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Pumpkin Angel Food Cake from Scratch + Video

October 15, 2017

Most pumpkin angel food cake on the interwebs is made from a mix, but my pumpkin angel food cake is from scratch, and it is fabulous! Scroll down for video!
a photograph of a slice of pumpkin angel food cake from scratch on a plate with a scoop of ice cream and a pumpkin angel food cake in the background

Click here to save this recipe on Pinterest!

Pumpkin Angel Food Cake

How bizarre is it that I have to denote pumpkin angel food cake from scratch?  One might assume that this would be implied, but one would be wrong.  When I first thought (because I had a bag full of egg whites in my freezer, meticulously frozen one by one in ice trays as I used the yolks for other applications as well as a cup of pumpkin left over from making my signature pumpkin-banana-chocolate chip muffins) of making a pumpkin angel food cake, I began perusing the interwebs for recipes to inspire my recipe to no avail.  Every. Single. Recipe. that I found called for a box of angel food cake mix.  Are you kidding?

Look, there’s something that I know about angel food cake: beaten egg whites are fragile at best, temperamental at worst.  You just have to, as Julia Child put it, have courage.  Maybe you know the secret to beating a heavy, wet ingredient into your angel food cake batter and still turning out an impossibly tall confection with the pumpkin perfectly evenly distributed throughout the tight crumbs of the cake.  Me, however….well, I just decided that I was okay with the fact that this cake was not likely to be as tall as a plain angel food cake (it isn’t, though the height is still impressive) and that a pocket of pumpkin here and there was not a problem-in fact, it lends a lovely hint of just exactly what that mysterious ingredient is that adds a deep but not obvious flavor and a slight tinge of an orange color.   I was also okay with the fact that my slightly more moist than your average angel food cake stuck to the pan a little bit, leaving a hole that I promptly cut out with my first slice.

a photograph of a pumpkin angel food cake from scratch with a hole in it and a pumpkin angel food cake with a slice cut out of it

All Pumpkin All the Time!

Of course, pumpkin-based desserts are a traditional Thanksgiving offering, so I am sure that you are not surprised that I am giving you this pumpkin angel food cake recipe in November.  Traditional Thanksgiving desserts tend to be thick, dense, somewhat heavy, as in the syrupy sweetness of pecan pie (Philip’s poison of choice and something that I had to learn to make for him) and the thick custard of the ubiquitous pumpkin pie or a sweet potato pie.  

This is a light and airy alternative to those, something to cleanse the palate, something that’s virtually sinless on a day when you feel like you need to beg forgiveness for your food transgressions (though I never feel regret over eating fabulous food).  Served with an acidic scoop of buttermilk ice cream like I’ve shown here, this dessert is practically a health food (please ignore the sugar content in the recipe…ahem). (I still have pumpkin mini-trifles and pumpkin buttermilk pie up my sleeve, by the way.)

I hope you love this from scratch pumpkin angel food cake!

Shared on The Weekend Potluck on Served Up With Love!

Click here to save this recipe to your Pinterest Fall Baking and Pumpkin boards!


Mary

Yield: 10-12 servings

Pumpkin Angel Food Cake from Scratch

This recipe is adapted from America's Test Kitchen .

30 minPrep Time:

1 hrCook Time:

1 hr, 30 Total Time:

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Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar (10 1/2 ounces)
  • 3/4 cups cake flour-I used Swan's Down (3 ounces)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or Chinese Five-Spice Powder (I used Alchemy Spice Wake & Bake Sweet Spice Blend)
  • 12 Large egg whites (room temperature)
  • 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1/4 teaspoon table salt (or 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 3/4 cups pumpkin puree (fresh or canned)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. If you are using a tube pan that does not have a removable bottom (do these still exist??!?!?!), line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Whisk 3/4 cup of the sugar and the pumpkin pie spice or Chinese five-spice powder with the cake flour in a medium bowl.
  2. Whip the egg whites and the cream of tartar together over medium-low speed in a stand mixer for about a minute, until foamy. Increase the speed to medium-high and whip until puffy, about a minute, then add the salt and the remaining sugar a tablespoon at a time. Whip until soft peaks are reached.
  3. Remove from the stand mixer and gently whisk in the lemon juice by hand. Sift the flour/sugar mixture over the egg whites 1/4 cup and a time, gently but thoroughly folding in with a silicone spatula after each addition. Now, add the pumpkin puree 1/4 cup at a time, taking great care not to deflate the egg whites as you are folding. You will end up with a few pockets of pumpkin throughout the batter-that's okay.
  4. Carefully scrape the batter into the prepared tube pan. Tap the bottom of the pan against the counter a few times to settle it. Place in the oven for 50-60 minutes, until golden brown and springy.
  5. Remove the cake from the oven and immediately invert. Most tube pans have "feet" or the center portion is taller than the edges allowing the pan to stand off of the counter, but if yours does not place the center of the pan over a sturdy bottle. Cool like this for at least three hours before removing from the pan. This step keeps the cake from deflating as it cools.
  6. Run a thin knife or spatula around the edge of the pan to loosen the cake, then (assuming your pan has a removable bottom) push the bottom out of the pan and run the knife/spatula under the cake and around the center to loosen the cake from the base. Serve at room temperature.

Notes

A tube pan is essential to making this cake. Any other pan will not allow the cake to "climb" and reach the height that an angel food cake should reach, resulting in a squat, dense cake. You can buy an inexpensive tube pan at any store that sells home goods. It's worth the investment.

