down so the sugar-protein network can completely set. The purpose built cake tins have little feet on the rims so that the cooked cake actually hangs from the base of the pan as it cools.



















One of the little lovelies. Just stuck a little at the sides, but I promise you it will still taste good!



















Angel Food Cakes are usually served with syrup and fruit, like berries or a coulis. I really tried to to come up with a fruit that I thought would compliment the jasmine flavour.... pear? nectarine? blackberry! I don't find blackberries as assertive as raspberries or even strawberries, but love their sweet earthiness and thought they would match up well.

So pretty and ready to fill:




















I macerated some frozen blackberries in the jasmine syrup while the cakes cooled, then filled up the centre of the hearts with the fruits while letting the juices dribble down and soak into the cakes- Yummo!



















Such a nice cake indeed! A real cross between a meringue and sponge cake- so light and airy, not too sweet at all.
How can you resist this? Gluten free, dairy free, fat free.... Guilt free!!!
















So Dear Readers, what is your favourite type of cake, and do you have any good tips for removing blackberry stains?
















.

29 comments:

  1. oh Daphne, how lovely :) I adore any cake using almond meal. favourite. citrus is lovely. & no idea re the stains, my goodness I need to work on my laundry skills!
    Heidi xo

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    1. Almond meal does make a lovely cake doesn't it Heidi? But I'm a bit tired of the same-everywhere-almond-and-orange-cake that even have at McDonalds as a gluten free option. A bit more imagination people!

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  2. How lovely Bec!! Yum! I didn't know egg white were available that way. And I want that book badly!

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    1. Hi Lizzy, the whites are fairly new this way but you can get them at Coles and Woolies. The my book is just fantastic as well. I also bought the (abreviated)version for tablet.

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  3. What beautiful looking cakes and I love how you used Jasmine - such a wonderful fragrant flower. Your heart-shaped cake tins are gorgeous - I'll have to get some. I didn't know you could buy egg whites just like that - something else to look out for xx

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    1. Thanks Charlie! I wish I had some of the flowers to garnish with. I picked the tins up at Target I think, and the egg whites sure are handy like this :)

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  4. I have been eyeing off angel food cake recipes for years now, never willing to make the huge egg white commitment to actually trying one out. Thanks for the inspiration! I hope your gorgeous blouse survived?

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    1. The carton of eggwhites is the answer then Celia, and there will even be leftovers for pavlova or friands! YUMMO! I think my blouse will live to be worn another day... just don't peer too closely at it :)

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  5. How gorgeous! The look like the perfect angel cake - as light as air. Sweet, naughty air ;)

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    1. But air is calorie free isn't it Nic? So I must need several slices to get enough cake to make up for it... right? :)

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  6. Oh, the loveheart shapes are so cool.... What a beautiful dessert.

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  7. I'm with you Rebecca-keep encouraging the Spring weather! I swear, I smelled some jasmine in the air the other day :)

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    1. I can hardly wait Lorraine, but you'll get the weather first- lucky ducks :)

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  8. Gorgeous cakes! I love light cakes like this especially with seasonal fruit. So pretty!

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    1. Thanks Ina! I'll give chiffon cake a go next I think :)

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  9. What lovely cakes! I've eaten angel food cake, but never made it. And I never knew that you could buy egg whites - fancy that.

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    1. I think I'll be eating it a lot more often now for sure Amanda!

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  10. Using your blouse as a prop made me giggle!! I used to do that until I ruined too many clothes with food stains - now it's cheap tea towels all the way!! :)

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    1. That makes so much more sense Christie! Once I went to a bloggers dinner but was mortified to realise the post I'd put up that day had the dress I was actually wearing as it's background :)

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  11. That really looks like a slice of heaven...it looks so light and fluffy! Would happily eat all 6..:P

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    1. Wish I could send you one Jenny, but you're welcome to pop over for afternoon tea :)

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  12. So cute, you are right, definitely slice of heaven! Especially because we can both eat it! My favourite cake (well its a pudding so nearly) WAS sticky date pudding. Unfortunately with fructose malabsorption & gluten intolerance that is long in the past :( These days I love anything with berries and/or chocolate....Im not fussy!

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    1. Thanks Chompchomp. I'm sure we could come up with a solution to the pudding... was it the dates or the sauce or the texture that you loved about it?

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    2. Oooh .... that's a really hard question...all of the above???? No, OK, I guess if I had to narrow it down I loved the texture the most, the sauce second and the dates least? But saying that I loved all components!

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  13. How pretty they look - and the blouse too (I hope it recovered??)
    Egg whites in a box... whatever next? (But, what a brilliant idea!)

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    1. Thanks Janet! The blouse was traumatised but will be OK :) The eggwhites are great aren't they, especially come Pavlova season!

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