This easy Passover-friendly walnut cake has a hint of chocolate, but it's really about the nuts. Best served with fruit or a cup of tea or coffee, it has a delicate taste and texture. The cake is also low-fat - without butter, margarine, or oil
Preheat the oven to 400° F/200° C. Grease a 8 & 1/2 - 9 inch/ 23 x 8 cm tube pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the ground walnuts, matzo cake meal, unsweetened cocoa, and grated chocolate. Set aside.
Beat the egg whites with the salt, slowly, until peaks form. Then add the yolks one at a time, while continuing to beat on low. Still continuing to beat on low, add the combined matzo cake meal, cocoa, and grated chocolate. Do not overbeat. At the end, you may need to fold the batter a few times with a spatula to make sure the ingredients are well distributed.
Pour the batter into the tube pan. Level it off. If there is batter remaining (and there may be), make it into muffins. If you're concerned about overflow (as I was), put a baking sheet under the pan. Bake the cake and any muffins for 8-10 minutes at 400° F/200° C, then lower the temperature to 375° F/190° C and continue to bake the cake for 50-60 minutes until a toothpick or skewer comes out clean. (Muffins take only about 20 minutes to bake.) If you notice the top of the cake starting to get dark brown, cover it with aluminum foil to prevent burning.
Once the cake is done, remove it from the oven and invert the pan to cool on a wire rack for at least 15-20 minutes before unmolding. Run a knife around the inside and outside edges of the tube pan. Unmold the cake while it is still warm.
Optional - Dust with confectioners/powdered sugar or dribble some melted chocolate or powdered sugar icing on top before serving.
If you look carefully at the handwritten recipe, you'll see that my directions and the order of the ingredients are different in this version and I've changed a few of the proportions. I intend the taste to be similar to my memory of my mom's version.
The eggs. To avoid ruining the egg whites, which must remain pristine, without any yolk, separate each egg white first into a small bowl or pitcher before moving it to the larger container with the already-separated whites. If an egg white gets some yolk in it, put it aside and get a clean container.
Egg whites. If you're new to whipping egg whites or need a refresher, check out these tips. Try to use older eggs (a tip I learned from Domenica Marchetti) and get them to room temperature before beating them. Using an electric beater helps, though you can do it with a whisk and a lot of elbow grease. If you're using a beater, start at a low speed and be patient. Like making meringues, this cake requires egg whites that form peaks. I often use cream of tartar or lemon juice to help stabilize the egg whites, but that is optional.