Orange Glazed Sabra Sponge Cake

Cake

• ½ cup unsalted pareve margarine or ¼ cup +2 T. oil
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 t. orange rind
• 2 T. Sabra liqueur
• 3 separated eggs
• 2 T. sugar
• ½ cup potato starch

Glaze

• 3 T. Sabra liqueur
• 6 T. orange juice
• 4 t. orange rind

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a bowl, cream margarine or oil and sugar. Add 1 t. orange rind, 2 T. Sabra and egg yolks and blend.

2. In another bowl, beat egg whites until stiff, gradually adding 2 T. sugar. Add to creamed mixture gently, then stir in potato starch.

3. Pour into greased tube pan. Bake for 45 minutes to one hour. Let cool for at least an hour then gently remove to a plate.

4. Meantime, in a bowl, combine orange juice, 3 T. Sabra liqueur and 4 t. orange rind. While cake is still hot, punch holes around cake with a toothpick and pour over glaze.

Miriam’s Banana Cake

This is from one of my close friends in Overland Park, Kansas, who is a really creative cook and is now 88 years old.

• 7 separated eggs
• ¼ t. salt
• 1 cup mashed bananas
• ¾ cup potato starch
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry, then refrigerate.

2. In another bowl, beat egg yolks until thick and lemon colored. Gradually add sugar and salt, beating continually.

Fold in bananas and potato starch. Fold in egg whites then nuts. Turn into an ungreased tube pan and bake in 350 degree F. oven 45-50 minutes. Invert pan to cool.

Pan di Spagna

This recipe comes from “The Classic Cuisine of the Italian Jews” by Edda Servi Machlin.

Pan di Spagna (bread of Spain) is also called Pasta Reale and was made in the matzah bakery with the same flour that was used for matzot.

• 6 separated eggs
• 1/8 t. salt
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup fresh orange juice
• ½ cup Passover cake meal
• ¼ cup potato starch
• freshly grated rind of 1 large lemon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, beat the egg whites with salt until soft peaks form.

2. In a larger bowl, place egg yolks, sugar and orange juice and beat until frothy and lemon colored.

3. Combine the cake meal with potato starch and gradually add to the egg yolk mixture, beating until the batter is smooth. Add the lemon rind and fold in the egg whites.

4. Pour into an ungreased sponge cake pan with removable bottom and bake in preheated 350 degree F. oven for one hour, Remove from oven and invert over a wire rack to cool before unmolding.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, author, compiler/contributor/editor of 9 kosher cookbooks (working on a 10th) and food writer for North American Jewish publications. She lives in Jerusalem, where she has led weekly walks of the Jewish food market, Machaneh Yehudah, in English since 2009. She wrote the kosher Jerusalem restaurant features for Janglo.net, the oldest, largest website for English speakers, from 2014 to 2020.