4th of July 10K and Angel Food Cake

My 4th of July was crazy exciting.

First, my brother and I ran our towns traditional 10K! It was super hot (90 degrees in the shade at 8 AM), but we survived! It was a nice race and I'm proud of myself for doing it.  I've been doing all this half-marathon training, so this distance wasn't so scary.  However, the heat was, and it certainly got to me.  I had to walk a few times when I started feeling really overheated, but I finished in 1 hour and felt good about that! Plus, afterwards we showered and then celebrated with an awesome brunch!

Next, my family went to our parade, another yearly tradition, and it was pretty fun.  Again, the heat was awful (now it was around 98 in the shade) and so we headed back home to relax and cool off!

Our plans then took us to a family friend's bbq.  My mom was assigned to bring some fruit...

So, we did all this:

And I made an angel food cake because that just goes with berries! It was delicious.  The cake was light, sweet, perfectly moist, and amazing with all the fresh fruit.  This is a great recipe and I love how light it is!

Angel Food Cake (adapted from Health.com)

Ingredients:
12 egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1 cup cake flour
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt
3 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. In a small bowl, whisk the flour and 3/4 cup sugar together.  Set aside.
3. In a stand mixer, beat the egg whites on high until foamy.  Beat in the cream of tartar and salt until soft peaks form.  Slowly beat in the other 3/4 cup sugar, about 2 tbsp at a time, and beat on high until stiff peaks form.  Beat in the vanilla and lemon juice.
4. Sift the flour/sugar mixture over the batter, about 1/4 cup at a time, and fold in using a spatula.  Pour the batter into an un-greased angel food cake pan.  Run a knife through the batter to break air pockets.  Bake for about 50 minutes or until cake bounces back when lightly touched. Remove the cake from the pan by running a knife along the sides and bottom.  Let cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy :)

This 4th of July was really nice and I loved being surrounded by my family.  I am also super proud of myself and my brother for doing this 10K! I have a feeling that there will be many more family races to come :)

Oh, and then I found this out: Ashlee over at ABpetite sent two more awards my way! Thank you so much, Ashlee! I ABsolutely (see what I did there?) love her blog and her recipes are always amazing.  I am truly honored to be recognized by this fantastic lady!