This fun and easy no-bake “cake” was invented because of the Passover restriction on leavening agents, which makes baking tough. It only has three ingredients, and it takes about 10 minutes to prepare. It requires no baking because it sets in the refrigerator. I know the kosher wine sounds like a bizarre ingredient, but combined with the matzo and chocolate the wine flavor is very mellow. The alcohol content in the sweet kosher wine is very low; to make it more kid friendly, you can substitute kosher grape juice. The texture of the finished product is somewhere between a candy bar and a chocolate truffle cake. Use pareve bittersweet chocolate to keep this pareve, and eggless matzo with pareve chocolate to keep it vegan.
Kids can easily help with this recipe. Once the melted chocolate has cooled slightly, there is nothing hot to burn little fingers. A word of warning: melted chocolate likes to get on fingers, clothes, the tabletop, etc. Prepare to get a little bit messy! I like to line my table with parchment paper or newspaper before starting to keep things neat.
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Easy No-Bake Chocolate Matzo Cake
Ingredients
- 7 chocolate bars (3 oz. each - dairy or pareve)
- 7 matzo squares
- 1 small bottle sweet kosher wine or grape juice
- In a double boiler or the microwave, melt the chocolate bars till smooth.
Pour sweet wine or grape juice into a shallow baking dish or pan. Soak the matzos for 45-60 seconds until they’ve absorbed some of the wine or juice. Don’t let them soak too long, or they’ll get mushy and fall apart! Remove matzos from liquid.
Place one moistened matzo in the center of a small tray or plate. Using a spatula, spread the matzo generously with melted chocolate, covering the whole surface of the matzo.Place one moistened matzo in the center of a small tray or plate. Using a spatula, spread the matzo generously with melted chocolate, covering the whole surface of the matzo.
Take another matzo and layer it on top, then spread it with chocolate. Repeat the process until you have seven layers of chocolate matzos. Put an extra thick spread of chocolate on the top layer.
Place the layered cake in refrigerator and let it set for about an hour, or until chocolate has hardened. After the chocolate has set, store the cake at room temperature. Use a sharp knife to cut and serve. Feel free to dress up the cake however you’d like. Some people add whipped cream and nuts. If you want a taller, thicker cake, feel free to add more layers. The thicker the cake, the longer it will take to set in the refrigerator.
By definition, I am not a Shiksa, but I do love good food. As a family, we like to try new recipes and my 10-year-old son, a future chef, likes to try new ingredients, cuisines, and techniques. We will be trying this one out for my birthday!
Looks interesting! Maybe I will try this on Passover. BTW, after I catch up on your blog, I will be posting a link from my blog longandwinding.wordpress.com
Sounds great Phil, I’ll add you to my blog roll as well! (with all those Beatles references how can I resist??)
BTW you should come join us over on my Facebook fan page, we have a very active kosher cooking community over there:
link to facebook.com
Already a fan!
Anyone try this yet? It was suggested to me that ganache would make it better…
To Joolz — ganache is a great idea! Can’t imagine why it wouldn’t work, although perhaps the matzo is already quite soft from the soaking, and ganache might make the whole cake too gooshy. (I wasn’t clear on Shula’s reference to flour.)
I was thinking raspberry liquore would be a good addition to the soak. I’m not Jewish — hope that suggestion doesn’t offend anyone for being verbotin.
The Passover restriction is on raising agents, not flour… but this looks delicious!
This looks incredible, and a friend said she had it and it was!
How many days in advance can I make this? I’d like to prepare it Wednesday for my Seder on Saturday.
Hi Mara– you can definitely prepare this in advance. What I would do is refrigerate it till it sets, let it return to room temp, then cut it into individual portions (1 inch pieces), then freeze it. That way it will keep fresh much longer, plus it makes it easier to serve when the Seder comes. You can take the frozen pieces out about an hour before the Seder. It’s yummy straight out of the freezer, too– cold and delish. Good luck!
Thanks, will do that! Incidentally, I made and froze your apple pecan pie. Smelled outrageous (hard to resist tasting)! I’ll report back on how it fared.
My mom used to make this every year- it’s one of my all-time favorite treats. She also added layers of strawberry jam, which I highly recommend.
Made this as part of desert at the first seder. Everybody loved it – children and adults alike. I used whole wheat matza and I swear no one noticed.
I made this recipe a little differently for many years. We used raw egg yolks in the melted chocolate and stiffly beaten egg whites folded into the melted chocolate. The consistency was mousse like. The cake was fantastic and the only reason I stopped making it was because of the concern over raw eggs. I’m going to try it again this year using pasturized eggs.
can you send me that recipe? sound really good.
I stopped making it because of the raw eggs. Pasturized eggs can be substituted if you’re concerned. I haven’t tried it that way yet. This is really very good…enjoy.
PASSOVER MATZO SEVEN LAYER CAKE
3 1/2 oz. bittersweet chocolate
1/4 c. butter
1 c. fine sugar
3 eggs, separated
7 egg matzo
Passover wine
Melt chocolate and set aside. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites. Mix chocolate into yolk mixture. Fold in egg whites. Dip one matzo into wine. Place matzo on plate, put some chocolate filling on it and then repeat with another matzo. Cover the sides and top with the remainder of chocolate filling. Mellow 24 hours (at least) in refrigerator.
Growing up, we used to collect the chocolate frosting packets from the kosher for Passover cake mixes and then make a matzoh cake with the frosting it made. Now that I am a grandma, imake it with grandchildren every Passover. They love it!