The ultimate light and airy vanilla cake, this gluten free angel food cake is made with the simplest ingredients, in just the right amounts. It's the perfect fluffy white cake for serving with fresh fruit and cream, or chopping up for a trifle!
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Naturally dairy free, this gluten free angel food cake is made with nothing more than egg whites, gf flour, confectioners' sugar and salt, in just the right combination. Unlike a classic gluten free vanilla cake, angel food cake doesn't have whole eggs, buttermilk, butter, or even baking powder or baking soda.
Impossibly light and spongy but never dry, gluten free angel food cake is made for warm weather weekends. Slice it thick, and serve it with seasonal fresh berries and cream, as it doesn't get weighed down and soggy very easily.
Cube it, and serve it as a parfait. And if you ask my kids, serve it for breakfast: it's practically health food since it's made almost entirely of miles of whipped egg whites.
A good gluten free angel food cake is light as air, and will never, ever leave you feeling heavy and regretful on a hot day—or any day. It's extremely low fat, and has a delightfully cloud-like texture inside that melts in your mouth, and a lightly chewy outer light brown crust.
How to make gluten free angel food cake
There's a particular rhythm to making a classic angel food cake. You can of course read through the recipe instructions and watch the how-to video and learn the step-by-step.
Here's the bird's eye view of how to make the batter for gluten free angel food cake:
- Angel food cake batter has 2 parts, the flour blend part, and the egg white part. Half of the confectioners' sugar gets paired with the flour blend part, and the other half with the egg whites.
- Sift your gluten free flour blend (here we're using mostly all purpose gluten free flour, plus some cornstarch for a lighter crumb), and half the confectioners' sugar together—4 separate times. I know it seems like a lot, but without sifting these dry ingredients, they won't be airy enough and will almost certainly have unpleasant clumps.
- Whip the egg whites with some water, some flavoring, and the other half of the confectioners' sugar together.
- Combine the two parts by hand by carefully folding the lovely, fluffy, sifted dry ingredients into the fluffy whipped egg whites. This is your angel food cake batter. It's whipped up with lots of air, so handle it lightly.
- Transfer the mixture to a dry tube pan, and smooth the top lightly.
- Run a flat edge through the batter to break any too-large air bubbles. They would create empty pockets in your otherwise uniform, fluffy cake. The pan will be nearly full.
- Place the pan in the center of the preheated oven, and bake for about 35 minutes. When the cake is done, a cake tester inserted near the center will come out clean, the top is lightly browned, and the cake springs back when pushed gently.
How to handle your cake after it's baked
Gluten free angel food cake must be cooled in the pan, upside down. The easiest way to do that is if your tube pan has 3 or 4 little feet that extend just beyond the lip of the pan. They're designed for this purpose.
If your pan doesn't have feet, simply invert the pan over the neck of a long neck bottle. The neck goes into the hole in the center of the tube pan.
Once the gluten free angel food cake has cooled, you'll need to separate it from the sides and the neck of the pan. Run a knife or offset spatula between the pan and the cake. You'll disturb the surface of the cake a bit, but that's meant to happen.
FAQs
No! Any regular angel food cake that you might find is made with some form of wheat-based flour, making it not safe for anyone on a gluten free diet. Stick with a gluten free recipe like this made with all gluten free ingredients.
Yes! To make this cake a show-stopper, all you really have to commit to is to sift the dry ingredients 4 times. I hate sifting dry ingredients even once, but it's essential here.
An angel food cake is so simple and has so few ingredients, and its light and fluffy texture is the whole point here. Sifting the flour mixture removes any clumps, and aerates it so that it distributes almost effortlessly into the whipped egg whites.
You can try to make an angel food cake in a loaf pan, but the batter is very light and relies entirely on egg whites for its structure, so you really do need something in the center, like a tube pan, for the batter to cling to as it rises. You can try using a bundt pan, but it can be very hard to get the cake to release from the ridges.
It depends. Since egg whites in the carton are pasteurized, they are less able to create enough structure to support a high-rising, stable angel food cake. You can try replacing some of the egg whites with those in a carton, but I wouldn't use more than 1/3 of the total, or about 145 grams here.
When baked goods rise and then fall as they cool, they are usually underbaked so the inside doesn't have the structure to support the outside as steam escapes. This is usually due to a too-hot oven, which bakes the outside very quickly, long before the inside gets a chance to develop the proper structure. Use an oven thermometer, and use the doneness test specified in the recipe.
This cake is done baking when a cake tester inserted near the center comes out clean, the top is lightly browned, and it springs back when pushed gently.
Yes! Angel food cake is made with about 3 times as much egg whites as flour, but it must be made with flour for structure. Here, we use an all purpose gluten free flour blend, with some added cornstarch for lightness and tenderness in the crumb.
The role of a tube pan in angel food cake
The best tube pan comes in two nonstick parts that fit together loosely: one part is the sides, with a hole in the bottom. The other part is the center column and bottom of the pan.
Place them together, and you have a complete pan, with tall sides and a tall center. These tall, nonstick but ungreased sides provide the perfect structure to support the light and fluffy cake batter, as it bakes.
I'm afraid to say that I tend to think of tube pans are semi-disposable as they always give out and start to stick after about 10 uses. I just accept it as a fact of life and make sure I buy an inexpensive 2-piece nonstick tube pan (that's an affiliate link; feel free to shop around!).
How to make it without a tube pan
You canmake this cake even if you don't have a tube pan, but I don't recommend using another similarly-shaped pan like a bundt pan (someone always asks). Instead, you can divide the batter between two high-sided nonstick loaf pans, and start checking for doneness after 20 minutes.
