Sounds like it may not be fully baked. Have you use a cake tester and comes out clean?

Cake Tester???

Elaborate please! Are you talking the "clean toothpick test"?

Lucy's right...under baked....check your oven temperature....and remember with angelfood cakes....a little over baked is better then under baked.
Linda C

"clean toothpick test"

yes

You said you wait until the cake is brown. Then immediately invert the cake onto a rack?

Angel Food Cake should be slightly golden when it comes out of the oven, not brown.
And I'm wondering, do you invert the cake onto a rack immediately after it's removed from the oven, or do you invert it onto a bottle first (or anything that will keep the cake upside down, while providing enough air circulation between the pan and the surface the cake is rests on), until it is completely cooled?
It's crucial to keep AF cake suspended while it cools.

Here's an old thread with plenty of information. And may you never have a flat tire again.

Sol

solsthumper,

Thank you very much for your reply. However every cookbook and recipe tells me Angel Food cake should be very golden brown and feel dry to touch between the cracks, which leads me to belive overdone is the better side of error with respect to Angel Food.

I am a feel and nose person when it comes to cooking. Like I said I am ignorabt when it comes to baking, but Light Brown just doesn't sound right.

Many times I will just toss a piece of foil over the top of the AF cake if it seems to be browner than I like...
Only once did I have an angel food fall into a flat pancake on my counter....and ever after I have baked them until they feel done to the touch....sort of springy and firm....
Linda C

Hey Texas, seems you and I haven't been hitting the same books ;-o
An AF cake that is overcooked, will be dry. But, that's just my opinion.
I've done a little baking, and so I was wondering whether you allowed the cake to cool upside down over a long-necked bottle. That is, unless your pan comes equipped with "feet" that elevate it.

Another thought, make sure that everything that touches the egg whites are grease-free, or you'll have trouble getting enough volume on your cake, which will result in a "fallen angel." Good luck.

Sol

Sol, thanks for your information. AFC is on my TODO list for next year.

I remember my mother putting her AFCs over a shot glass to cool and I forgot all about that!

Thanks for linking the Fallen Angel thread too..coped and saved!

Michelle

I know very well that angelfood cake should be a lovely golden color and not dry.
But, unless you have had Sol's experience, sometimes it's hard to tell just when that moment comes. Through a lot of years of using up egg whites ( my son was allergic to egg white) I have decided that a slightly dry, slightly overdone cake is a lot better than one that falls into a puddle on the counter.
So...when faced with the decision...is it done yet?? I say just a few more minutes. And particularly when advising someone who is new to angelfood cakes, I say better a little dry than not cooked enough.
Not too many things that you can say better to err on the side of over cooking, because most things can always be cooked a little more, things like steak, veggies and a pie. But not angelfood cake. Once it falls out of the pan....you're done!! LOL!

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!

Cloud said:

If the cake is staying together when you invert it to cool, then I doubt that under baking is the problem.

Bingo, the top half usually breaks away. I do use a bottle to invert, and the top half usually falls out and plops on the rack.

THX

TW

I've never had the top half break away....just had the whole thing fall out....took my lovely cake out of the oven ( no mixes here either) and went to do something else....I remember well the time it happened I was expecting company and had strawberries and whipping cream to go with the cake....and the whole thing fell out on eht counter...like a wet sponge. I did save the edges and made sort of a trifle with the whipped cream and the berries....but it was not what I expected!

Tex, it sounds like your oven is too hot - that could produce a cake that is done or overdone on the outside and under done on the inside. Do you have an oven thermometer to check the temp?

lindac, are you greasing the pan or using a non-stick pan? The pan should be free of grease and not non-stick so that the cake holds onto the sides of the pan.

Another possibility: Does your oven have a convection feature you're using? Convection will brown the exterior while the inner portions may well be insufficiently baked.

This whole conversation brings up very fond memories of my dear MIL who had a beer bottle on her corner cabinet turntable. When we were closing out the estate, grand-daughter could not understand why teetotaling grandma would have, much less save, something like that. It was because, even though her angel food pan had feet, she preferred the higher elevation of inverting over a bottle.

Carol

Using regular oven. Put rack in middle of oven. The cake,
while in the oven, falls in the middle and the sides bake up the sides of the pan. I've made 5 cakes with same result. Any more suggestions, I've read all the suggestions and didn't see my situation posted.