Passover Lemon Almond cake

A few people have asked me for the recipe for this cake.  I had posted a condensed version on Facebook but here it is with the full directions.

Often Passover cakes have the unfortunate taste of matza meal. I decided that I needed to choose cakes that contained as little matza meal as possible. this cake comes from Leah Leonard's post war classic, Jewish cookery.
My mother came into  her marriage with no experience cooking or baking. She bought or perhaps was given this cookbook early on in her marriage when she really didn’t understand how to cook.  Many years ago, my mother my mother gave me the Leonard cookbook and told me that it was a terrible cookbook. It isn’t.  My mother was just an inexperienced cook who grew up in the home of a terrible cook.

Lemon Nut Cake

9 eggs separated

1 large lemon

9 T sugar

1C finely ground almonds

2T matza cake meal

pre heat oven to 325 .Peel and chop ( or shred with scissors) rind lemon zest.  Juice lemon. Beat egg yolks until light yellow and creamy, add sugar in increments. Add lemon rind. Add lemon juice. Continue to beat until mixture is fluffy and batter –like.

Beat egg whites – add a pinch of salt to the whites. This really helps the develop a nice volume. Beat until the egg whites are stiff.

Fold the egg whites into the yolk/lemon mixture. Fold in the ground nuts. Fold in the  matza meal. bake in a tube pan for 45 minutes. test for doneness by touching cake near center. Be sure it isn’t sticky. 

cool the cake inverted.