Angel Food Cake

Steps

• Prep: Heat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Do not grease the tube pan — the batter needs bare sides to cling to and climb during baking.
• Prep: Make sure the mixing bowl and whisk are completely clean and free of any grease, and separate the eggs carefully with no trace of yolk in the whites.

  Tip: Any fat at all — a greasy bowl, a speck of yolk — will stop the whites from whipping to full volume. This is the single most important precaution in the whole recipe.

• Whites: Whip the egg whites with the cream of tartar and salt until foamy, then gradually add half the sugar, continuing to whip until glossy, stiff peaks form.
  ⏱ Start 6 min timer
• Fold: Sift the remaining sugar with the flour, then sift a third of it over the whipped whites and fold in gently with a large spatula. Repeat in two more additions, along with the vanilla.

  Tip: Fold, don't stir — big, slow, deliberate strokes that cut through the centre and turn the bowl. Every rough motion here deflates the foam you just built, and there's nothing else leavening this cake.

• Bake: Scrape into the ungreased tube pan and run a knife through the batter to pop any large air pockets. Bake until golden and springy, and a skewer comes out clean.
  ⏱ Start 38 min timer
• Cool: Immediately invert the pan (most tube pans have feet for this, or balance it upside down over a bottle) and let hang until fully cool.
  ⏱ Start 90 min timer

  Tip: Cooling right-side up lets gravity collapse the delicate risen structure before it's set. Upside down, gravity is instead stretching it taut while it firms up.

• Unmold: Once fully cool, run a thin knife around the edges and centre tube to release, and turn out.