You Can Have Your Cake And Eat It Too - Chocolate Speckled Angel Food Cake

Changing food habits is so hard, but I am doing it and am very proud of myself.  One thing hard to give up - the junk food - cakes, cookies, pies, all the good things, that taste so good!  I didn't want to give them up, but I had to.  I have to rethink the foods I like to eat in different ways, how to have my sweets and and eat them too.  Angel Food Cake is always a staple in the house, but the boxed version, as well as the store bought version weren't cutting it for me.  You really don't know what is in the package, preservatives, fat, unknown ingredients.  So I challenged myself to make one from scratch, something I have never done before.  I always thought that making Angel Food Cake was complicated, well I found out it's not really, and it tastes so much better than boxed or store bought.  I added some grated chocolate to my cake, to give it some color, and it made me think I was eating something really sinful!  Recipe below.

Some of my ingredients, check out the egg whites in the container, makes your life easier and no wasting eggs.  My old standby, I can't live without her!

 You should use cake flour for an Angel Food Cake, it is lighter than all purpose flour.  If you do not have cake flour, check online for ratio of how to mix with all purpose flour.  Mixing in the grated chocolate, and poured into a tube pan.  My tube pan has a lift out bottom, so I put it on a baking sheet just in case it spilled out.  Thankfully it didn't.

 Baked and out of the oven,  It was so delicious served with plain berries (no sugar) and fat free whipped cream.  See, you can have your cake and eat it too!

Chocolate Speckled Angel Food Cake

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups of cake flour, such as Softasilk

1 1/2 cups of sifted white sugar

1 1/2 cups of (room temperature) egg whites from a 16 oz. container of egg whites, see note

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 1/2 teaspoons of cream of tartar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 squares of semi sweet chocolate, grated fine

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine 1/2 cup of the sugar with the flour.  Sift the mixture together twice. Set it aside.  Combine the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.  Beat on high until the egg mixture forms stiff peaks, this takes about 1 minute.  Reduce the speed to medium and shake the remaining 1 cup of sugar evenly over the egg whites.  Whisk until the egg whites are shiny and thick.  Mix in the vanilla and continue to whisk until all is combined. Starting with a 1/4 cup of the flour mixture, fold it into the egg whites with a large spatula.  Continue with 1/4 cup measurements, keep folding it into the mixture until all of it is incorporated. Fold in the grated chocolate.  Pour into an ungreased 10 inch tube pan.  Smooth out the batter on the top.  Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top is browned and springs back when touched.  Remove from the oven and invert on a wire rack.  DO NOT TRY TO REMOVE THE CAKE FROM THE PAN, but you can run a knife around the edge to loosen all the crispy crust.  The cake will fall out of the pan on its own.  Transfer to a serving plate when cooled.

NOTE:  The grocery store now sells egg whites in a carton in the dairy section.  No need to crack all those eggs and waste them!