Angel Food Cake Conquered

I like to think that I'm an above average cook.  I like to eat good food so I like to cook good food, there are very few recipes that intimidate me and I'm not afraid of complicated ones.  There are however two foods that history has proven I can not cook, angel food cake and shortbread.  We'll talk about the cake today and the shortbead some other day.A few years ago I decided I wanted to make an angel food cake since I hadn't ever done it before.  I found a Brown Sugar Angel Food Cake recipe from Martha Stewart that looked delicious so I made it.  The process seemed just fine and I looked forward to the finished product only when I pulled it out of the oven it was super thin and dense.  I'm not used to cooking failures so it wasn't too long before I tried again with the very same result, a very thin, flat, dense cake.  Not what I was hoping for.  I can't remember if I tried a third time or not but I never succeeded so I got rid of my pan and resolved to buy them pre-made in the future.  That was at least 4 years ago and I've never made one since.Flash forward to last week when I made Creme Brulee with a friend, we made two batches so we ended up with 12 egg yolks (they were delicious by the way), that just happens to be the perfect amount for angel food cake so I figured I'd give it a go.I borrowed a pan from my Mom and used a regular recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook and I won!  This cake was delicious.  It was slightly dense and I would have preferred a tad less almond extract but otherwise it was a success.

Despite my success I'll be returning the pan and I won't be making another any time soon, I'm still just as happy with store bought cakes but it's nice to know I overcame my failure.  

One day I'll work on the shortbread.