The Adventures of Angel Food Cake

On Friday (at work), I decided to make an angel food cake pineapple upside down cake thingee. PP's Mimi made something like it and my sister had one too. I didn't have a recipe exactly so I kinda made something up. I used Alton Brown's Angel Food Cake recipe but I tweaked it just a bit. Here are the ingredients I used.

The first thing I had to do was to put the sugar in the food processor to make it super fine. My brother gave me an immersion blender for Christmas. It came with several attachments, one being a food processing attachment. As you can see I used it to make my sugar SUPER FINE. Note: the words super fine make me think of high school when girls described boys as fine. Strange thought...I know.

Once the sugar was super fine, I sifted half of the sugar with some salt and cake flour. I actually had cake flour on hand...again strange...I know...but I imagine you could use all purpose flour that has been made SUPER FINE.

Next I used a whisk to combine the vanilla, pineapple juice, almond extract, and egg whites. Since I was going for a pineapple upside down type angel food cake, I drained the crushed pineapple and used it instead of the water listed in the original recipe.

After hand whisking for a couple minutes, I used my handy dandy immersion blender again. It also has a whisk attachment...the thing is really fun and useful! I whisked the egg white mixture until medium stiff peaks formed.

Once the peaks formed, I added the rest of the flour mixture gradually. Alton says to sprinkle the top with flour then fold it in. So like a good girl I did as I was told. It got a little messy but was ultimately a success.

Lastly, I foled in the drained crushed pineapple and spooned it into the bundt pan.

Side note: Please actually follow the directions because I did not. Alton says not to grease the bundt pan but in my impatience I didn't read that part. You are supposed to turn the baked cake upside down on a heat proof bottle or funnel. I did not have anything that fit the bill...except a FULL wine bottle.

So I naturally had to empty it. I do enjoy a glass of wine but I can't manage a whole bottle in one night (usually) so I ended up doing this. I promise I am NOT a red neck.

After all that trouble, the bundt pan did not fit on the wine bottle. Plus, the cake slide right out of the pan. You have to leave the cake inverted INSIDE the pan until it cools almost completely. If you don't the cake with collapse on itself. I just left it on the counter to cool. I know this isn't the best picture but its what I got! I'll work on presentation ;)

If I make this again, I will not drain the crushed pineapple. You can't taste much pineapple flavor. I may even use more pineapple juice in the egg white mixture. But the cake was yummy. The outside is caramelized while the inside is light and fluffy. Overall, it was a success.
Now I am going to have a piece of cake and drink my jar of wine :)