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Chocolate Chip Angel Food Cupcakes

Chocolate Chip Angel Food Cupcakes

Angel food cakes are just delightful – fluffy, soft and sweet. The full size cakes are light, but sometimes you just don’t need a whole big cake. Maybe you don’t have an angel food pan, which is crucial to success in baking a full angel food cake, or maybe you don’t want to use up a dozen eggs just for the egg whites. Perhaps it’s just too much cake to have lying around the house. Whatever the reason, it’s good to know that angel food cake can be adapted into a cupcake recipe quite easily.

Angel food cupcakes are light and fluffy, just like their big brothers, but bake up in a regular muffin tin. They’re not quite as impressive to look at (small and with flat tops), but they taste great and are a yummy snack. I don’t frost angel food cupcakes because they are so soft that their taste and texture can be lost if you use too much as a topping. I opt for a simple glaze, if I’m going to top them, or leave them plain.

To dress up this batch, I mixed some chocolate to make chocolate chip angel food cupcakes. I used some bar chocolate (dark and white chocolate) and chopped it up to act as my “chips.”  Chopping up the chocolate is actually one of the most important things you need to do for this recipe before mixing them into the batter. Full-size chocolate chips can be too heavy for the delicate cake and will sink down to the bottom, causing not only an uneven distribution of ingredients, but probably causing the cupcakes to stick to the pan. Chopped chocolate – and you can use any flavor you like – will remain suspended in the cake nicely.

One other thing to keep in mind is that it is better to either use a nonstick muffin tin or very lightly grease your pan. Cupcake wrappers tend to shrink around the cake when it cools, while the cake can cling to the sides of the pan as it cools to help maintain its ultra-fluffy texture.

Chocolate Chip Angel Food Cupcakes
3/4 cup sugar, divided
1/2 cup sifted cake flour
5 large egg whites, room temperature
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup coarsely chopped chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Very lightly grease a 12-cup muffin pan (skip this step if your pan is nonstick).
In a small bowl, sift together cake flour and 1/4 cup superfine sugar.
In a large bowl, beat room-temperature egg whites until foamy, then add in cream of tartar and salt. Gradually add in the remaining 1/2 cup of superfine sugar while the mixer is on high speed, beating the egg whites to soft peaks. Blend in vanilla extract.
Fold in flour mixture, adding it in two or three additions, and fold in chocolate chips when all other ingredients have been incorporated.
Divide evenly into prepared muffin tins, filling them just about to the top.
Bake for 16-18 minutes, until tops are golden brown and the cakes spring back when lightly touched.
Cool on a wire rack (unless you have a convenient way to flip the whole cupcake pan upside down). Cupcakes may sink slightly when cooled right-side up, but there is not a great difference between cooling them upside down and not with these small cakes.
Cool completely before using a butter knife to release the cupcakes from the muffin pan.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

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30 Comments
  • Betsy
    February 20, 2009

    These look great – so light! I’ll have to try them.

  • Sugar Duchess
    February 20, 2009

    What a great way to do angel food cake. These look so delicious! And that plate makes for a stunning photo, too.

  • Phoo-D
    February 20, 2009

    This is brilliant! I’ve never seen Angel food cake made this way and just love it. A cake is always too much for the two of us, so muffins would be a perfect solution.
    Phoo-D

  • youri
    February 20, 2009

    Thank you for this recipe! I love angel food cake but don’t have the proper pan- but I do have muffin tins so now I can make these cupcakes! πŸ™‚ I think they would be lovely plain with fresh whipped cream and strawberries.

  • Elyse
    February 20, 2009

    I love the idea of making angel food cupcakes…so much less of a hassel, with 100% of the goodness. Add those chocolate chips, and I’m beyond sold! These look great!

  • Roxie
    February 20, 2009

    What a great idea! I use egg yolks in my homemade ice cream, now I have a great use for all those egg whites.

  • Foodess
    February 20, 2009

    I like to use angel food cupcakes as a base for strawberry shortcake. Chocolate in the angel food sounds like a great addition to me!

  • Betsy
    February 20, 2009

    These look great – so light! I’ll have to try them.
    P.S. – Sorry, forgot to tell you great post!

  • Betsy
    February 20, 2009

    These look great – so light! I’ll have to try them.
    Sorry, forgot to add great post! Can’t wait to see your next post!

  • Betsy
    February 20, 2009

    These look great – so light! I’ll have to try them.
    Oops…forgot to say great post! Looking forward to your next one.

  • Betsy
    February 20, 2009

    These look great – so light! I’ll have to try them.
    Sorry… forgot to say great post – can’t wait to read your next one!

  • Deseree
    February 20, 2009

    These look absolutely divine!

  • Betsy
    February 21, 2009

    These look great – so light! I’ll have to try them.
    BTW I love your blog!

  • Sarena
    February 21, 2009

    I think this is a great idea! I love individual desserts like this! Thanks for the recipe!

  • snooky doodle
    February 21, 2009

    these looks so nice and light. I have to try them πŸ™‚

  • Aunt LoLo
    February 22, 2009

    i made these this morning for a dinner party this evening. DELICIOUS! I’m not great at following recipes – for the Dry ingredients, I used ap flour, with cornstarch, and table sugar. They taste like marshmallows!

  • Alisa - Frugal Foodie
    February 22, 2009

    Too funny, I actually had on my “to bake” list angel food cupcakes! I had wondered why no one seemed to blog about them πŸ™‚

  • Jen
    February 23, 2009

    What a unique cupcake idea! Great tips too πŸ™‚

  • Ngoc
    April 4, 2009

    Lovely – just made these for a dinner party tonight (sans chocolate chips), and they were a huge hit. Don’t know why it’s never dawned on me to scale down angel food cake into cupcakes when every other cake I make has been scaled down. Thanks for the inspiration. πŸ™‚

  • Karin
    August 28, 2010

    I made these and there was barely enough batter to fill one muffin pan following this recipe… and they were really small! i am going to try and triple the ingredients, they were only a half inch high.

  • Elizabeth
    April 5, 2011

    Is it essential to use superfine sugar? What difference would it make if I used regular granulated sugar?

  • Adreane
    January 25, 2012

    These are sooooo good! We didn’t use chocolate and they were just fine. I used reg sugar and the batch turned out great. Only problem, didn’t make enough πŸ™‚

  • Catherine
    May 4, 2012

    So good! Had no idea one could make angel food into cupcakes (although why not?). I spread them with a thin layer of Nutella as frosting.

  • Vicki Evans
    September 22, 2013

    This is a great recipe! I found that if you put the mix in to muffin or cupcake cases made of paper it makes it really easy to turn them upside down to cool. Also it means that there is no butter so it is dairy free!

  • Gabi
    May 1, 2014

    I am making these cupcakes right now, as I had a lot of egg whites leftover after I made dozens and dozens of alfajores and wasn’t sure what to do with the egg whites…..I can’t wait to try them! Thank you for the recipe!

  • Michelle
    May 15, 2014

    I made these today without the chocolate chips and oh my gosh are they delicious! A wonderful way to use up egg whites and only 75 calories each! I will definitely make these again.

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