By Julia Niebuhr Eulenberg, Special to JTNews
In the fall, the Washington State Jewish Historical Society will tell the story of our state’s Jewish history through food with the publication Yesterday’s Mavens, Today’s Foodies: Traditions in Northwest Jewish Kitchens. This cookbook will be filled with recipes from Jewish grandmothers — and grandchildren — around the Northwest that have entertained and nourished families for generations. A committee of tasters has been dispatched to recreate and eat hundreds of submissions, including this one:
“This recipe has been handed down from Sarah Rosenthal Esac, grandmother of Michael Eulenberg and the great-grandmother of Rabbi Sarah Rubin. Grandma Esac’s Romanian accent paved the way for a family riddle invented by her son-in-law. When the grandchildren asked what she was baking, Grandma Esac replied, ‘A not cake.’ Ed Eulenberg’s riddle? ‘When is a cake not a cake?’ The answer, of course, is when it is a ‘not cake’ — or this very fine and moist Passover Nut Cake.”
10 large eggs, separated and at room temperature
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 medium orange, juiced and the rind finely chopped
1/2 lemon, rind finely chopped but NO juice
1 medium apple, grated
3/4 cup Passover cake meal, sifted
1/4 cup potato starch, sifted
1 cup walnuts or pecans, finely chopped
Preheat oven to 325°. Beat the egg whites until foamy and stiff. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks until thick and lemony in color. Add the sugar slowly to the egg yolks. Add the orange juice and the rind, lemon rind, and the grated apple. Then add the sifted cake meal and potato starch. Fold in the nuts, then fold in the stiff egg whites.
Bake 60 minutes in an ungreased 10-inch tube sponge cake pan. When baked, turn the cake pan upside down over the neck of a wine bottle to cool completely.
Tips and Tricks: Don’t worry, the cake will not fall out of the pan.
Yield: Serves 12