Angel Food Cake
Angel food cake is the cake most people assume they lost with their diagnosis, and it is actually the easiest one to get back. Almost all of the structure comes from whipped egg whites, not flour. There is only one cup of flour in the entire cake, and it is doing a supporting job, which means the usual gluten-free problems of grit, density, and gumminess barely get a chance to show up. What you need is the right flour, cold clean equipment, and a little patience with the sifting. This is Pamela's original recipe, made with our 1:1 All-Purpose Flour, and it bakes tall, cloud-light, and faintly sweet, with the pale golden crust and slight chew at the edges that a real angel food cake is supposed to have. So good, no one will guess it is gluten-free, the way Pamela's has done it since 1988.
Recipe Updated: August 14, 2026
Why You'll Love This Angel Food Cake
- No cake mix required. One cup of 1:1 All-Purpose Flour is the entire dry side of this recipe.
- It bakes tall. A 10-inch tube pan filled nearly to the rim, with the height a proper angel food cake is supposed to have.
- Naturally dairy-free. There is no butter, no milk, and no cream anywhere in the cake.
- No cornstarch, no crutches. Most gluten-free angel food recipes cut the flour with cornstarch. This one uses four or five siftings instead.
- It is the base for a dozen desserts. Strawberry shortcake, trifle, berries and cream, or a plain slice with coffee.
Is There a Gluten-Free Angel Food Cake Mix?
Pamela's does not make a gluten-free angel food cake mix, and for this particular cake you genuinely do not need one. Angel food cake gets its structure from whipped egg whites rather than flour, so a mix is only supplying about one cup of dry ingredients out of a cake that is mostly meringue. A few gluten-free angel food mixes do exist, but they are hard to find in stores and you are still separating and whipping the eggs yourself, which is the actual work.
What matters far more than a mix is the flour you reach for, because angel food is the least forgiving cake in the gluten-free repertoire. Heavy bean or brown rice blends weigh down the meringue and you get a dense, damp cake instead of a light one.
Shop the flour that makes this cake work: Pamela's Gluten-Free 1:1 All-Purpose Flour, 4 lb. Finely milled, rice-based, and bound with guar gum rather than xanthan. One 4 lb. bag makes this cake about sixteen times over. GFCO-certified.
The Best Gluten-Free Flour for Angel Food Cake
The best gluten-free flour for angel food cake is a finely milled, light, rice-based all-purpose blend, and that is exactly what Pamela's 1:1 All-Purpose Flour is. Three things matter here, and only three.
Fineness. Anything coarse reads as grit in a cake this delicate, because there is no fat and no crumb to hide it in.
Weight. The flour has to fold into a meringue without deflating it. Bean flours and heavy whole-grain blends are too dense for the job.
The binder. Pamela's 1:1 All-Purpose Flour is bound with guar gum, not xanthan gum. In an egg-white cake that is a meaningful difference, because xanthan can add a slightly slick, elastic quality that fights the dry, airy crumb angel food is supposed to have.
One more note on measuring: spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off rather than scooping the cup through the bag. Scooping can pack in an extra 20 to 30 grams, which in a one-cup recipe is a real problem.
The Four Things That Make Angel Food Cake Work
Sift more than feels reasonable. Four or five passes with the flour, powdered sugar, and salt. This is not a fussy step you can skip. Sifting aerates the dry mix so it can be folded into the meringue in seconds instead of stirred in, and stirring is what kills the volume.
Start with a spotlessly clean, dry bowl. Any trace of fat, including a speck of yolk from a broken egg, will keep the whites from reaching full volume. Separate each egg into a small bowl first and add it to the main bowl only once you can see it is clean.
Room-temperature whites whip higher. Cold whites are more viscous and take longer to reach stiff peaks. Separate the eggs straight from the fridge, since cold yolks hold together better, then let the whites sit out for about 30 minutes.
