Mocha Chip Angel Food Cake

Another new recipe I tried a few weekends ago was from the January 2011 issue of Everyday Food. This issue was called "The Light Issue" and there were a ton of fun low calorie/low fat foods in this issue that I totally want to try. I especially liked the dessert recipes!!

I immediatly wanted to try this recipe, and it was pretty good. The only thing that shocked me was that it took 12 egg whites. Talk about using up a whole dozen eggs! I didn't have anything to do with the egg yolks, so I felt pretty wasteful. Otherwise this was a very tastey recipe, although it wasn't as low fat as I would have expected Angel Food Cake to be. I assumed it would be fat free, but the recipe had 183 calories and 5 grams of fat per slice (of the Angel Food Cake only, not including the chocolate ganache).

Mocha Chip Angel Food Cake

Ingredients:
-- 2 tbs instant expresso powder
-- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
-- 12 large egg whites (at room temperature)
-- 1 tsp cream of tarter
-- 1 1/4 cups of sugar
-- 1 cup of cake flour (**See note at bottom)
-- 1/2 tsp coarse salt
-- 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips (6 oz)
-- 1 recipe for Mocha Ganache (see below)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, stir together the espresso powder, vanilla and 1 tbs of water until powder dissolves.

In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat 12 egg whites on med-high until foamy, about 1 min. Add cream of tarter and beat until soft peaks form, about 4 mins. Continue to beat, gradually adding sugar, until stiff glossy peaks form, about 2 mins.

Place cake flour** and salt into a fine-mesh sieve and sift over egg-white mixture in three additions, gently folding with a rubber spatula after each addition. Gently fold in espresso mixture and chocolate chips. Gently spoon batter into an ungreased angel-food cake pan with a removable bottom (mine didn't have a removeable bottom, I used a bunt pan, and I did have some trouble removing it). With a knife, cut through batter to release air bubbles, then smooth top. Bake until cake is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed, about 30 - 35 mins (I think I baked this for 30 mins and stopped because it was starting to burn in some areas, don't have it too close to the heating element, that might have been my problem).

Invert pan on a baking sheet and let cake cool in pan, about 1 hour. Run a thin knife around pan and tube, then unmold cake. As I mentioned above, mine didn't come out very clean, I had to work the knife a bit to get it out. Served drizzled with ganache (see recipe below).

Mocha Ganache:
Place 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (6 oz), 1/2 cup skim milk and 2 tsp instant espresso powder in a medium heat-proof bowl and set over (not in) a pot of simmering water. Stirl until chocolate metls and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and serve with cake. Refrigerate for up to 1 week. Makes 1 cup.

**Cake Four note: If you cannot find cake flour, which I could not, you can take a 1 cup measuring cup, and add 2 tbs of corn startch, and then fill up the remainder of the cup with all purpose flour. Luckily my mom found this quick fix on the internet (while I was at the grocery store searching for cake flour!!). I tend to call her all the time when I can't find something at the store, and she quickly googles substitutions for me. I guess I could do that on my phone, but I am always in a tizzy at that point...ha!