Passover starts tomorrow (Monday) night, beginning a week of probably the most food-centric holiday on the Jewish calendar.

To mark the passing of our ancestors from bondage to freedom, and the haste in which that was accomplished (read your Exodus, people… No, the Bible, not the Leon Uris novel!), we are prohibited from eating anything leavened. No yeast breads, no cakes or cookies with baking powder in them. In fact, we can’t even use flour that hasn’t been strictly supervised in its milling and processing by trained rabbis, to make certain that it hasn’t come into contact with anything that might have inadvertently begun the rising process. So, no flour.

While our kosher food companies have worked diligently over the years to provide us with acceptable options and alternatives, there’s no getting around one thing: If you’re going to get through Passover, you’re going to break a lot of eggs. Literally. Eggs are the primary source of the lightness and rise of just about every baked good we prepare this coming week, so don’t schedule a cholesterol screening till, oh, I don’t know, maybe the end of April!

Did I say Passover is a food-centric holiday? Maybe I should have said, egg-centric. (Get it? Fine. Never mind, then.) I’ve warned you – so don’t flip out when you see all the eggs in anything I post over this coming week!

Let’s begin with the iconic Sponge Cake. There’s nothing like a slice of light and fluffy Sponge Cake, torn into hunks and dipped into your glass of sweet Passover wine, to finish off a big meal, like a Passover Seder! This recipe is my annual go-to, and I’ll give you a couple of notes at the end.

Passover Sponge Cake

Ingredients:

9 eggs (at room temperature & separated)

1 1/2 cups sugar (divided)

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup matzo cake meal

1/2 cup potato starch

Method:

Preheat oven to 325º F. Prepare a tube pan by greasing and “flouring” with some of the cake meal. Alternatively, if your pan has a flat bottom, line the bottom with a piece of parchment paper, cut to fit.

In a large bowl, at increasingly high speed with an electric mixer, beat the egg whites till soft peaks form. Add 3/4 cup of the sugar and salt, and continue beating until very stiff peaks form.

In another large bowl, beat the egg yolks with the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar, until thickened and lemon-colored. Beat in the lemon juice and lemon zest. Fold into the egg whites along with with the matzo cake meal and potato starch, making sure that everything is completely blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about one hour, or until a cake tester or wooden skewer, comes out clean. You may need to add up to another 15 minutes baking time, depending on your oven.

Invert the cake over a rack to cool completely before removing from the pan. It may remove itself, but if it doesn’t, just run a thin-bladed utensil, such as a knife or cake spatula around the outside edge and around the tube.

Notes:

You can substitute any citrus for the lemon. Orange juice is quite nice, and this time, I used lime.

To lighten up the sugar content (I know. At this point, why bother?), I also substituted Splenda for Baking for the sugar.

Save some $$ and do what I did: Buy a bulk package of the Splenda and in a zip-top storage bag, measure out a one-to-one ratio of Splenda and sugar, and mix vigorously. Make sure to shake up the bag before every use, as sugar is heavier than Splenda and will settle to the bottom.

Happy Passover, everyone!

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