Coconut Angel Food Cake

I have been wanting to make an angel food cake for a while now and impulse purchased a Nordic Ware tin a couple of months ago. I had never even eaten one before, but really likes the lightness of how they looked.

Anyway, before you have a go yourself, and I hope you do, just know this cake itself takes 12 egg whites! I started by using Aldi's free range eggs, but their shells were so fragile, the separating was painfully tricky, so I switched to some Sainsbury's free range, and they were much for reliable. Of course if you have your own chickens, you'll have a ready supply.

The recipe I used for the cake can be found on the I am Baker website. I only had a few drops of coconut essence left so my cake was not as coconut-y as I would have liked, and I didn't put that cream coating on it either. I decided to add a marshmallow frosting that I have used before, with shredded coconut on top.

To make this cake, I assumed you needed the special angel food cake tin and I bought the one from Nordic Ware as it was recommended and comes in two parts. It's a nifty tin, as you need to invert the cake once it comes out of the oven, and it has three legs which means they support it fully while it cools. It was also easy to get out of the tin; I ran a palette knife around the edge and then on the base too.

So a couple of things to note when making this cake:

• Do not grease the pan - at all.
• Be careful when mixing to keep the egg whites full of air.
• Add flavour to the mix if you want but be careful not to lose any of the air - the cake itself is not bursting with flavour - it has a very light, almost dry, spongey texture.
• As soon as it comes out of the oven, invert it on the bench, the legs on this pan will support it - leave it upside down until completely cool.
• Use a palette knife to loosen it from the edges before taking out of the pan.

Good luck and enjoy! K x