Spring Awakening
(or What Comes First …?)
Spring equals renewal... Spring equals re-awakening… And eggs! So many eggs! So many holidays involving eggs! The Passover egg soup passed down from my grandmother, to my mother, to me. A good dozen, maybe two — depending on how big our Seder table will be that night. The eggs boil and bubble, dancing for hours on end as they clickity-clack in their shells in the big pot at the back of the stove, while we prepare the rest of the Seder meal. We glance at the pot from time to time and add water to keep the dance going, until the whites finally turn brown (which, believe it or not, they do after many hours of boiling– revealing a soft, coffee-stained hue when you crack them open). Then, we peel and cut the eggs in thick slices before adding them to a chilled salt-water broth, my late daughter’s favorite part of the meal on her favorite holiday. The eggs represent the circle of life, the salt water, the tears of the Israelites enslaved by the Egyptians. So many tears over so many millennia. Love and loss. Loss and love. A never-ending circle. Holding traditions close, the story of the Passover, circling through memories, adding to our family history, and holding on tightly, ever so tightly, in our circle at our Seder table, to the hope and possibility of renewal.
So the egg, its mystery, its mythology, its symbolism, its perfection even when the surface cracks, beckons me seasonally to consider its many possibilities. The egg is so integral to, well, just about everything, but here to baking: the white and the yolk, often working in concert, but just as often going their own separate ways, because lest we forget: a crispy meringue, a pillowy pavlova, even a winter holiday batch of Zimsterne, (see Digest issue #7) elevates the whites, but leaves you with the yolks. So many yolks! So. Many. Yolks. What to do with all of those yolks? Please don’t toss them. I promise you, there are possibilities aside from whipping them up into a quick hollandaise or adding them to your Matzah Brei. Hope springs eternal. Read on.
Also come spring: my mother’s birthday (this year she rings in at 95, still as “in like a lion” as her birth month, and as independent, bourbon-drinking, and opinionated as ever). Since March 29th almost always falls during the seven-day Passover holiday, I bake her a flourless chocolate cake, adapted from the incomparable Nigella Lawson. When I came across the recipe many moons ago, it appeared speckled with candy Easter eggs (after all, ‘tis the season). I, however, fill it with billowy, pillowy whipped cream, strewn with raspberries and sprinkled with cocoa powder. Just a few tall sparkly candles crown the cake (two’s company, three’s a crowd, 95 is a fire hazard) – and voilà, happy birthday, Mom. Here’s to many more.
Yield: 8-10 slices.
It’s a birthday cake, so celebrate! Finish it in one night! Leftovers (which there won’t be, but just for the sake of argument) are great for breakfast.
MOM’S FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE BIRTHDAY CAKE
ADAPTED FROM NIGELLA LAWSON’S EASTER EGG NEST CAKE
METHOD
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Line the bottom of a 9" springform cake pan with a round of parchment paper or a round silpat
3. Melt the chocolate and butter in a glass bowl in the microwave in 30 second increments, being careful not to burn, stirring after each round, until just melted. This should take about 2:30 minutes total. Set aside to cool slightly.
4. Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk the 4 egg whites until firm.
5. Slowly add in the 2/3 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, and whisk until the whites are glossy and hold their shape but are not stiff. Set bowl aside.
6. In another bowl, whisk the 2 whole eggs and 4 yolks with the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar and the vanilla extract, and then gently fold in the chocolate mixture. Lighten the mixture with a large dollop of egg whites and stir briskly, then, in thirds, gently fold in the rest of the whisked whites.
7. Pour batter into the prepared springform pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or, as Nigella says “until the cake is risen and cracked and the center is no longer wobbly on the surface.” Cool on a wire rack. “The middle will sink as it cools and the sides splinter. You want this to look like a cake with a crater in it, so do not panic at the vision of imperfection in front of you. That's one of the reasons this cake is so unstressful to make,” she stresses.
8. To finish, carefully remove the cake from the springform pan and place it on a plate or cake stand, “not worrying if bits fall off here and there. Put them back in a loose fashion.”
9. Just before serving, whip the cream until it’s soft and cloud-like, and pile into the center of the cake. Scatter the berries on the surface as neatly or as haphazardly as you’d like, and sift cocoa powder or chocolate shavings on top. Add candles and sing a song.
Afterword: You know the trick of balancing an egg upright on the Spring Equinox? It’s a myth! (Fact check: you can try this any day of the year if you are lucky enough to pluck an egg with a perfectly centered yolk and pull it off). A myth not to be confused with the manifestation of the Easter Bunny, however. Just ask Elijah.
SUZI SCHIFFER PARRASCH IS A REFORMED NETWORK TELEVISION NEWS PRODUCER WHO, WHEN NOT WHISKING, AND WHISKING, AND WHISKING EGG WHITES, BAKES, RUNS, SKIS, WRITES, EDITS, AND CONSULTS (EVEN WHEN NO ONE IS ASKING).