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https://chattavore.com/pumpkin-angel-food-cake-scratch/

a photograph of a slice of pumpkin angel food cake from scratch on a plate with a scoop of ice cream and a fork with a bite of pumpkin angel food cake on it
a photo collage with a photograph of a pumpkin angel food cake from scratch on a cake stand with a slice cut out of it and a photograph of a slice of pumpkin angel food cake on a plate with a scoop of ice cream and a fork with a bite of pumpkin angel food cake on it

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Filed Under: By Course, Dessert, Easy Baking, Easy Recipes, From Scratch, How to Cook From Scratch, How-To, Recipe Videos, Recipes, Videos Tagged With: cakes, desserts, special occasions By Mary // Chattavore 22 Comments

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Comments

  1. CassC says

    October 2, 2014 at 12:37 pm

    Thank you!!!! I just saw a link to pumpkin angel food cake on facebook and was disappointed when I saw it used a box mix. Angel food cake from a box is disgusting! I was even more upset when the first 4 recipes on Google were the same thing with a box mix. So happy that someone else out there felt the same way! I will be trying this tomorrow!
    Reply
    • Chattavore says

      October 2, 2014 at 9:23 pm

      I hope you like it!
      Reply
  2. Canning Queen says

    October 7, 2014 at 1:50 pm

    One of those "other recipes" from a magazine to go unnamed gave instructions to add a bit of the cake batter to the pumpkin and mix together before then putting the pumpkin into the remainder of the batter. I'm curious if that would alleviate the pockets of pumpkin within the finished product? I may do some trial and error.
    Reply
    • Chattavore says

      October 7, 2014 at 2:21 pm

      You know, I saw a recipe for chocolate angel food cake on America's Test Kitchen a while back where they used the same technique and I was thinking of retesting the recipe! Let me know if you try it. If I do I'll update!
      Reply
  3. Laura says

    October 16, 2014 at 12:35 pm

    Thank you for posting this recipe from scratch! I was not about to use a mix, but was a little leerie to try and make up my own recipe. It came together wonderfully and is in the oven- I can only assume it will taste fabulous! I think I will serve it with some ginger whipped cream (:
    Reply
    • Chattavore says

      October 16, 2014 at 2:35 pm

      Yum!!!
      Reply
  4. Mary Kirk says

    October 19, 2014 at 7:47 pm

    OMGosh! YES! I saw the link in Google for "from scratch" and thought FINALLY! Thank you thank you thank you!
    Reply
    • Chattavore says

      October 19, 2014 at 10:15 pm

      Glad you found the recipe, Mary! I couldn't believe when I couldn't find one last year.
      Reply
  5. Ron says

    November 15, 2014 at 11:37 am

    Thanks! I had a dream about pumpkin angel food cake (silly me, I thought that this was a completely original idea), and I'm making one for my wife's birthday tonight; when I searched the interwebs for ideas about adding ingredients to an angel food cake, I found your recipe.
    Reply
    • Chattavore says

      November 15, 2014 at 7:13 pm

      I hope your wife loves it, Ron!
      Reply
      • Lisa Barber says

        September 9, 2015 at 10:52 am

        Thank you! I have been looking for a home-make angel food.
        Reply
        • Chattavore says

          September 9, 2015 at 7:41 pm

          I hope you like it, Lisa!
          Reply
  6. Linda Russell says

    September 27, 2016 at 4:17 pm

    What would you think about using the traditional flavoring of vanilla and almond in the angle food cake with pumpkin?
    Reply
    • Mary // Chattavore says

      September 27, 2016 at 4:39 pm

      You know, I think that sounds pretty good, Linda. I love almond flavor in just about any sweet recipe.
      Reply
  7. Susan says

    November 16, 2019 at 10:27 am

    Thank you so much for a "scratch" recipe! I haven't had boxed mixes or any kind of prepackaged food in my home for many years so was surprised when I did a search for pumpkin angel food cake that most of them start with a mix. Thanks to you, this cake will be served for Thanksgiving this year. Thank you! Susan
    Reply
    • Mary // Chattavore says

      November 25, 2019 at 9:24 pm

      You’re welcome, Susan! I hope that you and your family enjoy the recipe!
      Reply
  8. Wendy says

    October 27, 2022 at 1:49 pm

    Wondering if a bundt cake pan would work?
    Reply
    • Mary // Chattavore says

      January 31, 2023 at 4:31 pm

      You can use a bundt pan for angel food cake, but I haven't tried it so I can't give you exact instructions. You could Google how to successfully get the cake out of the pan, as this is the main concern with using a bundt pan rather than a tube pan.
      Reply

Trackbacks

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    February 21, 2014 at 8:46 am
    […] Pumpkin Angel Food Cake from Scratch – Chattavore https://www.chattavore.com/pumpkin angel food cake from scratch // chattavore. Of course, pumpkin-based desserts are a traditional Thanksgiving offering, so I am sure that you are not surprised that I am giving you this recipe in November. Traditional … […]
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About Chattavore

Hi, I'm Mary! Welcome to Chattavore, a destination for people who want to feed themselves and their families well every day! Life can be crazy, which means that getting dinner on the table can be a challenge (more often than not!) and my mission is to take all your favorite recipes and figure out how to serve them on a Tuesday.

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Want recipes from scratch & restaurant reviews in your inbox weekly?
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