Angel Food Method

Angel food cakes are based on egg-white foams and contain no fat. For success in beating egg whites, review the principles of egg white foams. Egg whites for angel food cakes should be whipped until they form soft, not stiff, peaks. Overwhipped whites lose their ability to expand and to leaven the cake. This is because the protein network in stiffly beaten whites has already stretched as far as it can. If the whites are whipped to soft peaks instead, they can stretch more during baking, allowing the cake to rise.