Aunt Bea's Maple Sponge Cake with Vanilla Glaze

One of our bakers had a birthday. Since we didn't think she should have to bake herself a cake- we decided to test this family recipe on her. This recipe comes from Roger Aldrich's Aunt Bea. It's a sweet cake, but not overly so. It would go well as a light dessert with coffee after a dinner party, and if you have any left over, we don't think anyone would judge you if you chose to have a slice for breakfast the next day too. 

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 cups of Maple Syrup 

8 Egg Whites 

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups of cake flour 

1 tsp of baking powder 

8 egg yolks 

1 tsp of vanilla extract

Glaze: 

1 Cup of Confectioners sugar 

2 Tbsp of milk

1/4 tsp of vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Separate 8 eggs, set yolks aside for later. Heat 1 1/2 cups of Maple Syrup to boiling. While your syrup is heating, beat the 8 egg whites and 1/2 tsp of salt to stiff peaks.  Continue to beat the egg whites, while very slowly pouring the hot syrup over them. Stop beating at this point, from here on out, treat the batter very gently.

 In a separate bowl sift together 2 cups of cake flour, and 1 tsp baking powder. Gently fold the flour and baking powder into the egg whites, being careful to not deflate the egg whites. Beat your egg yolks together with the 1 tsp vanilla until lemon in color. Gently fold this mixture in as well. Carefully pour the mixture into an ungreased angel food cake pan.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 50 minutes (or until a knife inserted comes out clean). While that is baking make your glaze by combining confectioners sugar, milk and vanilla and beating until smooth. Remove your cake from the oven. 

Allow it to cool upside down in the cake pan until COMPLETELY COOL, at least an hour. Use a knife to loosen it from the edges and drop it out of the pan, upside down onto the plate you'd like to serve it on. Pour your glaze over the top. Slice and enjoy!