Vanilla Bean Angel Food Cake

It’s Valentine’s Day! A holiday filled with chocolates, flowers, giant teddy bears and, in some cases, pools of tears in a pint of ice cream (hey, we’ve all been there).

This V-Day, I made the romantic gesture of asking my sweetheart to choose the sweet he’d like me to make for him.

Since the Big Day is now less than 9 months away and we’re trying to watch our waistlines, Sean chose a heart-healthy Vanilla Bean Angel Food Cake.  This seemed easy enough. A light, airy dessert topped with sweet strawberries and a dollop of cool whip would be the perfect treat for my other half's sweet tooth and his heart!

Well I was wrong.

This project turned out to be the worst dessert I’ve ever made…no joke.

First of all, the recipe calls for 12 egg whites. Don’t be lazy like me and buy the carton of just egg whites so you don’t have to separate a dozen eggs.  The cup-to-egg conversion on the container is either not ideal for baking or accounts for full eggs, not egg whites.

Secondly, don’t get cocky and ignore the specific instructions for this recipe. When the recipe says, “bake until cake springs back until lightly touched,” you should probably do that instead of poking it a few times and pretending you saw it spring back. Also, when the instructions advise you to let the cake “cool completely” before putting it onto a plate, give it at least a half hour instead of pacing around the pan and then hacking into it while it’s still steaming so you can get it onto a cake stand to take pictures.

In the end, the cake was no angel. It tasted like a sweet omelet and looked like a flat pineapple ring that you find in a tin can. Definitely not the light airy texture you’d expect for this type of dessert.

However, despite my failure and my attempts to just toss the cake in the garbage before Sean could take a bite, he grabbed a plate, cut a slice and ate the whole thing.

Despite the tragedy that I thought this cake was, it was actually the perfect dessert for Valentine’s Day, because it really summed up what love is about.

I’m not perfect. And sometimes, I’m a complete disaster. But I’ve found someone that, despite my flaws, insecurities and quirks, still sees the sweetness and loves me because and despite all of that.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Vanilla Bean Angel Food Cake

1 1/2 cups sugar, divided

1 (2-inch) piece vanilla bean, split lengthwise

1 cup sifted cake flour (about 4 ounces)

12 large egg whites

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1.) Preheat oven to 325°.

2.) Place 3/4 cup sugar in a small bowl. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean, and add seeds to sugar; discard bean. Work the vanilla seeds into sugar with fingers until well combined.

3.) Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and sugar mixture, stirring with a whisk to combine.

4.) Beat egg whites with a mixer at high speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar and salt; beat until soft peaks form. Add remaining 3/4 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Beat in juice. Sift flour mixture over egg white mixture, 1/4 cup at a time; fold in after each addition.

5.) Spoon the batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan, spreading evenly. Break air pockets by cutting through batter with a knife. Bake at 325° for 50 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Invert pan; cool completely. Loosen cake from sides of pan using a narrow metal spatula. Invert cake onto plate.