Food & Drink

Mmmm…caramel macchiato

I have Festival photos to post, but I wanted to get these up first. Because my new favorite thing, I’ve decided just now, is making angel food cake. I’m guessing that’s because it tastes so darn good when it’s done. But I’m a bit enamored of the egg-white-whipping process as well. Geeky.

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This one I’d found on Pinterest a few weeks ago and it immediately called my name, “Lori? Lori! You need to make this recipe. You won’t regret it!”

Today turned out to be one where I actually had the time. After three straight days in downtown Grand Rapids, I had one free day to myself. (Well, I was supposed to be on a field trip with my son, but I had an asthma attack last week. Ah, that’s another story.) And today just happens to be my 13-year wedding anniversary – and the day after Scott’s birthday, which he spent crewing stages at the before-mentioned Festival. So I went all cake-baked-bean-lemon-chicken happy and made dinner.

Starting with dessert, of course.

What’s that interesting looking concoction above? Well, this angel food cake is titled Caramel Macchiato Angel Food Cake, so that would be the macchiato ingredient, I believe. It called for espresso power, which I’m clueless about, but Starbucks Via Italian Roast worked great in its place. Just in case you were wondering.

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One dozen eggs. I had to crack 14, though. A couple outwitted me.

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The first time I tried this, I was soooo nervous about whether it would turn out. Soft peaks. Stiff peaks. How was one to tell the difference? But you know what? It’s easy. The egg-crackin’ part is the most challenging part.

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For some reason I really like folding in the flour and such afterward. First, I folded in the espresso-y stuff, which was kind of a new element. Although I felt I had sufficiently folded it, later I found that there were still smatterings at the bottom of the bowl. They ended up kind of “ribboning” through the batter and it made a cool effect. So all was well.

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And ta-dah! Well, it’s not my most smashing photo of an angel food cake. Rushing does that. But you get the idea of the scrumptiousness.

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Especially after Dev blobs on some whipped cream and raspberries. The original recipe calls for caramel sauce, but we didn’t have any and this combo seemed to work out just as nicely.

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