Never grease the pan. This is the one that surprises people. The batter needs to grip the sides of the tube pan to climb as it bakes. A greased pan gives it nothing to hold and the cake stays short. Do not use a nonstick tube pan for the same reason.
Why Carton Egg Whites Will Not Work
Use fresh eggs you separate yourself. Carton or boxed egg whites are pasteurized, and the heat treatment partially denatures the proteins that build the foam, so they will not whip to the volume this cake needs. You can get them to froth, but they will not hold stiff, glossy peaks, and the cake will bake short and dense. This is the single most common reason a gluten-free angel food cake fails, and it has nothing to do with the flour.
You will have about 14 yolks left over. They keep in the fridge for two or three days and are excellent in custard, lemon curd, hollandaise, or pastry cream.
How to Tell When the Cake Is Done
The cake is done when the top is golden brown, springs back when you press it lightly, and no longer feels sticky to the touch. That is usually 45 to 55 minutes at 350 degrees F, but start checking at 45 minutes.
Do not open the oven before the 40-minute mark. A rush of cool air on a cake that is still setting can collapse it.
The step people skip is the cooling. As soon as the pan comes out of the oven, invert it, either onto the feet built into the tube pan or over the neck of a bottle, so the cake hangs upside down. Angel food cake is structurally wet and fragile straight out of the oven, and it will compress under its own weight if you cool it right side up. Leave it inverted for at least an hour before you run a knife around the edges to release it.
What This Recipe Contains
This cake contains egg, and a lot of it. There is no substitute that works here.
As written, it contains no dairy, no nuts, no peanuts, and no soy. There is no butter, milk, or cream anywhere in the recipe. Pamela's 1:1 All-Purpose Flour is rice-based and made in a certified gluten-free, peanut-free facility.
Two things to check on your own shelf. Most powdered sugar contains cornstarch as an anti-caking agent, so if you are avoiding corn, look for a corn-free confectioners' sugar or one made with tapioca starch. And if you use almond extract for flavoring rather than vanilla or orange, that brings a tree nut derivative into the recipe. Vanilla on its own is excellent here.
Everything from Pamela's is certified by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization.
Make-Ahead and Storage
Room temperature: Store the cooled cake in an airtight container or under a cake dome for up to 3 days. Do not refrigerate it. The fridge dries angel food cake out faster than the counter does.
Freezer: Angel food cake freezes beautifully, better than most cakes, because there is so little fat in it. Wrap the whole cooled cake or individual slices tightly in plastic wrap, then in foil or a freezer bag, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature, still wrapped, for a few hours. Slices thaw in about 30 minutes.
Make-ahead: Bake the cake a day ahead and hold it at room temperature. Add any whipped cream, berries, or glaze the day you serve it.
Ways to Change It Up
Berries and cream. The classic. Whip 1 cup of heavy cream with 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla to soft peaks. Split the cooled cake into three horizontal layers with a long serrated knife, making the bottom layer slightly taller than the other two. Spread whipped cream between the layers and over the top, then pile on about 24 ounces of sliced strawberries and 16 ounces of blueberries. Adds dairy.
Cupcakes. Divide the batter into paper-lined muffin cups filled about three-quarters full and bake at 350 degrees F for 15 to 18 minutes, until the tops spring back. Cool them upside down on a rack. Makes about 24.
Citrus. Fold 1 tablespoon of finely grated lemon or orange zest into the meringue with the last addition of flour.
Pineapple. Serve slices with crushed pineapple and its juice spooned over the top, or fold 1/2 cup of very well drained crushed pineapple in at the end.
Trifle. Cube a day-old cake and layer it in a glass bowl with whipped cream, lemon curd, and berries. This is the best possible use for a cake that came out a little short. Adds dairy and egg yolk if you use curd.
Almond. Swap the vanilla for 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract for a marzipan-like note. Adds a tree nut derivative. Skip this variation if you are avoiding nuts.
