Chocolate Olive Oil Passover Cake

I’m still the same as when I last wrote-focused on COVID19 most of the day and trying, like everyone else, to function as best possible. Beyond the obvious irony of living in a pandemic during Passover, how I will celebrate it this year has been hard (beyond simply finding holiday foods).

Rock Creek National Park, DC

My daily morning walks through Rock Creek National Park with a friend has set an order and helps to keep my perspective in check as I watch spring unfold around me. It reminds me that of the beauty that continues around us even when we struggle or can’t always see it.

 

Emily Esfahani Smith writes the following in the New York Times about finding meaning during COVID19,  “tragic optimism [coined by Victor Frankl] is the ability to maintain hope and find meaning in life despite its inescapable pain, loss and suffering.”

 

One of my rabbis, Joseph Berman, wrote the following, “We often sing as our prayer for healing at Shabbat services the words of the Three Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra: ‘when the world is sick/can’t no one be well.’ How acutely we know this to be true. But then we sing another line: ‘but I dreamt we were all beautiful and strong.’ These last words capture for me both the yearning for a world of wholeness, healing, and liberation along with the truth that we are in fact beautiful and strong, even if we might not feel that way.”

The New York Times writer concludes,  “it may seem inappropriate to call on people to seek the good in a crisis of this magnitude, but in study after study of tragedy and disaster, that’s what resilient people do.”

Wishing you a safe, healthy and meaningful holiday in whatever way you celebrate this year. Chag Sameach!

PS:  Click here for my other Passover recipes,  including stuffed dates, turron, and quinoa with roasted fruits.

Chocolate Olive Oil Passover Cake

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

Ingredients:

Cake:

1 1/2 cups cake matzah meal
3/4 cup sugar
1.5 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup carbonated water
1 tbsp white vinegar
optional: 4 tbsp fresh orange juice (if you like a bit of an orange flavor with chocolate. I didn’t even taste it in the finished cake)

Icing:

⅔ cup sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (6 ounces) chopped semisweet chocolate chips
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
optional: 1 tsp flaky sea salt or orange zest

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix together all of the dry cake ingredients.
3. Add the liquids and mix well.  I found the cake matzah mix quite dry, so you might have to add a bit of extra liquid.
4. Pour into a 9×9 pan lined in parchment paper with olive oil along the sides. Bake for 30-35 minutes.
5. While it is baking, you can prepare the icing (which Adeena Sussman created as a spread to put on matzah).
6. Bring ⅓ cup water, the sugar, cocoa, and salt to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, mixing until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture thickens.
7. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate, olive oil, and vanilla until the chocolate is melted and smooth.
8. Refrigerate icing until thick but spreadable, about 90 minutes. Spread on the top of the fully cooled cake. The icing will harden when left in the fridge or overnight on a counter (covered lightly with a dish towel)
9. Optional: sprinkle with flaky sea salt on top or orange zest.
10. PS: I didn’t use all of the icing so I recommend you also spread it on matzah, as Adeena Sussman created it for originally.