An angel food cake is a light, fluffy, high-rising cake that is basically a sponge cake without egg yolks or fat. To make a good angel food cake, you just need to know a few basic tricks.

• Whip the egg whites properly. Angel food cake is made with a large quantity of egg whites, which are whipped into a foam; this foam provides all the cake's leavening.
• Don't grease the cake pan. The rising batter must cling to the pan sides and hold itself up. The sides of a greased pan will be too slippery for the cake to rise.
• Preheat the over. The cake should not be sitting around waiting to rise, allowing the air cells to deflate while the oven heats up. The oven must also be the correct heat: The ideal temperature is 325 degrees.
• Test for doneness. Use something long and thin to test the cake for doneness, such as a clean broom straw, a long thin knife, or a thin bamboo skewer.
• Invert the pan. As soon as the cake is done baking, turn the pan upside down and stand it on its feet or hang it upside down over the neck of a bottle or tall funnel. What you want to do is invert the cake until it has completely cooled to ensure it will be firm enough to hold its rise.
• Saw, don't cut. To cut angel food cake, use a sawing motion with a serrated knife or a prolonged angel-food cutter (a tool that looks like a row of thin nails attached to a bar). Just remember that if you try to cut the cake with a regular straight-blade knife, you will end up pushing down on the cake, which will flatten it. Freeze it first for easier slicing.