Ingredients
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sifted cake flour
- ¾ cup unsifted sugar
- 1½ cups egg whites (11-13 whites)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1½ teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 cup sifted sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 wine bottle
Preparation
Assemble ingredients and utensils needed. Use a 10-inch deep, ungreased tube cake pan.
Separate whites from yolks. Let whites stand until room temperature.
Sift flour once before measuring. Combine cake flour and unsifted sugar. Sift the flour and sugar mixture five times.
Combine room temperature egg white and salt into the mixer bowl. Beat on high speed until foamy, about 30 seconds. Add cream of tartar. Continue beating on high speed until whites are stiff and stand in points, about 2½ to 3 minutes. Do not overbeat until dry. Rapidly sift sugar into a mixer bowl while beating on medium speed. Beat only until sugar is blended, about 1 minute. Scrape bowl gently toward beaters and up and over with a folding motion. Turn to low speed. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon almond extract. Sprinkle in sifted flour mixture evenly and quickly. Beat only enough to blend, about 1 ½ minutes. Scrape bowl gently toward beaters with folding motion to blend in quickly. Gently put into the pan. Carefully, cut through batter with a knife or spatula, moving in a circular motion 6 times, to release large air bubbles.
Bake at 375° for 30-35 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and invert the pan until cool. Using the top of a wine bottle, allow inverted pan to cool by resting it on top of the wine bottle. Once cooled, loosen the cake with spatula and remove from the pan. Top with strawberries or icing of your choice.