King’s Cake: The Cake the Ramchal Ate on Pesach

King’s Cake (Torta Del Re Recipe)

Ingredients

• 5 large eggs, separated
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• 10 ounces (2 1/2 cups) blanched almonds, ground fine
• 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 of almond extract & rind of 1 lemon
  
• Sliced, toasted almonds for garnish

Method

Line bottom of a 10-inch (25.4 centimeter) cake pan with parchment paper and grease the sides with margarine, or grease a 10-inch (25.4 centimeter) springform pan.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Whisk together yolks, sugar, extracts and lemon rind in a large bowl. The mixture is very thick and hard to mix. Whisk until pale.
Stir in the ground almonds.
Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form; either a mixer or a whisk may be used. (Don’t make too stiff.)
Stir in about one-third of the egg whites to lighten, then fold in the rest of the egg whites.
Pour into the pan and bake for about 50 minutes or until firm. The top will be light brown.
Let cool completely.
Cut around the edges with a sharp knife.
Carefully invert and remove the parchment.
Reinvert onto a serving plate and sprinkle with toasted almonds. (Almonds were sprinkled on before baking, and this turned out to be fine.)

Notes

Check out this king’s cake recipe (torta del re recipe) for the Passover / Pesach holiday, one of several traditional dessert recipes for a number of Jewish communities in Italy.

“Torta del Re” means “King’s Cake” in Italian. The origin of this recipe is said to be from a woman whose chef was a close friend of the King of Italy’s chef. A King’s Cake recipe for the Passover / Pesach holiday is popular among Italian-Jews. There are variations of King’s Cake recipes, and the following King’s Cake recipe for the Passover / Pesach holiday is but one of them.