Passover Apricot Cake and Berry Compote Trifles
- Ready In:
- 2hrs 20mins
- Ingredients:
- 20
- Yields:
-
8 trifles
- Serves:
- 8
ingredients
-
APRICOT PUREE
- 1 (6 ounce) package dried apricots
- 1 1⁄2 cups apricot nectar
- 1⁄4 cup granulated sugar
-
CAKE
- 3⁄4 cup matzo meal
- 1⁄3 cup potato starch
- 1⁄4 teaspoon ginger (optional)
- 7 large eggs, separated
- 1 1⁄4 cups granulated sugar
- 1⁄2 cup honey
- 1⁄2 cup vegetable oil
- 3 tablespoons brandy
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
-
MIXED BERRY COMPOTE
- 1⁄2 cup strawberry jam
- 1 tablespoon strawberry jam
- 3 tablespoons apricot puree
- 1 (1 1/2 pint) basket raspberries
- 3 (1/2 pint) baskets raspberries
- 1 (1/2 pint) basket blueberries
- 1 (1/2 pint) basket blackberry, halved if large
-
CREAM
- 2 (8 ounce) containers frozen non-dairy topping, thawed
directions
-
APRICOT PUREE:
- Bring all ingredients to simmer in heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves.
- Reduce heat to medium-low, cover tightly and simmer until apricots are tender, about 12 minutes.
- Transfer mixture to food processor; puree until smooth.
- Transfer to small bowl, cover and refrigerate.
- Do ahead tip*.
-
CAKE:
- Position a rack just below center of oven and preheat to 350°F (180°C).
- Whisk first 3 ingredients in small bowl to blend; set aside.
- Using electric mixer, beat egg yolks and 1/4 cup sugar in a large bowl until very thick, about 6 minutes.
- Gradually beat in 2/3 cup apricot puree, then honey, oil and brandy.
- Beat in cake meal mixture.
- Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites and salt in another large bowl until soft peaks form.
- Gradually add remaining 1 cup sugar, beating until whites are stiff but not dry.
- Fold whites into yolk mixture in 4 additions.
- Transfer batter to a 10x4-inch (25.5cmx10cm) angel food cake pan or tube pan with removable center.
- Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 55 minutes.
- Immediately, invert center of cake pan onto narrow neck bottle.
- Cool cake completely.
- Do ahead tip.**.
-
ASSEMBLY OF TRIFLES:
- Cut around sides of pan and around center post to loosen cake; remove from pan.
- Cut cake, as needed, into even 1/2-3/4-inch slices (not wedges of uneven thickness).
- Using cookie cutter, cut out sixteen 2-1/2 to 3-inch rounds.
- In each of eight (12oz-16oz)goblets, place spoonful of compote.
- Top with 1 cake round, 1/4 cup compote and large spoonful of non-dairy topping.
- Repeat layering 1 more time.
- Refrigerate trifles up to 6 hours.
- When ready to serve, top each trifle with a dollop of non-dairy whipped topping.
-
MIXED BERRY COMPOTE:
- Make this 1 day ahead to allow flavors more time to develop(and of course to free up more of your time for other cooking.).
- Leftover compote, like the apricot puree, is nice with latkes for breakfast or even over cottage cheese or yogurt.
- Whisk jam and remaining apricot puree in large bowl to blend.
- Gently mix in all berries.
- Let compote stand at room temperature at least 2 hours, tossing occasionally.
- *Can be made 1 week ahead. Keep refrigerated.
