Passover Torte
Ok, so in yesterday’s “reach out and touch someone” post I failed. In fact, I fell flat. On my face. Do you know how many comments were posted? One. Not much community in one post.
To cheer myself up, I can always read some Dooce. That woman makes me laugh out loud. Or I can listen to the Captain and Tenille’s Love Will Keep Us Together. Either way, I do not despair, Passover is near and for me, this occasion provides endless activity and distraction.
For the Jewish Betty Crocker in all of us, here’s a delectable cake recipe for Passover.
2 cups blanched almond flour
¼ cup coconut flour
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
10 eggs
1¾ cups agave nectar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ cup raspberry jam
1 batch vegan chocolate frosting
- In a medium bowl, combine flours and salt
- In a larger bowl, whisk together eggs, agave and vanilla
- Whisk flours into egg mixture until well blended
- Line bottoms only of 3 nine inch cake pans with parchment paper
- Divide cake batter evenly between pans
- Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes
- Remove from oven when cakes are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean
- Cool cakes for at least one hour
- Run knife around cake to loosen from pan, remove from pan and peel off parchment
- Place bottom layer on a cake plate and spread with jam
- Add next layer of cake and spread with jam
- Place top layer on cake and frost entire cake with chocolate frosting
- Serve
Serves 12
This pareve torte is rich and sweet. Though it is a tad sweeter than most of my desserts, that’s because a) this one is for a holiday; b) my husband really liked it that way.
Still the cake has enough protein that it will not leave you with a high-carb hangover after your Pesach Seder. Now, if you eat too much matzah, well, that’s another story.
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Subscribe by Email to elanaspantry.com:Posted on April 11, 2008 in community and desserts by Elana
you might also like: Chocolate Cake — Coconut Flour Continued
or Vegan Chocolate Frosting
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This looks yummy. I think I might try it today. My children are having their birthday party tomorrow and want chocolate cake, however, I need to make a non chocolate cake for one of the guests. I don’t have coconut flour. I wonder if I can run some unsweetened coconut flakes through my Vitamix?
Hope you have a good Pesach.
Shez over at Homeschooled Twins
April 12th, 2008 4:38 am
Can I have a slice, please? This looks amazing! I still don’t know how you get it to rise without baking soda/powder, or not be incredibly fragile without starch, but congratulations! By the way, have you ever tried separating the eggs and beating the whites and then combining the mixture to get more lift?
Chag sameach!
April 12th, 2008 5:51 am
Yum! Can’t wait to try this. Don’t despair Elana–this is definitely my favorite food blog!
April 12th, 2008 7:10 am
Well, thought I’d say hi. I just found your blog 2days ago. Have to say thanks for all your work. Love the blog.
About yesterday…here’s a comment…Love Soup!
Made your apple crisp last nite for DH. Went out and bought Agave and a few other items. The crisp was really good. I like that it was not too sweet. We had a serving for breakfast!
Peace,
Debbie
April 12th, 2008 10:44 am
ooh, that looks delicious! i am in the middle of a move right now, so i have been holding off on buying those almond & coconut flours until i get to my destination. :) (i’m not on a restricted diet, but i’ve always had digestive troubles and blood sugar issues. high-protein flour sounds like an awesome change of pace!) i think one of the first things i should make is this torte!
as far as the community post– maybe you should make a small banner that links back to that post (or another page) and put it like a signature at the end of your entries? so, if anyone is new to the site or the feed, they could be drawn to clicking on it. that’s just my two cents– i’m not much of a public blogger myself so i don’t really know what works, but i think you should give it another go! :)
hope your holiday is grand!
-em
April 12th, 2008 2:22 pm
Oh, I loved that post, and I wanted to comment but didn’t right away and…you know how that goes. I think your site is fantastic. I found it because of your friend Helen, who I knew a bit when I lived in L.A. When I started reading, it was just curiosity, but I recently went off gluten (about a month ago) and am now off dairy, at least for the time being, eggs, sugar, and coffee (now there’s a blow.) I left the gluten behind to see if not eating it would help some chronic digestive and joint trouble I’ve had for the last year; both seem to be improving,though not perfect. I don’t find it so restrictive, actually; my cravings, as people said they would, have largely disappeared. But my daughter and I celebrated our birthdays last month, her third and my…never mind…and thanks to you, not only did I make great chocolate cupcakes for her, I also made delicious, gluten free ones for me. (At the time, I was still eating dairy–and eggs–so I got to enjoy the same vanilla icing she did.) In any case, don’t despair–you do have a community here and you’re doing a great, great thing by sharing your knowledge and experience!
