Passover Sponge Cake
This Passover Sponge Cake is a light, airy and citrus-flavored Jewish dessert that you can serve after your seder dinner. Made with oranges and lemons, it has a bright flavor that will always remind me of my Grandma Yetta. This is her recipe dug out from the family archives.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 9 eggs separated
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup orange juice
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest zest of one lemon
- 1 tablespoon orange zest zest of one orange
- 3/4 cup matzo meal
- 3 tablespoons potato starch using heaping tablespoons
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 F. Coat the cake pan with cooking spray that is kosher for Passover.
- Grind matzo meal until it becomes more like cake flour and less like matza crumbles. Sift matzo meal and potato starch into a bowl and set aside.
- Separate egg whites into one bowl and egg yolks into another.
- Beat egg whites until stiff. Gradually add sugar to egg whites while continuing to beat.
- Beat egg yolks and then fold into the sugared and beaten egg whites.
- Zest the lemon and orange peels and then fold in the fruit zests.
- Slowly add orange juice, gently folding it in.
- Add the sifted matzo meal and potato starch a little at a time, folding with a spatula until the batter is fully blended.
- Place angel food pan on a sheet pan. Then, pour batter in an angel food pan.
- Bake cake for 45 minutes.
- After 45 minutes of baking, raise the temperature to 350 . Bake for about 15 more minutes. At this point, a toothpick should come out clean.
- Invert the pan on a wire rack and let cool for an hour. The cake should slide out on its own in this time.
- Serve on a cake plate surrounded by orange slices.
Notes
I suggest putting your angel food cake pan on a sheet pan before pouring the batter in for a simple reason: these kinds of cake pans usually have a removable bottom. If the seal isn't perfect, there is a chance that the batter will leak out and start burning on the bottom of the oven. Trust me on this: it has happened too many times.
If you can find matzo cake meal at your local grocery store, then there is no need to grind the matzo meal into cake flour. We couldn't find it where we live so I used a mortar and pestle to ground the matzo meal into flour.
You can make a citrus icing for the cake if you'd like. In hindsight I should have done this because I think the presentation would have been prettier.
Nutrition
Calories: 193kcalCarbohydrates: 36gProtein: 5gFat: 3gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0.01gCholesterol: 123mgSodium: 48mgPotassium: 109mgFiber: 1gSugar: 26gVitamin A: 212IUVitamin C: 9mgCalcium: 24mgIron: 1mg
Disclaimer
Please note that nutrient values, if included with the recipe, are estimates only. Variations can occur due to product availability/substitution and manner of food preparation. Nutrition may vary based on methods of origin, preparation, freshness of ingredients, and other factors.
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