Being an Italian Catholic, Passover was not a holiday I celebrated and the Jewish holidays were foreign to me (click here if you would like to learn more about the Passover holiday).  When I was married to a Jewish man, over the past 20 years, I learned all about the the traditions and celebrations of Judaism and hosted many holidays at our house and together we created our own traditions one thing that was very important to me was to always incorporate a little Italian in all my food.

Several years ago I decided I wanted to make an amazing dessert for the Passover and found this old recipe for chocolate almond cake, it worked perfect for the celebration as there was nothing in the dessert to make it rise, it doesn’t have flour and it has chocolate (not a requirement but always welcomed for Passover).  I made this dessert and it was a home run…everyone loved it!

This is not a beginner recipe, there are many steps to it and I would challenge even an entry level baker to try, if you have any issues with it, email me at Patty@MmGood.com and I would be happy to assist you for next time.  I happen to love orange in my cakes or with chocolate, if you do not like orange, then you can omit it from your recipe and it will be just as tasty.

Prepare the baking pan by lining it with parchment paper, I sprayed the bottom first with oil and then I layed the parchment on top

put  the almonds and 1/4 cup of sugar in a food processor

process until fine, place the processed almonds in a bowl and set aside

do the same for your chocolate chips and place in a bowl

using a mixer, beat your yolks with the remainder of the sugar and orange zest

do this until the yolks are pale

add the ground chocolate chips and almonds your mix will be very thick

whip the whites of the eggs with a pinch of salt until firm peaks (about 6 minutes)

add the whipped egg whites to the almond/yolk mixture, do this by folding the egg whites into the mixture as you are not wanting to deflate the whites

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the cake is cook through

make your chocolate topping by melting the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals until it’s completely melted.  When the cake is cooled off, add the chocolate to the topping

I forgot that I liked chopped nuts on my cake so here is an old photo of the cake (I gave this cake to a friend for passover and forgot to top it prior to giving it away, silly me but don’t skip this process.

This is a great recipe for anytime of the year, especially around Passover or Easter.  For beginners I know it’s a lot of steps involved but go slow, try not to over mix the egg whites with the almond mixture and make sure to beat the whites until firm. I’d welcome any photos anyone wants to send me at Patty@MmGood.com.  Enjoy!!!

.

Thank you for visiting my site and I hope you enjoy this recipe.  I do love comments so please feel free to leave me your comment or suggestion.  If you would like to be kept up to date with all my new recipes, I only post twice a week, please subscribe in the box listed on the top of the page “Subscribe Via Email”. You will be emailed with a link to confirm you are interested in the subscription so be sure to click on that link too.

Don’t forget to follow me on twitter, pinterest, facebook and subscribe to my youtube channel

Thank you again ~ Patty Limatola-Tanenbaum

.