How not to make an angel food cake

Last week I found the cutest recipe for a Halloween cake. It basically involved making a bunt cake and then frosting it to look like a pumpkin. I decided that I wanted to make it for my upcoming Halloween party. But first, I would need a bunt cake pan. I went to a few stores looking for a good pan. I finally let a sales person convince me to buy a bunt cake pan made from silicon. It seemed weird, but she claimed that it could withstand up to 300 degrees Celsius and was non-stick. Apparently it’s the new big thing in baking. Besides, silicon pans seem to be all anyone is selling right now.

So I bought the silicon pan and wanted to try it out right away (wouldn’t you?!,) so I started looking through my cookbooks for angel food cake recipes. Most of the recipes called for 10-12 egg whites, which I didn’t have, and I wasn’t about to go back to the store. So I kept digging until I found a low-fat recipe that only called for 5 eggs whites, which I did have, so we had a winner.

However, there was still a problem. The recipe (like all other recipes) called for a ½ teaspoon of cream of tartar. I had definitely heard of cream of tartar, but I knew that I didn’t have it in my cupboard. P had no idea what it was, and looking it up in the dictionary didn’t clue me in as to what I could substitute it with. (FYI Cream of tartar is a byproduct of grapes used in wine making.) But it was only a ½ teaspoon, right? Did I really need it? Naaaah. I threw in a little extra cornstarch and called it good.

30 minutes later and I was ready to remove my silicon bunt pan from the oven. I peaked inside the oven door and saw that the pan didn’t melt, so we were off to a good start. I removed the cake from the oven and set it on the counter. Something was definitely wrong; the cake hadn’t risen at all! It was only about 1 inch thick. Shouldn’t it have risen up and essentially filled the cake pan? I tried to ease it out of the pan, but it didn’t come easily, so eventually I used force since it was destroyed anyway. I cut myself a slice thinking, “Just because it didn’t rise doesn’t mean that it won’t taste good.” Well, it didn’t taste bad; actually, it didn’t really taste like anything! I guess that’s what happens when you use a low-fat recipe and essentially no sugar!

However, this story may get a happy ending. I found out that the Old English Shoppe in Gothenburg sells cream of tartar! I’m going to pick some up on my way home from work and try out a different angel food cake recipe when I get home.