Angel Food cake - grease or not to grease?

[LeonardoAcropolis]

Hello, I have a freezer full of egg whites and I'd love to cook one of these, especially after seeing one on GBBO.

Do I grease the tin? Mary Berry says not to but my Rachel Allen recipe recommends you do and so does the technical book 'How to avoid a soggy bottom'.

What do you all think?

No, you can't grease. The reason being that grease makes your meringue a flop, and the sponge in an Angel Food cake is basically meringue with added flour.

You should either use a loose bottomed angel food cake pan, or if using a solid based one, put a disc of baking parchment in to the bottom. You need it to stick to the sides (and inner core) so that it does not drop out when cooling upside down -- so it doesn't sink.

I have not seen Rachel Allen's recipe, but it may be that it is not a true angel food cake. I am sure that it would be very nice, but it may be a variant.

Hello, thanks for your reply. Rachel Allen's recipe seems to be a true angel cake - it contains the same ingredients as Mary Berry's but slightly scaled down. She doesn't suggest cooling it upside down either, neither does the author of 'soggy bottom', who seems to be a technical expert.. I will cook mine in a normal cake tin, I don't have an angel cake pan!

No don't because it needs to grip the sides whilst cooking in order to rise, if you grease it it won't and will be very flat.

Hello! Made it, it was delicious. Didn't grease the pan but i used a disc of baking parchment at the bottom. It was light but had it been possible to cool it upside down it could have been lighter but not a massive problem in my opinion.