Toffee Angel Food Cake

The strawberries are coming in. The first handfuls this week, eaten standing in the garden in the afternoon sun — the ritual, the non-negotiable first treatment. I've been tending this patch for seven years now and it keeps getting better: denser plants, more fruit, the berry flavor concentrated from years of the same roots in the same soil. You can't rush a strawberry patch. You establish it and you maintain it and after six or seven years you have the thing.

Made shortcake on Saturday when the berries reached their first real quantity. Helen's biscuit recipe — the rich version with cream rather than butter, which produces a flakier crumb — with the berries sliced and macerated with a little sugar and the whipped cream I made by hand rather than with the mixer, which is slower but produces a better texture. Ate it for dinner. All of it. It was June shortcake weather and I had June shortcake for dinner and no commentary was required.

Carol drove over on Sunday and I made it again. She said: I forgot how good this is. I said: the berries are from the patch, that's why. She said: it's not just the berries. I said: no, but the berries are the beginning. We sat on the porch in the late afternoon eating shortcake and talking about what Carol was seeing in her garden, which is in its first full year of actual production. She's pleased in the way of someone who did the work and is receiving the result. That's the best kind of pleased.

After two rounds of shortcake in one weekend — Saturday alone, Sunday with Carol — I started thinking about what it is that makes this season’s desserts feel so specific and irreplaceable. It’s the lightness. It’s the sense that the cake itself should stay out of the way of whatever fruit and cream you’re building around it. This toffee angel food cake sits squarely in that tradition: airy enough to serve in June, just sweet enough to feel like a occasion, and a natural platform for a spoonful of macerated berries if you happen to have a patch coming in.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 40 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 12

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups egg whites (about 12 large eggs), room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
1 cup cake flour, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup toffee bits (such as Heath baking bits), divided
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Instructions

Preheat and prepare. Heat oven to 350°F. Have a 10-inch ungreased tube pan ready — do not grease it, as the batter needs to cling to the sides to rise properly.
Beat the whites. In a large bowl, beat egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt with an electric mixer on medium speed until foamy. Gradually add 3/4 cup of the granulated sugar, increasing speed to high, and beat until stiff glossy peaks form. Beat in vanilla and almond extracts.
Fold in the flour. Sift the cake flour with the remaining 1/2 cup sugar in three additions, gently folding each addition into the egg whites with a wide rubber spatula until just combined. Do not deflate the batter.
Add the toffee. Fold in 1/2 cup of the toffee bits with the final flour addition, distributing evenly without overmixing.
Bake. Spoon batter into the tube pan and smooth the top. Bake 38 to 42 minutes, until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. The cake should spring back when lightly pressed.
Cool inverted. Immediately invert the pan onto its legs or over the neck of a bottle. Let cool completely, at least 1 hour — this step is not optional. The cake will fall if cooled upright.
Remove from pan. Run a thin knife around the outer and inner edges of the pan. Invert onto a serving plate and lift the pan away.
Whip the cream. Beat heavy cream and powdered sugar to soft peaks. Spread or dollop over the top of the cake and scatter the remaining 1/4 cup toffee bits over the cream just before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Toffee Angel Food Cake — The Shortcake Spirit, Carried Forward