Angel Food Cake -- Fred Jarvis' 1930's era recipe

I became acquainted with Fred Jarvis when I began teaching Home Economics at Abilene High School in 1968. Hired right out of K-State University, Mr. Jarvis took me under his wing helping me with 1960s era technology such as the ditto/mimeograph machine which produced purple handouts and left novice teachers with purple hands!

Early on he proudly told me that he made angel food cakes from scratch. Years later, after his death, his daughter, Mary Kathryn Jarvis Beck, shared his recipe along with these details . . .  Daddy went back to high school after he graduated in 1930 because there were no jobs. One of the classes he took was a cooking class. This angel food cake recipe is from a notebook filled with recipes from that class.

It always took Daddy a long time to put the cake batter together and no one was allowed in the kitchen during the baking or for an hour or so after.

He would set the eggs out 5 to 6 hours in advance. (Meta’s note: Today this would be considered too long for raw eggs to set out; 30 minutes should be sufficient but not over 2 hours.)
Amazingly, he beat the egg whites by hand. Always!

Fred Jarvis’ Angel Food Cake  . . . with a few clarifications along the way; also check out my Tips, Hints & Explanations below.

It helps to have all ingredients measured and prepped before beginning this recipe.

1 cup Swans Down® cake flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup egg whites (8 to 10 eggs)

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar (ultra fine sugar may be substituted; because it is so fine, it dissolves quickly)

¾ teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon almond extract

1. Sift the flour 5 or 6 times and set aside.
   
2. Add salt to egg whites and whisk by hand (medium speed of electric mixer using whisk attachment) until whites become foamy/frothy.
   
   
   
   
3. Add cream of tarter and then sprinkle sifted sugar, by the spoonful, over egg whites beating until stiff peaks form—peaks that hold their shape. For those beating the mixture by hand, Fred's recipe says, “Beat in the same direction." (Or, medium to medium-high speed of mixer using whisk attachment.)
   
4. Once sugar is incorporated and white from stiff peaks, add flavoring and then begin sifting flour into the egg-sugar mixture (I spooned in the sifted flour a couple of tablespoons at a time); carefully fold in to incorporate the flour without deflating egg white mixture. When folding in, Fred's recipe instructs, "Go down anywhere with spoon (I used a silicon spatula) but always bring it up on the edge when folding ingredients in. Always fold-in ingredients in the same direction.”
   
5. Carefully spoon batter into and ungreased angel food pan (a 2-part tube pan insures easy cake removal), and gently smooth top. 
   
   
   
   
6. Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours in preheated 275° oven; check for doneness with a wooden toothpick. The toothpick should come out clean.
   
7. Once out of oven, immediately turn angel food cake upside down to cool.
   

Jarvis family photos from Mary Kathryn Jarvis Beck . . .

 L to R, Fred Jarvis, Linda Jarvis, Margaret (Peggy) Jarvis Stewart, Mary Kathryn Jarvis, and Dorothy Jarvis. Taken at Margaret's graduation from Arizona State in 1965 . . .

Mr. Jarvis teaching typewriting skills in his AHS classroom, 1968 . . .

How Fred's recipe differs from others — in other recipes I’ve made, part of sugar is mixed in with the flour; most are baked for 35 minutes in a preheated 350° oven. Baking at a lower temperature for a longer time seems to avoid the characteristic cracks generally associated with angel food cakes. His recipe also yields a somewhat denser cake than other recipes I've made.

Meta’s Tips, Hints & Explanations:

• Cold eggs are easier to separate but room temperature egg whites will whip faster & produce a larger volume than those that are cold. (So, like Fred, separte cold eggs and allow them to come to room temperate before proceeding with recipe.)
• Cream of tarter is used to lower the pH of the egg whites. This helps stabilize the protein in the whites producing a higher quality foam. 
• Egg whites will not foam in the presence of fat so check to make sure the mixing bowl and beaters do not contain even traces of fat or oil. Since egg yolks contain fat, it is also extremely important that no yolk is mixed in with the whites. As an egg is cracked, place the egg white into a small clean (fat free) bowl and then dump into the mixing bowl; continue, never trying to separate the egg directly into the bowl of  whites. That way, if the yolk accidentally breaks into the white, you won't ruin the rest of the batch. 
  
• Sugar increases the stability of egg foams but delays foaming. That’s why recipe directions say to beat the egg whites until foamy before adding sugar,
• Angel food batter should be carefully spooned into an ungreased angel food pan. The tube, in the pan, helps the heat to get to the center quickly so the cake will bake evenly.
• The angel food pan must be turned upside down following baking otherwise the cake will fall. 
• To remove cake from a 2-part tube pan, run a dinner knife around the inside of the cake and the tube in the center. Push cake out of pan and set the tube on a cake plate (see below). Run a knife between between the bottom portion of tube pan (as shown below) and the cake to release; the cake will drop onto the plate.
  
  
  
  

Recipe without photos . . .

Fred Jarvis’ Angel Food Cake  . . . with a few clarifications along the way; also check out my Tips, Hints & Explanations listed above.

It helps to have all ingredients measured and prepped before beginning this recipe.

1 cup Swans Down® cake flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup egg whites (8 to 10 eggs)

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar (ultra fine sugar may be substituted; because it dissolves quickly)

¾ teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon almond extract

1. Sift the flour 5 or 6 times and set aside.
2. Add salt to egg whites and whisk by hand (medium speed of mixer using whisk attachment) until whites become foamy/frothy.
3. Add cream of tarter; then sprinkle sifted sugar, by the spoonful, over egg whites beating until stiff peaks form—peaks that hold their shape. For those beating the mixture by hand, Fred's recipe says, “Beat in the same direction." (Or, medium to medium-high speed of electric mixer using whisk attachment.)
4. Once sugar is incorporated and white from stiff peaks, add flavoring and then begin sifting flour into the egg-sugar mixture (I spooned in the sifted flour a couple of tablespoons at a time); carefully fold in to incorporate the flour without deflating egg white mixture. When folding in, Fred's recipe instructs, "Go down anywhere with spoon (I used a silicon spatula) but always bring it up on the edge when folding ingredients in. Always fold-in ingredients in the same direction.”
5. Carefully spoon batter into and ungreased angel food pan (a 2-part tube pan insures easy cake removal), and gently smooth top. 
6. Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours in preheated 275° oven; check for doneness with a wooden toothpick. The toothpick should come out clean.
7. Once out of oven, immediately turn angel food cake upside down to cool.

   

   We covered a slice of Fred's Angel Food Cake with homemade chocolate sauce, coconut whipped cream and sliced strawberries for our Valentines Day dessert.