The season of entertaining is upon us. I’ve partnered up with Sauza® Tequila to bring you a new cupcake recipe and some inspiring ideas for a fabulous Holiday Girls’ Night!
The holiday season is well underway. This is the craziest, busiest and most wonderful time of the year! Whether you’re an entertaining newbie or a seasoned pro, the role of hostess can be a stressful assignment. But entertaining doesn’t have to be hard. You just need a plan to make it all happen! So grab your girlfriends and celebrate the season with a fabulous girls’ night in. We’re keeping it elegant and effortless with light angel food cupcakes and a glass of Sparkling Margarita. It’s a refreshing change to the same old, same old holiday party. Let’s start with the cupcakes and move on from there! Priorities, right? Planning the cake always comes first!
Angel food cake is one of my all time favorites. It’s light and sweet and totally unexpected around the holidays. So I thought cupcake sized portions would be a great addition to a girls’ night in. It’s a refreshing change to the heavy desserts we often enjoy during the month of December. And definitely pairs nicely with a bubbly glass of wild berry Sparkling Margarita.
The greatest thing about these cupcakes? They look impressive but they could not be easier to make. We’re taking a classic angel food cake recipe and adding a small touch of lemon zest to brighten the flavors. Then topping with a sweetened whipped cream and fresh raspberries, creating a little airy delight. The only thing hard about these cupcakes… is eating just one.
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Snow Angel Cupcakes – light angel food cupcakes with lemon zest topped with whipped cream and fresh raspberries.
Author:Carrie Sellman
Yield:24+ cupcakes
Category:✽ ✽ ✽
Ingredients
For the Angel Food Cupcakes
2 cups granulated sugar, divided
1 ⅓ cups sifted cake flour
12 egg whites, at room temperature
¾ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons cream of tartar
zest of one organic lemon
When Ready To Serve
16 ounces heavy whipping cream, very cold
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
Fresh Raspberries
Confectioners’ Sugar
Instructions
Make the Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a food processor, pulse sugar until it is superfine. Roughly two minutes on low.
Combine ½ cup sugar with cake flour and sift together four times. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer filled with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites, salt and cream of tarter until medium firm peaks.
Sprinkle remaining 1 ½cups sugar over egg whites with mixer running. Mix until thick and shiny.
Add lemon zest. Mix several additional minutes until very thick. Remove bowl from stand mixer. Scrape down whisk attachment, removing all egg whites and zest.
Sprinkle ¼ of flour mixture into bowl and gently fold into egg whites using a clean rubber spatula. Repeat until all flour has been added.
Spoon batter into a muffin tin lined with cupcake wrappers. Fill each wrapper almost to the very top. Smooth top.
Bake 17 – 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes and then remove from muffin tin to cool completely.
When Ready To Serve:
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk chilled heavy cream and 4 tablespoons sugar until you have soft peaks.
When ready to serve, spoon a dollop of whipped cream on top of each cupcake. Top with a fresh raspberry and a sprinkle of confectioners sugar, if desired.
Notes
To make whipped cream topping in advance, use mousse powder, gelatin, cream cheese or another stabilizer to prevent the cream from deflating.
Now that we have the cupcakes covered, let’s talk about the rest of our Holiday Girls’ Night In! I love the idea of offering a selection of mini desserts and cookies for guests to nibble while sipping a glass of Sparkling Margarita. Small bites like cookies and cake pops let the girls sample a little bit of everything without the heaviness of a big dessert. Here’s a few ideas to get you started.
When decorating, go for a simple color palette of red and white. This updated twist on the traditional holiday colors has such a fresh look.
Linzer cookies are a classic treat that work nicely with our color scheme. Two almond flavored cookies are sandwiched together with a layer of jam. Get the recipe to make them HERE.
Cake pops get festive with a hint of peppermint and a striped stick. Make your own or cheat and order some HERE.
