Angelfood Cake with Blueberry-Blackberry Compote and Tarragon
Speed - 98%
Simplicity - 96%
Tastiness - 100%
98%
Stellar!
My whole family loved this Angelfood Cake with Blueberry-Blackberry Compote and Tarragon! It took some practice to get the cake right but it was totally worth it! It's a perfect light dessert for the summer, but also makes a very comforting sweet for any other time of the year.
Ingredients
Angelfood Cake
- 0.75 cup White Sugar
- 0.5 teaspoon Salt
- 13.5 ounces Egg Whites room temperature
- 1 tablespoon Water
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 13.5 ounces White Sugar
Blueberry-Blackberry Compote
- 2 pints Fresh Blueberries
- 3 pints halfBlackberries larger ones halved
- 0.5 cup Sugar
- 1 whole Vanilla Bean seeded
- 1 whole Lemon zested and juiced
- 1 teaspoon Salt
Whipped Cream
- 1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 2 tablespoons Sugar
Tarragon
- 1 leaves bunch Fresh Tarragon picked
Instructions
Blueberry-Blackberry Compote
- Scrape vanilla bean seeds and press with lemon zest into sugar. Add salt, then sprinkle sugar mix over berries with lemon juice and toss gently to coat. Cover and set aside to macerate.
Angelfood Cake
- Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare 12-cup volume bundt pan by coating evenly with soft butter, and sifting cake flour to cover entire inner surface of pan. Tamp out excess flour.
- Sift the flour, first amount white sugar, and salt three times.
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, on medium speed whip the egg whites with water, lemon juice, cream of tartar, and vanilla extract till frothy.
- Slowly stream in white sugar, 1T at a time, until all is added, gradually increasing the mixer speed to high. Whip until mixture is glossy and stiff peak.
- Take off the mixer and sift the flour mixture over, folding with a large spatula in three additions, being careful not to deflate or overmix the batter.
- Pour into prepared bundt pan, and bake in the bottom third of the oven for 15-20 minutes without opening the door.
- Rotate cake gently and bake until a skewer comes out clean, about 30-35min total. Watch the cake carefully near the end so as to not over-bake.
Whipped Cream
- Whisk cream with sugar till soft peak, just before serving.
- Let cool and turn out onto a serving tray. Serve by the slice with a dust of confectioner’s sugar, a spoon of berry compote and plain whipped cream, and a generous garnish of tarragon leaves.
Angelfood cake is one of those ubiquitous delicacies we all had in one for or another, sometimes so moist and delicate it left lasting memories, sometimes so dry and unremarkable we learned to hate the sponge cake.
But if you learn to make it fresh, any negative connotations you had before about it will melt into its soft crumb. Paired with this moody compote of blackberries and blueberries marinated together and garnished with a punch of licorice-laden tarragon, you have the makings of a very memorable dessert. Dollop the best organic whipping cream you can find alongside, and your guests will be talking for weeks about the meal.
I like to make the fruit compote earlier, even the morning of if I have time, so that the fruit has a change to marinate and for all the flavors to mellow together. So for the compote give yourself some time if you can, then choose the ripest and best berries you can find.
Scrape the vanilla bean seeds out and with lemon zest, add into the sugar and press in to extract the oils from the vanilla and lemon. This also acts to distribute the vanilla seeds, which want to clump together, evenly throughout. Add salt, then sprinkle sugar mix over berries with lemon juice and toss gently to coat. Cover and set aside to macerate.
For the angelfood cake, preheat the oven to 325F. It is essential the oven is already heated by the time the mix is done, for if the batter has to wait for a preheating oven, it will deflate and not be as fluffy. Prepare a 12-cup volume bundt pan by coating evenly using a pastry brush and very soft butter, then sift excess cake flour to cover the entire inner surface of the pan. Tamp out the excess flour and discard.
Sift the flour, first amount white sugar, and salt three times. Using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, on medium speed whip the egg whites with water, lemon juice, cream of tartar, and vanilla extract till frothy.
Slowly stream in white sugar, 1T at a time, until all is added, gradually increasing the mixer speed to high. Whip until mixture is glossy and stiff peak, which you can test by pulling the whisk off the mixer and taking a scoop of the meringue: does its peak stay stiff or fall over? You want it to just barely stay stiff: do not whip it so far it breaks, and looks like a scraggly mess, or it won't work!
Take meringue mixture off the mixer and sift the flour mixture over, folding with a large spatula in three additions, being careful not to deflate or over-mix the batter.
Pour into prepared bundt pan, and bake in the bottom third of the oven for 15-20 minutes without opening the door, then rotate gently and bake until a skewer comes out clean, about 30-35min total. Watch the cake carefully near the end so as to not over-bake.
Let the cake cool and then gently turn out onto a serving tray. Whisk cream with sugar till soft peak, just before serving. Serve cake by the slice with a dust of confectioner’s sugar, a spoon of berry compote and plain whipped cream, and a generous garnish of tarragon leaves.
Ingredients
Angelfood Cake
- 0.75 cup White Sugar
- 0.5 teaspoon Salt
- 13.5 ounces Egg Whites room temperature
- 1 tablespoon Water
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 13.5 ounces White Sugar
Blueberry-Blackberry Compote
- 2 pints Fresh Blueberries
- 3 pints halfBlackberries larger ones halved
- 0.5 cup Sugar
- 1 whole Vanilla Bean seeded
- 1 whole Lemon zested and juiced
- 1 teaspoon Salt
Whipped Cream
- 1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 2 tablespoons Sugar
Tarragon
- 1 leaves bunch Fresh Tarragon picked
Instructions
Blueberry-Blackberry Compote
- Scrape vanilla bean seeds and press with lemon zest into sugar. Add salt, then sprinkle sugar mix over berries with lemon juice and toss gently to coat. Cover and set aside to macerate.
Angelfood Cake
- Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare 12-cup volume bundt pan by coating evenly with soft butter, and sifting cake flour to cover entire inner surface of pan. Tamp out excess flour.
- Sift the flour, first amount white sugar, and salt three times.
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, on medium speed whip the egg whites with water, lemon juice, cream of tartar, and vanilla extract till frothy.
- Slowly stream in white sugar, 1T at a time, until all is added, gradually increasing the mixer speed to high. Whip until mixture is glossy and stiff peak.
- Take off the mixer and sift the flour mixture over, folding with a large spatula in three additions, being careful not to deflate or overmix the batter.
- Pour into prepared bundt pan, and bake in the bottom third of the oven for 15-20 minutes without opening the door.
- Rotate cake gently and bake until a skewer comes out clean, about 30-35min total. Watch the cake carefully near the end so as to not over-bake.
Whipped Cream
- Whisk cream with sugar till soft peak, just before serving.
- Let cool and turn out onto a serving tray. Serve by the slice with a dust of confectioner’s sugar, a spoon of berry compote and plain whipped cream, and a generous garnish of tarragon leaves.
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