Chocolate Angel Food Cake

[Brian Hammons]

Wow! Am I ever excited! In about 15 minutes I get to pull out of the oven my first ever attempt at a made-from-scratch angel food cake. . . and a chocolate one at that! I sent my wife Joyce over to her mother's so I could work alone in the kitchen and surprise her with this Valentine's Day gift. (Roses don't work. . .the cat eats flowers heheheheh lucky me:basic05 Oh my! In the words of a famous NazNetter, "Did I Just Say That?!?!?).

But, I have a question for some of you much more experienced bakers. The recipe called for about a half-cup of semi-sweet chocolate. So I get a couple of 1 ounce pieces and grate away. I grated it onto a small plastic cutting board. When I went to pick up the board to combine the chocolate into the flour mixture, nearly all the chocolate JUMPED, yes, jumped off the board like iron filings avoiding a magnetic field. I thought maybe the grating was so fine that my breath may have dislodged it. Sooo, I cleaned up my mess, grated more chocolate, held my breath, and it happened again. What in the world is going on??? Does my kitchen need an exorcism? I really did turn around and look for hidden cameras.

Gotta run and check the progress. Maybe I can talk Joyce into posting the results of my newest venture.

[Barb Bouldrey]

Don't know what caused the problem except static electricity. Maybe the chocolate was eager to jump into the batter.

I hope you used chocolate that was not just baking chocolate...because sometimes there is no sugar in baking chocolate.

You are tempting me.....just about an hour ago I said, "I would love a big piece of chocolate cake." A no-no for a diabetic...even angelfood chocolate.

I hope it turns out just great.

Barb

[Brian Hammons]

I'm such a dummy! I didn't even think about static electricity. As a science teacher, that should have been my first thought. But then again, in this house, the chocolate doesn't sit around long enough to observe that type of phenomenon.

The preliminary results are questionable. As it is cooling, it seems to be falling more than I would have expected.

[Jen Blackburn]

As it is cooling, it seems to be falling more than I would have expected.


please tell me you turned it upside down to cool! that's what you're supposed to do with angel food cakes!

[Gina Stevenson]

Well, Brian, some of what used to be the best of angels have fallen, too. :basic05

As Jen has already said, too ... you did have the pan up-side-down, didn't you? If you left it upright, where you could watch it fall, well ................ Up-side-down helps it fall away from the bottom of the pan where it's still sort of "stuck" towards the top of the pan (stretching it out some), rather than towards the botom of the pan. 'Bet you can do a perfect one next time! ;)

I'm such a dummy! I didn't even think about static electricity. As a science teacher, that should have been my first thought. But then again, in this house, the chocolate doesn't sit around long enough to observe that type of phenomenon.

The preliminary results are questionable. As it is cooling, it seems to be falling more than I would have expected.

[Brian Hammons]

Actually, I didn't. I wanted to, but the cone in the middle of the pan is higher than the perimeter, and after a little consideration, I thought the whole thing might mess up more if I did invert it. The recipe called for it to cool upside down. The pan I used is one of these one-piece silicon bakeware pans. The directions that came with it said to invert the pan after cooling.

Joyce has returned home and was surprised w/ my venture. It isn't the most attractive creation, but she declares it to be quite edible. Given that it's for Valentine's Day, what else can she say?!

[Joel Merrill]

LOL, I've got one of those plant eating cats too. :fav14 My cat even eats silk flowers! Then she empties herself on the carpeting if you know what I mean. :eek: We never let her outside. We've had too many cats get hit by cars.

My wife likes to go out to eat. So when I want to do something for her I take her to a nice restaurant in another town. :)

Joel :basic03