Serve upSauza® Sparkling Margarita with festive garnishes like cranberries, raspberries or rosemary.
Of course, we’ll include our Snow Angel Cupcakes!
Pull out your extra cake stands and top withornaments for a quick and easy centerpiece. Done!
If you’re ready to get the party started, you can find more Girls’ Night inspiration on my Pinterest board HERE.
Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Sauza® via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Sauza®. Cupcake recipe and photography by Carrie Sellman for The Cake Blog. Thank you for supporting the sponsors who help keep this blog going!
Angel food cake is one-of-a-kind, and no other cake recipe matches its super fluffy, airy texture. Though it's a type of sponge cake, it differs from other popular recipes because it's traditionally made using no butter or oil in the batter. Instead, beaten egg whites are the secret to its ultra-light texture.
Angel food cake rises entirely by the air beaten into the whites. And for maximum volume, the eggs should be fresh. Frozen thawed whites or bottled refrigerated egg whites will work, but the height of the baked cake will be compromised.
Angel food cake is a low fat cake recipe made mostly from egg whites, cake flour, and sugar. It's pristine white on the inside with a chewy light brown crumb around the exterior. What it lacks in butter makes up for in texture. This tall, tender, and timeless cake has a cloud-like crumb and ultra light flavor.
Cooled in the pan incorrectly: Inverting the pan ensures that the cake continues to expand and hold its shape once cooled. Cooling the cake upside down is crucial – if you cool the cake in the pan right side up, the cake will collapse on itself.
Do not grease the angel food cake tube pan (one in which the center tube is higher than the walls of pan and the bottom is removable.) You want the batter to cling to the side while it is rising. A greased pan will not allow the batter to rise. Use a spatula to smooth the surface of the cake.
Just like most cakes, angel food cake is best fresh but it can certainly be made ahead of time. If it's just 1-2 days, cover it as soon as it's cooled and leave it at room temperature. If it's longer, refrigerate it for a few days or freeze for up to a few weeks.
Because they have been pasteurized, liquid egg whites (from a carton) won't work in Angel Food Cake or other desserts like Meringue. The pasteurization process weakens the proteins in egg whites so they won't get stiff like they are supposed to.
Angel Food Cake is a great dessert for diabetics because, unlike many of its sweet counterparts, it's very low in sugar and carbs. Because of this, when consumed in moderate amounts, Angel Food Cake does not affect blood sugar levels.
Originating in the United States and first becoming popular in the late 19th century, angel food cake was so named because of its airy lightness. It was said to be the “food of the angels.” Making angel food cake requires whipping egg whites until they are stiff. Cream of tartar stabilizes the egg whites.
Angel food cake gets its lift from beaten egg whites. No egg yolks and no butter mean the cake contains no fat. And without the fat, the cake is also lower in calories than say pound cakes, cupcakes or ice cream. A homemade angel food cake isn't difficult to make and tastes far superior to most store-bought varieties.
Can I substitute all-purpose flour for cake flour? Yes, you can. You'll wind up with a similar cake, just with a slight difference in texture and crumb. Both flours perform the same in recipes — they'll mix into identical batters — but the final results will differ to a small degree.
The first story of angel food cakes can be traced back to the pre-Civil War era. It is said that the cakes were created by African-American slaves who had been given access to baking leftovers from their masters. These leftovers usually included egg whites, which were used to create the airy texture of angel food cake.
Give your boxed angel food cake mix a summery twist by adding a can of crushed pineapple to it. Gently fold it into the whisked batter, careful not to deflate the mixture. If you over-whisk it, the cake will turn out chewy and dense.
Without yeast to act as a leavening agent, an angel food cake relies completely on the egg whites to rise. You want to whip the whites just until they form soft peaks; whipping too much will make the cake chewy and dense.
Angel Food Cake is made using egg whites (no yolks) and no fat. Traditional sponge cakes will typically contain both egg whites and egg yolks, as well as fat (usually in the form of butter or oil).
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