Gato De Muez De Pesah (Walnut and Orange Passover Cake)

photo taken by The Integer Club, on March 12, 2011, CC licensing

Recipe taken from The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden (Knopf 1996)

Serves 10

Sephardi Passover orange cakes, Claudia explains, "have a distinctly Iberian character." This one, she writes, "is the Passover cake of Istanbul...moist and aromatic, with a delicate orange flavor." Make sure your walnuts are fresh-tasting, she adds.

  • 6 eggs, separated
  • 1 ¾ cups (375 g) sugar
  • 3/4 cup (100 g) ground almonds
  • grated rind and juice of 1 orange
  • 1 ½ cups (200 g) walnuts, coarsely chopped
  • oil and matzoh meal for the cake pan

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar till light and pale. Add the ground almonds, then the orange juice and rind and the walnuts. Mix very well. In a separate large bowl, beat the egg whites stiff, and fold into the nut mixture. Oil a preferably nonstick springform 9-inch (23-cm) cake pan and dust with matzoh meal. Pour in the cake mixture and bake for 1 ½ hours in a preheated 350 degree F (180 degrees C) oven.

 
Sephardic or Askhenazi
Sephardic