Anyone else ever used one of these for Angel Cake??

[turquoisedude]

I've had this pan for ages - found it at a now-closed church-basement thrift store in Montreal a few years ago.  I had never seen a glass tube-cake pan before, so I figured it was worth saving.  

 

It is marked as a Glasbake 352, but I never did find out much about it.  I can only guess that it might have been part of the aluminum-for-pyrex movements during the Second World War years.  I've seen eBay listings but the date claims vary from the 1930s through the 1950s.  No one seemed to have one listed with a starting bid of $1000, though... LOL 

 

But now all the Christmas goodies have been used up, it was time to start baking again and I thought why not try this pan out. 

 

[turquoisedude]

I used the small Angel Cake recipe from the Dormeyer Electric-Mix Treasures cookbook.  I was surprised at how much batter it made or my estimate that this pan is a 9-inch was way off... 

 

 

 

[turquoisedude]

And baked with Flair, bien sûr!   The cookbook said bake at 350; I reduced the temp 25 degrees, which what I always read to do when using glass pans.  

 

[turquoisedude]

Inverting the pan for cooling was a challenge... But the end result was outstanding!  I swear it is the moistest Angel Cake I ever made. 

 

And I had a good and dirty glass pan to test the new detergent dispenser on the Maytag dishwasher with...  

 

[ken]

Paul,

Looks good. Recipe please.

And why are Angel Food cakes inverted to cool? To minimize moisture loss? Or decrease chance of falling?

 

[turquoisedude]

Ken, I think that the 'foam' cakes (Angel, Sponge, and Chiffon) are inverted to keep them from collapsing.

 

As requested, here's the recipe I used:

 

1 1/4 cups sugar, sifted twice

1 cup sifted cake flour

about 10 egg whites

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

 

Measure out 1/2 cup of sugar and sift it with the cake flour three times.

 

Beat the egg whites until foamy, then sprinkle the cream of tartar over them.  Continue beating until the whites are stiff but not dry.   Gradually whip in the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar.  Quickly blend in the vanilla and almond extracts.

 

Carefully fold in the flour mixture, about 1/4 cup at a time, using a cake whip or whisk.

 

Flow batter into a 9 inch tube pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. 

 

 

 

[cadman]

That does look good! That Glasbake is interesting, sort of a cross between angel food and a bundt pan. I've got the common Pyrex version I use all the time, but nothing quite like this. -C

 

[chachp]

Easy to get out?

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">Paul, was it easy to get out of the pan?  How did you prepare the pan?  Crisco and Flour, PAM, Baking spray with flour in it?  I'd love to make one of these but I have this fear I'll never get it out of the pan in one piece. 

</span>

 

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">It really does look good.</span>

 

[turquoisedude]

Ralph,  believe it or not, the pan for an Angel Cake is ungreased.  Getting them out is a bit tricky but I have used a thin-bladed metal spatula for loosening the outer rim of the cake, then a regular table knife for the 'tube' part.  When the sides have been loosened, I just keep prying from the outside with the thin spatula and the cake comes out intact. 

 

Hmmm.... I think I'm going to have to make a video of this technique at some point!

 

[polkanut]

For such a delicate dessert, it’s surprising that the trick to perfect lightness is cooling the cake upside down. If it’s cooled right-side up, the cake collapses on itself and you’ll be left with a flat, donut-shaped disaster, which would go against everything you’ve done up to this point to yield an airy and delicate cake.

<ul style="padding: 12px 26px; margin: 18px auto; width: 312.188px; border: 1px solid #bbbbbb; color: #555555; font-family: myriad-pro, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 23px; background-color: #eeeeee;">
<li style="margin-bottom: 12px;">To avoid this catastrophe, cool the cooked cake upside-down until room temperature, about three hours.</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 12px;">If you don’t have a pan with feet, let it cool upside down with the center column of the pan resting on an inverted mug.</li>
</ul>
The end result will be the light cake that you’ve been dreaming of. And don’t worry—the cake won’t be harmed when it’s upside down. The sides will stick to the pan and everything will remain fluffy and in-place.

