Chocolate Cinnamon Sponge Cake

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A light, moist sponge cake, apple sweetened with lots of chocolate and cinnamon. Delicious served with plain yogurt, vanilla cream frosting or cream cheese frosting.

Ease: average Type: breakfast, snack, dessert Prep Time: 30 minutes Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes Yield: serves 8-10

Cook's notes

When chopping the chocolate, make sure to pulse the food processor, not whirl constantly.

Use only pure, unsweetened baking chocolate. Ghirardelli makes a "Premium Baking Bar" (Chaff K certified Kosher) that is very fine.

The best cocoa powder I have ever had is made by Frontier. (KSA certified kosher.) Be sure to get the non-alkalized cocoa which is, unfortunately, not organic. You can buy it directly from Frontier or save money by special ordering 1 lb. bags from Whole Foods.

Ingredients

9 large eggs, separated
1/4 c honey
1 c sweet Jewish red wine
1 T cinnamon
1/4 c cocoa powder
2 apples, unpeeled and grated (use an eating apple like Fuji, not a baking apple like pippin.)
4 oz. pure, unsweetened, baking chocolate, chopped to the size of coarse bread crumbs
1/2 c date pieces
1 c chopped walnuts
3/4 c quinoa flour (you can also use wheat or brown rice flour with equal success.)
1/4 t cream of tartar

Steps

• Preheat oven to 350° F convection or regular. Oil a nonstick,10" nonstick tube pan (angel cake pan.)
• In a very large mixing bowl, beat egg yolks and honey for 3 minutes on a high speed until yolks are light yellow and thick.
• Beat in on medium speed, one at a time and in this order: wine, cinnamon, cocoa powder, apples, chocolate, date pieces and walnuts. Sift flour over the top but do not mix in. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed, increasing to high speed as eggs expand, until you have firm peaks. Do not over beat, you want the peaks firm but not dry.
• Gently, one third at a time, fold the egg whites into the flour mixture just until blended. Scrape into tube pan and bake for about 60 minutes or 1 1/4 hours until the center springs back when touched. When finished, a skewer or knife inserted all the way to the center will have some cake smeared on it, but it will not be the thin, runny texture of batter.
• Invert the cake and cool upside down to prevent it from collapsing. In other words, turn upside down on a wire rack. Serve when completely cooled.

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