My daughter recently had her 5th birthday.  I decided to stretch my baking skills and make something unique.  After scoring the web I decided to make a Cappuccino angelfood cake.  Well, originally just chocolate but the addition of a little espresso powder was too good to pass up.

I ended up making two things.  A layered angel food cake with original angel food cake  and chocolate espresso angel food cake and chocolate espresso cupcakes both toped with a marshmallow frosting that was lightly toasted.  The recipes for everything is at the bottom of this post.

I’ll start with the cupcakes.  I only used a 2/3 of the batter and filled up 2 dozen cupcake trays.  Once cool, I took the 7 minute frosting and put into a sandwich bag and cut a hole to create a piping bag.  I swirled the frosting on top.  It will deflate if your not careful, so the trick is to do them in small batches.  Once I had 4 or so done, I would pick up the brulee torch and lightly caramelize each cupcake.  This adds a nice burnt smore flavor as well as helps hold the frosting in place.  I repeated this until all the cupcakes were done.

You may think you’d want to omit the espresso, but it adds a nice layer of depth of coffee flavor without overpowering the cupcakes.  It also pairs and compliments the chocolate flavor.  And for kids, the amount your adding is so small that t’s not going to effect them any more than the sugar that’s already there.

The Cake was a little more tricky.  I used the remaining 1/3 of the cupcake batter for the top of the layered Angel Food cake.  First take a spring form pan about the size of the top of the angel food cake and spray with some nonstick spray and then floured it. I then poured in the remaining batter and  baked that until the top was mostly dry (about 30-40 minutes).

I took that out and let it cooled (it will pull away from the sides, that’s ok).  Pop it out of the springform and set aside.

Place the Angel Food cake on a serving plater.  Place some of the 7 Layer frosting on top and place the Cappuccino Angel Food cake on top.  Cover with more of the frosting, adding some swirls on top.  Again using the brulee torch, lightly caramelize the entire surface.  This can all be done ahead of time as the frosting will keep the cake nice and moist without letting it dry out or adding too much moisture.

You end up with a nice layered cake with the rich chocolatey and basic vanilla flavors melded together with a nice slighly burnt marshmallow cloud.  You might want to be careful with how much frosting you put on top… otherwise you may end up with a huge, and delicious, mess.  As seen at left.

Enjoy.  Now if I can figure out what to do with all these egg yolks…

Angel Food Cake
I typically follow Alton Brown’s version of the Angel Food Cake.  It’ always come out pretty good. I don’t have cake flour, I tend to just use regular flour.  It comes out a bit denser.  If you have it great, if not it’s not a huge deal.

Chocolate Angel Food Muffins
(The original recipe from The Galley Gourmet made 8 muffins.  I tripped the recipe to get 24 cupcakes and enough to add a second layer to my angel food cake.  I omitted the chocolate chips form the original since I was putting frosting on them.  Not sure exactly how many cupcakes it would make by itself… guessing around 3 dozen.  Guessing 8 muffins = 12 cupcakes)

Recipe below will make about 3 dozen.  See the original recipe for amounts for a single dozen.

• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder (you can finely grind instant espresso if you can’t find this)
• 2 1/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
• 18 large egg whites at room temperature
• 2 large pinches of kosher salt
• 2 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350º F. Line a 3 12-cup standard cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Lightly spray the top of the pan with non-stick baking spray.  Don’t over spray or the angel food cupcakes won’t rise right.

Combine the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and about half of the sugar. Sift it together. Set aside.

Attach a whisk to your mixer and beat the egg whites, salt, cream of tartar, and vanilla on high until soft peaks form. With the mixer still running, gradually add the remaining sugar and beat until the mixture reaches stiff, glossy peaks, about 2-3 minutes. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the beaten egg whites in three or four additions.  Make sure you don’t mix too much or you will deflate the foam.

Generously fill each muffin liner high with the batter.  Each liner will take about 4 heaping tablespooons.  Bake until the tops are puffed and dry, about 30 minutes. Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for 1 hour before removing.  This helps the muffin retain its shape.  Once cool, remove.

7 Minute Frosting
This is an oooollllddddd recipe from the Better Homes & Garden cookbook.  If you have ever had “Fluff” it’s essentially a creamer version of that. If you haven’t, think marshmallow frosting.  In order to make all the frosting I needed a double batch, but if just making cupcakes or a cake 1 batch should be enough.

• 2 Egg Whites
• 1 1/2 cups Sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
• 1/3 cup Cold Water
• dash of Salt
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (or extract of your choice: orange, almond, etc)

Place all the ingredients except the extract into a double boiler. Mix completely.  While heating, whisk with an electric beater (or electric whisk) until it starts to form peaks (about 7 minutes).    Remove from heat and add extract.  Beat/Whisk to incorporate.