Chocolate Angel Food Cake

This is an intensely chocolatey cake but it's quite light; a Sybarite could eat a quarter of it himself.  It's impressive but not that difficult to make well.  Use top quality cocoa for this since it's the primary taste.

It goes exceptionally well with a tart Belgian Bier such as Liefmans Goudenband, or Lambics such as Gueuze, Kriek and Framboise from Frank Boone, Cantillon, Liefmans or Lindemans.  Barolo Chinoto is excellent as well. Coffee is OK; we haven't found a wine that can work anywhere near as well as the Belgian Bier.

We recently added freeze dried raspberries and like the addition, but we might double the amount next time. We got them from Trader Joes.

Chocolate Angel Food Cake: we couldn't wait to eat it!

160 g      3/4 C        Sugar

 90 g      3/4 C        Cake Flour

 65 g      2/3 C        Cocoa powder, excellent quality

 34 g                   Raspberries, freeze dried (optional)

400 ml   1 3/4 C        Egg Whites, room temperature (about 11 eggs)

 10 ml       2 tsp      Lemon Juice

  1 pinch    1 pinch    Salt

210 g        1 C        Sugar

 10 ml       2 tsp      Vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375F.

Place ungreased angel food (tube) cake pan on cookie sheet to catch drips.

Process 3/4 C Sugar, Flour, Cocoa Powder and optional dried Raspberries for two 10-second bursts.

Dry ingredients (including free dried raspberries) about to be whizzed

In a very clean 6 quart mixing bowl (a 4 quart Kitchenaid mixer bowl is too small) combine Egg Whites, Lemon Juice, and Salt.

Beat at high speed until white and foaming.

Gradually add 1 C Sugar, one Tablespoon at a time, beating constantly.

Add Vanilla with last spoonful of Sugar.

Continue beating at high speed to stiff peak meringue stage.

Egg whites and sugar with stiff peaks

Sift 1/4 C processed dry ingredients gently over beaten egg mixture;

use a sieve fine enough to trap any of the optional dried raspberry seeds.

Fold in gently with large spatula, trying not to deflate egg whites.

Continue adding 1/4 C at a time, gently folding to barely mix.

Gently folding in the dry ingredients

Turn batter into tube pan gently.

Gently level and clean off any dribbles from inside of tube pan,

otherwise the cake won't rise well and you'll get burnt bits.

In the cake pan ready for the oven

Bake 35-40 minutes until a skewer comes out clean; there will be large cracks in the surface.

Cool upside down with tube pan over neck of wine bottle.

A good rise, a bit over the edge of the pan before cooling