April 12th, 2008 5:23 pm
Dear Elana,
Thank your for posting your recipes online for us. I look forward to receiving them. It’s very generous of you to take the time to do so. I have two teenage boys who both have celiac, so I appreciate getting new recipes to try. I also like the explanations you give since we happen to be Catholic and it’s very educational to hear the meaning behind things. I have also noticed quite a few Passover desserts in the bakery that happen to be gluten free and I load my cart up. I’ll miss them when they’re gone!! Keep up the good work.
Thanks again
Nancy
April 12th, 2008 5:29 pm
Hi Elana,
This looks Great!!!
what a beautiful picture…
I wish I could make such a mean torte..
Have a Hag Sameah!
Ya’ara
April 13th, 2008 8:03 am
New to this site and boy am I excited. Your recipes show some real creativity with interesting ingredients. I look forward preparing this cake and some of the other recipes.
April 13th, 2008 9:01 am
Shez –Nice blog. The James Madison quote gave me goose bumps –literally. Gosh, could it be more true right now? Per your question about making coconut flour in the vitamix, I haven’t tried it myself, though I bet it would work. If you have the “dry” blender use that one, it makes better flours than the “wet” blender. Hope this helps and let me know the results of your diy coconut flour experiment.
~M –If you beat the egg whites, you will get a much fluffier cake; I am not patient enough to do so. I like really easy recipes –wet, dry, bake. That’s about my speed. Let me know how it turns out if you separate the whites and beat them!
Sarah –Thanks for your comment and your kudos. Much appreciated!
Debbie –Glad you found this site; this is the place for those of us that do not like things to taste all that sweet. Thanks so much for your comment.
Emma –I always enjoy hearing from you. Good luck with your move and let me know when you get all settled into your new place. I like your idea about linking back to the soup/community post to generate more “bonding.” Thanks!
Paige –I have followed your blog and your move. Glad that my recipes can be of help during your diet shift. If you still want frosting and are not doing dairy, maybe try the vegan chocolate frosting on my site. It is very rich and I have to try not to eat it on crackers, which I have been known to do late at night. Let’s keep in touch.
Nancy –I have two boys 8 & 9, not at the teenage stage yet. I am glad that you are enjoying my recipes and explanations of Jewish tradition!
Ya’ara –As always, THANKS (todah rabbah!)
stratolynne –Glad to have you stop by. Let me know how the cake and other recipes come out for you.
April 13th, 2008 10:34 pm
Thanks for all the great recipie ideas. I am not able to find coconut flour here in Houston? Is there anything else that I may use to substitute? Thanks, kristian.
April 14th, 2008 7:57 pm
Kristian -You could order it online from Tropical Traditions.
Or, as Shez comments above, you could try grinding shredded, unsweetened coconut in the blender for diy coconut flour. If you try the latter option, please let me know how it goes.
April 14th, 2008 11:20 pm
Yikes, this looks outstanding. I love gluten-free bloggers because they come up with such interesting recipes like this. I just bought some coconut flour and the farmers market here in Davis has some great almond flour. I must make these! 10 eggs must be due partially to the coconut flour, that stuff is an egg-fiend! Do you think egg-beaters would work with this? I have 5 cartons of egg-beaters in the fridge from Costco I’d like to use and I think regular eggs are more expensive these days! I’d love to make this.
I love chipotle peppers. I recently discovered them and now I can’t get enough of them! I also found out that they are only smoked jalapenos, is that true? I also bought a jar of chipotle chile powder which is great but super expensive.
I just moved to Davis in September for grad school and I just learned that you are originally from Davis? I was talking to Elise (Simply Recipes) and she mentioned there were a lot of other Davis food bloggers out there, so I searched and found this site (although you’re in CO now I see), just thought I’d stop by and say hi!
