I was thinking it was similar to "Gold Cake" too. My mother made K C Gold Cake from a little booklet for K C Baking powder - copyright 1935. K C Gold Cake 1/4 c. butter (2 oz.) 1/2 c. sugar (4 oz.) Yolks of 4 eggs, beaten light 1 c. pastry flour, less 2 level tablespoonfuls (3-1/2 oz.) 1 level teaspoonful K C Baking Powder 1/4 c. milk Grated rind of 1 orange Cream the butter; add the sugar, the yolks, orange rind and milk; then the flour sifted with the baking powder three times. Bake in a tube pan about thirty minutes. [The recipe doesn't give an oven temperature, but I assume a moderate oven - 350°F.] Cover with Coconut Frosting. ------------------------------------------------------ By the looks of the cake, it has more of the characteristics of a quick bread (close crumb) instead of a shortened cake, probably due to the melted fat. The thick crust is an indication of too much egg. If the crumb was tough, rather than tender, that's also another indication of too much egg, as well as using flour with too much protein in it. But since the recipe was altered from another recipe in order to use all those yolks, that makes sense to have those characteristics. I agree, sift the flour and you'll probably avoid the flecks of flour in the cake. I vote for Coconut-Pecan Filling and Frosting as a good way to use 4 yolks... (nothing wrong with a little indulgence once in a while). I use powdered eggs and keep powdered whites, powdered yolks and powdered whole eggs on hand. By doing so I have all the egg choices - without the leftovers. I also make a lot of 1/2 recipes for muffins and other baked goods when I don't require full recipes, so it's easy to add 1/2 an egg by using powdered whole eggs. -Grainlady

For future reference, you can whip some dry jello powder into the batter. Just add a tablespoon or 2 at a time, until you get the flavor you want. You can add to the entire bowl, or just flavor some of the batter and make a marble angelfood cake. you can also layer angelfood batter with cinnamon sugar and nuts for a low-fat coffee-cake type concoction. Or you can add cocoa powder to the mix to make a chocolate angelfood cake. Cocoa is fat-free, so it won't ruin your AF cake--do NOT use melted chocolate, that won't work--the fat will deflate the egg whites.

I don't have angelfood cake experience, but I've made a lot of sponge cakes - both use whipped egg white instead of leavening agents to produce a fluffy cake so the rules are similar. I have never used a mix so I'm a bit suspicious that the mix may be the problem - perhaps that is just my anti-mix snobbery talking. I don't think the toothpick test is good for these cakes - the test I use is to gently push in on the top of the cake - if done it should spring back. After doing a few, you get a good feel for what it feels like when it is done. If the cake is staying together when you invert it to cool, then I doubt that under baking is the problem. The only times I have had an underdone sponge cake, the top separated and started to fall out of the pan when I inverted the cake. An hour may be a bit soon to take it out of the pan - the cake should be all the way cool before you remove it. The air bubbles encased by the beaten egg white are what is holding the cake up. The egg white bubbles are still tender when the hot cake comes out of the oven. They need to cool and firm up so they can stay inflated and support the cake. That is why you cool upside down - gravity pulling down and the pan bottom and sides holding onto the cake so the bubbles stay open and cool that way. lindac, I have rescued an underdone sponge cake - when I inverted the pan most of the top of the cake separated and fell on the counter - I turned the pan right-side up, quickly scooped up what fell out and flipped it back in, and put the pan back in the oven for a while - not the most perfect sponge cake I've ever made but it was okay for family. The worst cake disaster I still vividly remember even though it was about 40 years ago when I was just starting to bake sponge cakes. I put the cake in the oven and then realized I had left something out. I was in such a hurry to take the tube pan back out that I grabbed it by the center tube instead of the outside - so of course it separates and batter starts dripping onto the hot oven floor - what a mess!

Angel Food cake is the fine Lalique of the cake world. It has the highest percentage of sugar of most sponge-type cakes. However, the egg whites also play a major role in giving the cake its volume and structure. Btw, for those who may be wondering, Angel Food pans should never be greased - not the bottom, not the sides. The pan should always be grease-free for this type of cake. And (you probably already know this but for the occasional baker), it is important to note that as soon as A.F. cake comes out of the oven, you should immediately hang pan upside down, until cake is completely cool, to keep it from collapsing. Sol