You'll need to cool your angel food cake upside down on top of a wire rack, which won't elevate the cake as much as it should. You will have a harder time getting the cake out of the pan, but it shouldn't be impossible.
You can also try making our recipe for gluten free pineapple angel food cake, which is a bit heavier, and made in a round cake pan. Not only that, but you don't even have to sift the dry ingredients for that cake!
But even with the sifting, this recipe for angel food cake is so simple and never fails to impress. Let the celebrations begin!
Popular ingredient substitution suggestions
Sadly, you cannot make this light and fluffy gluten free angel food cake if you substitute any of the ingredients specified. This cake only calls for gluten free flour, confectioners' sugar, and egg whites, and you simply can't make it without egg whites as they're the dominant ingredient.
I do think that there is a way to make angel food cake using aquafaba in place of egg whites. Aquafaba is the brine in a can of garbanzo beans or chickpeas, and can be whipped to soft peaks much like egg whites can. They aren't a perfect substitute, though, so making this cake vegan with aquafaba would take some experimentation.
How to use up leftover egg yolks
If you're separating 12 to 13 actual eggs to get enough egg whites to make this recipe for gluten free angel food cake, you are going to have a ton of egg yolks left over. Here are a few recipes that you can make with at least some of those egg yolks:
- Gluten free egg noodles will use 4 egg yolks
- Gluten free Swedish meatballs will use up 3 egg yolks
- The custard in this gluten free trifle will use a whopping 8 egg yolks; plus, you can use your gluten free angel food cake in the trifle in place of the gluten free pound cake.
- Creamy gluten free key lime pie uses 6 egg yolks
Gluten Free Angel Food Cake Recipe
Equipment
- 10-inch cast aluminum nonstick tube pan
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (105 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend (I used Better Batter; please click thru for full information)
- ¼ cup (36) cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum omit if your blend already contains it (use a heaping 1/4 teaspoon)
- 1½ cups (173 g) confectioner’s sugar (divided into two equal parts)
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ¾ cups (430 g) egg whites (whites of about 12 eggs), at room temperature
- ⅓ cup (2 ⅔ fluid ounces) warm water
- 1½ teaspoons cream of tartar
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract (can substitute 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract)
- Berries and whipped cream for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Set a 10-inch nonstick tube pan (preferably a two-piece tube pan that has a removable bottom) to the side. Don’t grease or otherwise prepare it.
Sift the dry ingredients.
- You will sift the flour and cornstarch 2 times, then add the cornstarch and xanthan gum to the mixture and sift twice more. This is an essential step.
- Set a medium-size bowl and 2 pieces of parchment paper on a flat surface, along with a sifter.
- Place the flour blend and cornstarch in the sifter, and sift onto the parchment paper. Shake the flour blend and cornstarch off the paper back into the sifter and sift onto the other piece of parchment.
- Shake the flour blend and cornstarch off the paper along with the xanthan gum and ¾ cup (86 grams) of the confectioner’s sugar back into the sifter. Sift it all onto the parchment paper.
- Shake everything from the parchment paper back into the sifter and sift one final time (for a total of 4 times) into the mixing bowl.
- Add the salt, and whisk to combine.
Make the cake batter.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or a large bowl with a handheld mixer, beat the egg whites, warm water, cream of tartar and almond (or vanilla) extract until begging to foam (about 30 seconds).
- With the mixer on medium-high speed, add the remaining 3/4 cup (86 g) confectioner’s sugar in 3 or 4 batches, until soft peaks form (3 to 4 minutes).
- Once all the sugar has been added, increase the speed to high and beat until peaks become stiff and glossy, about another 2 minutes. The beater will begin to leave a trail in the whites, which are now a meringue. Remove the mixing bowl from the mixer.
- In 4 batches, add the sifted flour mixture to the meringue, gently folding in the flour by hand with a silicone spatula after each addition. Work quickly but carefully, so as not to deflate the egg whites. The mixture should be fluffy but relatively stable.
- Carefully transfer the cake batter to the ungreased tube pan. Run a butter knife or small offset spatula carefully through the batter in a careful circular motion to release any trapped pockets of air. Smooth the top with a silicone spatula. The pan will be nearly full.
Bake the cake.
- Place the pan in the center of the preheated oven, and bake until a cake tester inserted near the center comes out clean, the top is lightly browned, and it springs back when pushed gently, about 35 minutes. Don’t overbake.
Cool the cake.
- Invert the pan over a long-neck bottle if your pan doesn’t have legs to elevate it from the counter when inverted. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for at least 1 hour.
- Re-invert the cake so it’s right-side up. Coax the cake away from the sides and neck of the pan with a butter knife or offset spatula (ideally, plastic, so you don’t scratch the pan).
- If your pan is in two parts, with removable sides, press upward on the cake bottom and remove it from the rest of the pan. Run a straight edge along the bottom of the cake to separate it from the bottom of the pan.
- Place a wire rack on top of the cake, then invert both onto a wire rack. Remove the bottom of the cake pan. Allow the cake to finish cooling to cool to room temperature.
- Slice the cooled cake with a large serrated knife. For a clean cut, move the knife in one direction only, rather than sawing back and forth. Plate each slice with the optional berries and whipped cream and serve.
- Angel food cake freezes very well. You can wrap the whole, cooled cake tightly in freezer-safe wrap and freeze whole. You can also wrap individual slices tightly and freeze. Defrost at room temperature before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
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Hi, I’m Nicole. I create gluten free recipes that really work and taste as good as you remember. No more making separate meals when someone is GF, or buying packaged foods that aren’t good enough to justify the price. At Gluten Free on a Shoestring, “good, for gluten free” just isn’t good enough! Come visit my bio!
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