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Dessert

Israeli Wine Nut Cake

A cake made with eggs, sugar, orange juice, wine, matzoh meal, nuts, and spices.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Israeli Wine Nut Cake

Oven325 °F
Time60 to 65 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Separate the eggs into large mixing bowls.

  2. Gradually beat 1 ¼ cups sugar and ½ teaspoon salt into the yolk mixture until very thick and light in color.

  3. Add the orange juice, orange rind, and red Passover wine; beat at high speed until thick and light, about 3 minutes.

  4. Sift together the matzoh cake meal, potato starch, and cinnamon; gradually fold into the orange mixture until smoothly blended.

Make the meringue and fold

  1. Beat the egg whites at highest speed until the whites stand in peaks but are not dry.

  2. While beating continuously, make a meringue by adding the remaining ¼ cup sugar to the whites, a tablespoon at a time.

  3. Fold the meringue lightly into the mixture.

  4. Fold the finely chopped almonds into the batter gently.

Bake and cool

  1. Turn the batter into an ungreased 10‑inch tube pan with the bottom lined with waxed paper.

  2. Bake at 325 °F for 60 to 65 minutes or until the cake springs back when touched lightly.

  3. Invert the pan onto a funnel or suspend it over a cooling rack.

  4. Allow the cake to hang for 45 minutes.

  5. While slightly warm, remove the cake by running a sharp thin‑bladed knife around the side of the pan in one long steady stroke.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

388Calories
12 gProtein
6 gFat
68 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Cakenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Potato + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together337 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trapped in meringue and yolks provide structure and rise for the airy sponge.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cake and stabilizes the beaten egg whites into a meringue.
Matzoh cake meal
Provides the flour-like body that sets the cake's crumb once baked.
Potato starch
Adds tenderness to the crumb by partly replacing wheat-style flour structure.
Almonds
Add nutty flavor and a tender, moist texture to the crumb.

The step that matters

Folding the meringue and batter gently. Egg white foam holds the cake's rise, and vigorous stirring deflates it, leaving a dense, flat cake. Fold slowly and only until blended.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, orange, wine, cinnamon, almond):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, orange, wine, cinnamon, almond. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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