 

[bendix5]

If you have any grease or oil in the pan, mixing bowl or utensils the cake will most likely go flat. It pops the air incorporated in to the egg whites. Paul, your cake looks great. Yum. Angel food is one of my favorites and actually low calorie.

 

[tomturbomatic]

The glass pan reminds me of a Kugelhopf mold in size, if not exact shape.

 

I remember my mother making angel foods; all of the sifting and resifting of the flour and sugar, the Swans Down cake flour box, the special whisk that was used because the cake was made by hand. I remember the aluminum tube pan with the removable tube and bottom and the absolute fetish about no grease to the extent that the pan and all of the implements were washed with a separate dish cloth and dried with a separate towel. This was before the dishwasher. Not even the Rubbermaid dishpan could be used. There were other tube pans, but they could not be used for angel food cake because they have been used to bake pound cakes and there might a molecule of fat in the metal and fat would break down the egg white foam. Even the separating of the eggs was done with surgical precision because even a speck of the yolk would prevent the white from foaming up. After the cake batter was put into the pan, a knife was cut through the batter multiple times from the tube to the walls of the pan to break up large bubbles.  When it came out of the oven, she held the cake upside down while I positioned the three custard cups under the legs of the pan. When the cake was ABSOLUTELY cool, it was uprighted and a clean silver knife was used to cut between the cake and the wall of the pan and around the tube. Then the cake pan was inverted over a large plate and the outside of the pan was lifted off. Then the knife was used in a circular path between the bottom of the cake, which was now the top, and the cake was cut from the bottom of the pan. Oh, how delicious the crumbs were, so sticky and sweet. When the cakes were served by my mother, they were never cut with a knife, but torn with two forks pulled in opposite directions so as not to compress the cake with the downward pressure of a knife.

 

We knew some people who cooled the cake by putting a Coke bottle through the tube.

 

[chachp]

Wow. I had no idea!!

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">I likely would have tried to grease the pan.  I have an aluminum tube pan with the hollow tube.  I may have to give this a try. </span>

 

<span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">Thank you for the detailed instructions.  I really wouldn't have known to do all this.  I love fussy, involved recipes that use lots of utensils, the mixer, etc.</span>

 

[norgeway]

I have one of these also

But always thought it way too small for angel food, I use it for things like a coffee cake, or apple cake.

 

[ea56]

The reason you don't want to grease a pan that you will be baking an Angel Food Cake in is that the batter needs to "grip" the sides of the pan as it rises so that it will attain maximun height. If the pan is greased the cake won't rise properly. I remember well baking Angel Food Cakes in the old aluminum pans without the removeable bottoms. When the cake was finished baking I would place a large bottle neck inside the tube (wine bottle, soda bottle, something relatively heavy) and then turn the pan upside down and let the cake cool completely while hanging upside down on the bottle. This way the cake wouldn't fall. Then when completely cool I would run an thin bladed knife around the edge to loosen the cake from the pan, then bang the bottom of the pan sharply on the counter to loosen the bottom of the cake and place a serving plate on the top of the cake and invert the pan to remove the cake. They always came out clean and in one piece. Actually, I think the old pans without the removeable bottom made a better Angel Food Cake. The cake crust would stick to the bottom of the pan in a thin even coating that was tasty to scrap off and eat,(the cooks treat) and the top of the cake would be crumb free, white and ready to frost.
Eddie[this post was last edited: 1/22/2016-16:32]

 

[kimball455]

Glasbake pan

HI ..I have the same pan. Found it in a thrift shop. I use it for cold oven pound cake. It produces a fantastic crust. Today's thrift shop find was a yellow MixMaster with yellow bowels. Virtually unused.

Harry

 

[Marky_Mark]

That looks wonderful!  You've got me in the mood to make angel food cake now!  In the past, I have bought chemically bleached "cake flour" in the USA and brought it home with me.  This kind of flour has been illegal in Europe for a long time if it is bleached with chlorine, peroxide etc.  However it's supposed to produce a finer-textured angel food cake.

 

This is a photo of what I use.  Notice it has cute little legs to invert the cake for cooling.

 

[gfm8959]

Yellow bowels???

OH my goodness!

 

[norgeway]

Bleached flour illegal!!!!!

I would quit baking!!!!I don't like gray cakes and biscuits!