I had quite a few roomies when I was in university.  One roomie I had didn't cook at all, except for a wicked spaghetti sauce (and what more do you need really?), unless it involved 15 minutes or less of her life.  Another roomie was meticulous.  She cooked to the letter or number of the recipe.  No deviation.  No ifs ands or buts.  Everything tasted fine if sometimes a little uninspired.  Yup.
Another roomie hardly ever used a cookbook but she made everything from scratch.  That was awesome.  I learned so much from her.  I really thought that it just wouldn't matter what we had in the flat, if she wanted to make something then she would find a way to make it work.  Something would turn up from somewhere and be a substitute for something else.  It didn't always work of course but it seemed at the time like it did.  We also had a blast cooking together.
I've ended up assimilating the asthetic rather well and as a result have gotten too lackadaisical about 'the correct' ingredients.


This cake is a perfect example.  I'm supposed to be using cake flour but I don't usually keep cake flour.  To be honest, when I have baked with cake flour I've found the result to be a cake that is too dense for my liking.  Anyway, I sifted the all purpose flour and sugar together multiple times, from one bowl to another.  Still, my cake does not look like the one in the pictures at all.
Maybe I didn't bother to figure out whether I had exactly 12 egg whites.  I just throw the egg whites into a container in the freezer after making ice cream with the egg yolks.  So who's counting?  I didn't make any big substitutions though... yet still my cake looks weird.  It's got this strange angle thing going on.  It's like the middle of the cake just kinda crapped out.  Weird.


Fortunately it just looked weird and if I had covered it in icing then no one would have been the wiser.  The icing would probably really make the thing but it was the middle of the week and I was too damn lazy, truth be told.  The taste is nice although I prefer just a little more tang.  Perhaps a little more juice?  Maybe just more zest.  Maybe just icing... not sure.
The moral of the story:  Sometimes substitutions can work and sometimes they make things look weird.



Lemon Angel Food Cake adapted from Cozy Kitchen
makes one cake

1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
12 egg whites
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla
grated rind of 1 lemon
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt

Butter and flour an angel food cake tin (it's supposed to have legs apparently but I just have a tube pan)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Sift together the flour and sugar.  Sift 4 times in total.
Beat the egg whites until they just start to form stiff peaks (about 10 - 12 minutes or so).  Add in the cream of tartar, vanilla, lemon rind and lemon juice.  Beat for a little longer or until the mixture is doubled in volume and quite stiff.
Gently fold in the flour/sugar mixture in thirds mixing well but gently after each addition.
Gently pour the contents in the tube pan.  Run a knife through the batter to remove any air bubbles.
Bake for 45 - 50 minutes or until it's risen well and is golden on the top.
Remove from oven and cool for about 1 1/2 hours before removing from the tube pan.
(optional)
Add icing once it's completely cool.
Icing
heavy cream
icing sugar
lemon juice