- The Peanut Butter Boy
April 15th, 2008 4:03 pm
Hey Peanut Butter Boy -That’s so cool that you live in Davis. Yes, I am from there. Lived in Davis until I was 18, when I moved to NYC. Love Davis. The only other blogger I know from there is that gluten-free guy –his blog was called “something in season,” he was great, however his blog ended a few months ago.
I think elise is amazing; she is one of my favorite bloggers.
Per the coconut flour, yes, it is such an egg fiend (I like that term), I am not sure about egg beaters, have not used them before.
Per chipotle, according to wikipedia, chipotle is a jalepeno pepper that is left on the vine somewhat longer and then smoked. It is so expensive because it takes 10 pounds jalepeno to make one pound of chipotle. I am also a huge fan of smoked paprika –it is amazing, makes any dish completely come to life.
I hope you are enjoying grad school and having a wonderful time in Davis. The farmers market there is a lot of fun.
April 15th, 2008 11:10 pm
You are my saviour!!!
When I saw the cake/torte photo and immediately went to ingredients I found myself all giggly and I told my fiance, “I can eat cake! I’m making this TOMORROW!!! thank you
Since I found your site, I have made the choc. chip cookies, muffins, bread and granola, oh yeah and the yellow pea soup was awesome. So, thanks again for widening my eyes to the things I CAN still eat. Those things really helped me out on my road trip last week with my daughter. I had some doubts about travel food since I discovered (6 months ago) the food intolerances I have developed.
I am not a ‘blogger’ but I may become one with this site! By the way, I am one of those people craving contact that you mentioned. I had my gluten free time with Shauna’s site back in October (and even got to meet her and the chef briefly at the Mariposa Cafe-gluten free bakery) but discovered shortly after that I couldn’t eat grains at all, sniff. I wanted the fresh GF pizza so bad!
It is a great thing to have found your site/blog. I think there are recipes I can pass along-one is a grainless peanut butter cookie.
I don’t know if I should try to reference it here but I do know it by heart. If that’s ok I’ll just pass it on. Let me know!
Oh, and truely, don’t despair, and don’t go there with the Captain and Tenille thing…that sounds really bad! I just hope you can handle inexperienced bloggers like myself.
April 17th, 2008 10:11 pm
Dear Jeanne,
Thanks so much for your comment! It is great to hear from you. I am glad that you are finding my recipes helpful and tasty and that you are enjoying this site. I promise I won’t go Captain and Tenille on you!
Per your peanut butter recipe, feel free to leave it here in the comments section, or, you may want to save it and post it in comments for a new dish I will be posting in the next week or two. That dish will be almond butter brownies. Either way, fine with me.
Thanks again for stopping by!
Elana
April 18th, 2008 8:14 pm
I was looking back at this recipe, and I realized that I have an answer to Kristian’s question. In Houston, you can find Bob’s Red Mill coconut flour at Whole Foods. I’ve even seen it at smaller health food stores and at some Krogers.
I’ve only tried Bob’s Red Mill brand. Elana, have you tried it? If so, how does it compare to the one you use?
I would think that using ground unsweetened coconut would end up a little sweeter and more overtly coconut-flavored than coconut flour (at least Bob’s). I love coconut, so that wouldn’t bother me, but others who are hoping for more of a vanilla flavor might do better with the actual coconut flour.
Thanks again for all of your inspiring recipes Elana!
LSG
May 2nd, 2008 4:32 pm
Hi elana, thanks so much for your recipes. i have printed out so many i don’t know what to start with. i have a lot of allergys and most of your food seem to be ok, just 2 things coconut flour (can i replace this with almond meal) also grapeseed oil can i repalce with butter?. Thanks so much, i will let you know how i go with theses recipes. Thanks, wow i can’t stop saying thanks. Tracy
May 4th, 2008 2:42 am
LSG -I like Tropical Traditions coconut flour; I haven’t tried the Bob’s Red Mill brand as it is a couple of dollars more expensive per pound than Tropical Traditions. Bob’s usually makes a nice product though, so I bet it’s just as good.
Tracy -Good questions. Coconut flour and almond flour are not interchangeable in these recipes. See thispost for a brief explanation. I am guessing you could use butter in place of grapeseed oil, though I don’t cook with butter anymore, so I’m not sure. If you do experiment, let us know how it turns out! Thanks so much for visiting!
May 4th, 2008 2:29 pm