K is for Kahlua Angel Food Cake

Kahlua was invented in 1936 when a chemist, Senor Bianco, added Arabic beans to a liquer recipe from the Alvarez brothers. Kahlua then became a well known brand as it became the number one liquer brand in the world in 1984 and has sold 3.1 million cases in the United States, even though it was only brought over in 1962. Similar liquers include Tia Maria, which is the one I used in this recipe, Kamora and Kona gold. On the other hand, Angel Food cake has been an american staple for hundreds of years. Because lots of labor and strong arms are needed to whip the egg whites, historians believe that African AMerican slaves baked the first Angel Food Cake, because they are also traditional post-funeral foods.

I had never had Angel food cake before this. I was expecting super light and airy with the perfect twinge of coffee liquor aftertaste, like this yummy Chinese sponge cake my mom would buy at the bakery.

Instead of buying a whole bottle of Kahlua, I used some of my parents old coffee liquor that is probably 1,000 years old.

But that is not what I ended up with...this recipe made go "eh". No offense but it kind of ruined this perfect idea of angel food cake for me.

But it was partially my fault; I didn't stir it well enough and there were chunks of flour all over the cake. But not only that, the recipe said to put the batter in an ungreased baking pan, but when in came out, it was super sticky. I had to inch a knife around the a couple of times before it even started to budge, I wanted to use my hands to coax it out of the bundt pan, but it only left the gooey topping of the cake on the surface of my hands.

I didn't like the spongy-ness to begin with and it just got even more spongy over time. It had an awkward taste as well; the coffee wasn't strong enough for it to be coffee cake, but it also wasn't too little for it to be a hint.

The Kahlua liquor also added that alcohol flavor that I wasn't expecting or wanted. I brought some to my friend, who also ate my janky, dry biscotti. I feel bad, he's getting all my bad desserts.. Even after I brought a huge hunk of it to my friend, there was still a third of it left, until one day I came home from school and didn't wanna look at it anymore so I threw it out.
Recipe from page 57 of Cuisinart cookbook.
Until next time, put those sweet teeth to work and always ask "What's for dessert?"