Today I give you the recipe for that great Passover cake that hit the deck on Monday night.

Chocolate Orange Torte for Passover
I make this torte every year for Passover and we all love it!! It’s from a recipe book called “Cocolat”. It’s a bittersweet chocolate torte with lots of freshly grated orange zest, lots of ground almonds and some matzoh meal. This recipe can easily be doubled to fit a 10” round. Enjoy!!
Preparations…
1. Preheat the oven to 3750F
2. Line the bottom of 8 X 2” round cake pan with a circle of parchment paper.


Ingredients:

· 4 oz. Semisweet or bittersweet chocolate cut into pieces
· 4 oz. Butter at room temp.
· 2/3 C. sugar
· 1/8 t. almond extract
· Finely grated zest of one orange
· ¾ C. (3 oz.) ground blanched almonds
· ¼ C. matzoh meal
· Chocolate Honey Glaze

· ½ C. sliced toasted almonds (optional, to use to press in sides of cake after you have glazed it)

Process:

1. Melt chocolate. Either in a double boiler or in a microwave.
2. Beat butter, sugar, almond extract, and orange zest with an electric mixer until light and creamy. Add eggs, one by one, beating well after each addition. On low speed add chocolate, beating only until incorporated. Stir in almonds and matzoh meal until combined.
3. Turn batter into prepared pan. Bake for 25-30 min. until a toothpick plunged into the center of cake shows moist crumbs. The torte should be neither dry or runny in the center.
4. Allow torte to cool completely in pan on a rack. After you have unmolded your cake you can freeze it for later use or glaze it for dinner.
5. To glaze the cake I put it on a wire rack and put that over a sheet pan. I pour my glaze over the cake and whatever drips off lands onto the sheet pan. Remember that you never want your chocolate glaze to be used while it is still really hot. I let mine cool a bit so it is not so runny. If you use a glaze while it is too hot, it won’t stick to your cake.

... and the glaze....

Chocolate Honey Glaze
This is a very simple chocolate glaze to be used on cakes and tortes that are stored at room temp.


Ingredients:

· 6 oz. Bittersweet or semisweet chocolate cut up into pieces
· 4 oz. Sweet butter (1 stick) cut up into pieces
· 2-3 T. honey

Process:

1. Melt all the ingredients together in either a double boiler or a microwave. Do not overheat the glaze, there is no need to warm it above 120 degrees F.
2. Allow the glaze to cool a bit. When the glaze is at 90 – 92F. it is time to glaze your cake.
3. Gently pour the glaze over your cake. I like to have my cake set up on a wire rack over a sheet pan. Start in the center and in gentle circles work your way to the edge of the cake. To get the top to look uniform gently jiggle the rack, side-to-side, so that all the glaze on the top is even. If you are decorating the side of the cake with nuts or whatever don’t worry about how the glaze looks because it is just there for glue. If you are not decorating the side of your cake then pour glaze down the sides.
4. As you are working with your glaze you can scrape whatever you need off the sheet pan and reuse it. I like to work with a bent spatula to manipulate uncooperative glaze on the edges.

Blessings Y'All...V