- **Cake can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover pan tightly with foil and store cake upright at room temperature.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
<p>Hello all, thank you for visiting My Page but forgive me for it is a work in progress! :) As I am sure you have noticed I changed my Chef Name to Manami which means love & beauty. ;) Just thought I should get with the program - my geisha & my icon! :) Don't fret, I won't change it again! <br /><br />I am 70 years young and I live in a nursing home, which is out of this world, I am treated like a princess and the world is my oyster! I have a private room and during the season I do taxes for most of the staff, as well as my personal clients that have been following me since I left the business world about 25 years ago. I was rear-ended by a van and it turned my whole world upside down. Why dwell on that? <br /><br />I am an American Jew (from NYC) who moved to Havana, Cuba when I was 2 1/2 years old, lived there until a few days after Castro took over and vamoosed it out of that country as fast as my legs would carry me! I was on a forced hiatus from the UofM, due to illness. <br /><br />From there my sister, mother and I went to NYC to work and my father went to Haiti in Port-Au-Prince, where he and my uncle had purchased some tiny cocoa plantations & a chocolate factory - for the choccolate liquer - to make baking chocolate (the real bitter stuff). We joined my father about 2 months later where I spent 2 of the most carefree & wonderful years of my life! It is the stuff that movies are made of! (A la Grace Kelly - even my clothes were like hers)> </p>
<p>I then continued my studies in upstate NY and hated it because it was too, too cold!:( Went back to NYC to work and see what I wanted to do with my life - I was all of 20 years old and had to drop out of school because of illness and then because of the weather! Yuck - so I got a job in a Textile Buying Office as a receptionist and soon I found myself buying trimmings! Loved it and was very happy with the work I was doing. <br /><br />However, I got an offer from two young guys who had a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, where they made Maternity Clothes and they wanted me to be in charge of the shipping dept, keep inventory and in my spare time - help with the designing!! I couldn't pass it up - the offer sounded so great and the salary was twice what I was making in the NYC. So I went to Cleveland, got married, had both my children and got a divorce 15 years later. <br /><br />Then my children and I moved to South Florida and have been here since 1978, I can't count that far back :) <br /><br />Learned how to do taxes with H&R Block and worked simultaneously as a Supervisor in 2 offices for them for 15 years. Then after the accident everything went spiralling downwards until I could no longer walk alone even with a walker - so the next step was a wheelchair. Stayed at home with a lot of help (nurses, PT therapists) fixed the bathroom so I could bathe myself and fixed the kitchen so I could help warm-up meals (was taught how to cook in rehab) and so forth and so on. <br /><br />However, the fire department had other plans for me, I called them too often to pick me up off the floor - how embarassing! So they gave me a choice - either a home or they would have to call HRS! :( (very sad) <br /><br />It was there, in my home where I was robbed! <img title=Cry src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-cry.gif border=0 alt=Cry /> All my cookbooks (all my Julia Childs Cookbooks, my Settlement Cookbook which had been my mothers - published in 1939 - with all her notes) my mother's cookbooks from Cuba & Haiti, all my handwritten recipes. They also took all my Delft collection, some antiques that I had in the kitchen like my rolling pin, a beautiful old & used wooden bowl, a charcoal-iron that was brought north when my parents left Haiti, it was hand-painted & was gorgeous, as well as all the other things that are too numerous to mention! <br /><br />That proved to be the last straw & from there it was an ALF,<img title=Yell src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-yell.gif border=0 alt=Yell /> which was horrible, and then on to another home where the administrator of that home became the administrator here and voila, here I am. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /></p>
<p>I have a beautiful large private room with a private bath, furnished to my liking: eclectic! <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> My room is large enough to house my office and all the other odds and ends with which I like to surround myself.<br /><br />During tax season, mostly, my room is always full (of course I love it that way)! I have a blanket my daughter bought for me in New Mexico and that is on my bed. You guessed it - that is where everbody sits or on my great grandfather's arm chair which is in great shape. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /> Update 01/11/2008 that time is here again :) Have started doing taxes already and not just regular taxes but corporations, partnerships and 1040X - ammended returns! Whoopee! I love the feeling I get when this time comes around and I get into gear!!! I love it! :) <br /><br />The head chef, the kitchen supervisor & the dietician enjoy the recipes from Zaar; the ones that I post, as well as, the others. We are in the process of changing the menu right now - so we have been doing a lot of figuring. The administrator is so cute because every once in a while she asks for a recipe and then she gives me a pack of paper so I can print them. <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /><br /><br />I am president of the resident council and most of the family members come to me to take care of their grievances - this way I do my part - and the staff can take care of the larger problems! It has been working for 10 years - why change if it ain't broke?<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /></p>
<p>Well, it's time to say hasta luego folks. <img title=Laughing src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-laughing.gif border=0 alt=Laughing /><br /><br /></p>