Sharing Special Holiday Recipes: Celebrating Easter and Passover

Our Community By Sheila Turner-Hilliard

Each year, followers of Christian faiths close out Lent by attending church services and gathering with friends and family for spring-inspired celebrations. There are many classic Easter traditions you can incorporate this year as you celebrate this April 17th.

Some traditions like visiting the Easter bunny or attending an egg hunt may already be a part of your holiday plans, but perhaps this is the year you’d like to try a new tradition or even a new recipe.

Aside from the traditional Easter dinner of ham, rack of lamb, scalloped potatoes and asparagus, why not try your hand at homemade carrot cake? It’s an easy-to-prepare, delicious crowd-pleasing dessert topped with your very own cream cheese frosting!

Carrot Cake

Cake Ingredients

• Unsalted butter for the pan

• 2½ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for the pan

• 12 oz grated carrots (approx. 6 med. carrots)

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp baking soda

• ¼ tsp ground allspice

• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon

• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg

• ½ tsp salt

• 1¼ cups sugar

• ¼ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

• 3 large eggs

• 6 oz plain yogurt

• 6 oz vegetable oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices with a hand mixer or a food processor. Add this mixture to the shredded carrots,and stir until the carrots are coated with flour.

Combine sugar, brown sugar, eggs and yogurt in a bowl and mix with the vegetable oil.

Add this mixture to the carrot mixture and stir until combined.Pour into the cake pan and bake for 45 minutes at 350º.Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes.

Let the cake cool for 20 minutes, remove from the pan and allow to cool completely before frosting the cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients

• 8 oz cream cheese

• 2 oz unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 cups powdered sugar

Directions

Combine the cream cheese and butter in a bowl, and mix until blended, then add the vanilla extract.

Slowly add the powdered sugar, and mix until smooth.

Refrigerate the frosting for 10 minutes before spreading it on the cake.

Serves 8

Enjoy!

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Many neighbors in our community are also getting ready to celebrate Passover, which begins on April 15th and ends on April 23rd this year. Also known as Pesach, it commemorates the liberation of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt. On the first two nights of Passover, a special family meal called the seder is held. During Passover, no leavened food (called chametz) is eaten, and on the first two and last two days of Passover, no work is permitted, as these four days are considered sacred. At the seder, foods of symbolic significance are served, and prayers and traditional recitations are performed.

Just because leavened food is not permitted during Passover, doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy some cake — a flourless cake, that is! The recipe below is for the most delicious flourless chocolate cake topped with fresh berries. It’s easy to make and is sure to satisfy your sweet tooth!

Wishing all of our Friends & Neighbors a happy Easter and Passover filled with love, family and LOTS of good food!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

• 4 oz unsalted butter, cut into pieces

• 10 oz semisweet chocolate chips

• 4 eggs, separated, plus one egg yolk

• ½ cup cocoa powder, plus more for dusting the pan

• ½ tsp salt

• ½ tsp cinnamon

• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper

• ¾ cup sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350º.

Grease a 9-inch round cake pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper and dust with a pinch of cocoa powder.

Melt the butter and chocolate chips in a double broiler. Remove from heat and let cool.

Once cooled, transfer the chocolate and butter mixture to a large mixing bowl.

Mix the egg yolks, cocoa powder, salt, cinnamon and cayenne pepper into the chocolate mixture.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with a mixer until foamy. Slowly add the sugar and continue to beat until the egg whites form stiff peaks.

Add ¼ of the egg whites to the bowl with the chocolate mixture and stir to combine, then add the remaining egg whites to the bowl and gently fold them into the batter.

Pour the batter into the pan and smooth the top.Bake for 30–35 mins until center is set. Cool on a wire rack.Allow cake to cool completely before removing it from the pan.Top with whipped cream and fresh berries.

Serves 8

Enjoy!