Leichech: Oma Chanah’s Sponge Cake
Mom’s side of the family, summer 2019
Ingredients
7 eggs separated
220 g sugar (1 tbsp + ⅓ cup + ½ cup)
240 g flour (1 cup - 2 tsp)
½ cup orange juice
1 tbsp vanilla extract
½ cup oil
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp baking powder
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Beat your egg whites, vanilla, and salt together until stiff peaks form. Refrigerate to hold peaks.
Mix everything else together.
Fold your egg whites into your batter by hand. This must be done lightly and slowly to ensure the egg whites do not deflate.
Place half of the batter into a well-greased cake form
Mix together 2 tsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon and sprinkle over the batter in the cake form.
Pour the remaining batter on top of the cinnamon sugar mixture. Do not mix together
Bake for 40 minutes.
Cool your cake upside down on a plate to ensure that the cake does not stick to the cake form or deflate in the center.
My Story:
One of my favorite things about baking is the fact that each person who uses a recipe will have a unique outcome. Even if they follow the exact same recipe and do everything perfectly, the food they are creating will always have a little touch of themselves in it that separates their creation from the next.
My Oma Chanah’s leicach cake, or sponge cake, is my family’s favorite bake in the whole world. My mom, oma, aunt, and I are all avid bakers of this cake and even though we all follow the exact same recipe that my Oma Chanah crafted, each outcome is different. My mom loves to say that I make the best leicach she’s ever had, and my Oma always says the same. Being able to bake something that my mother’s grandmother would bake for her and have it bring her the same joy is one of my favorite feelings in the world.
Leicach is the kind of cake that needs to be carefully made, and baked with love. So much of the way it will come out relies on patience and the time you take to make the cake. Rushing or not putting enough effort into even the smallest of details can cause the cake to collapse in on itself or taste a little weird. Leicach is the way in which I show my family the time, dedication, and love that I have towards them.
The Jewish holidays are some of the most important days of the year for my family and me. Despite the fact that I am an agnostic Jew, the holidays are the days that my entire, very large, and busy family can just sit down and spend time with each other. And every holiday, without fail, I’m in the kitchen preparing what I’m hoping will be the most perfect leichach I have ever made. It warms my heart how excited everyone gets when they find out that I made leicach for dessert, and most of the time the entire cake is eaten by the end of the night.
Family friends have also become expectant of having a leicach for dessert when they come over for Shabbat dinner, or for a regular dinner any time of the year. It’s become “the Jurmann family cake” and is expected when they’re coming over. Having these expectations of baking the perfect cake has never given me added pressure to make the cake perfect, because my Oma Chanah made the perfect recipe. There’s no way to mess up, as long as I just listen to her.
It's a bit strange for me to make Oma Chanah’s cake because of the relationship I have with my grandfather. He's never really been around in my life, and the feelings I have towards him have always been more hostile and unkind than not. Having that disconnect from my mother’s father has always made me feel conflicted with the connection that I have to the leicach cake and always makes me think just a little bit harder about my family and being there for them. I don’t think of my grandfather as a very good person, but I acknowledge the fact that he’s still my mom's dad. When I make Oma Chanah’s leicach I like to think about her and who she was. I never knew her and my mom never talks about her much, so to me, she’s the kindest woman anyone’s ever known. She would spend hours in the kitchen making cakes and treats for her sons and later on her grandchildren. She would slave over perfecting recipes for her family so that they can always have a piece of her wherever they go.
Sometimes I feel like Oma Chanah is with me. Being the resident baker in my household and having everyone tell me I make the best leicach cakes they’ve ever had has to mean something. I like to believe that every time I make the cake she is with me as I work on her recipe with as much love and passion as someone can put into a baked good. I can see her smiling as everyone sits around the table, chatting and enjoying the recipe she perfected. Sometimes I like to think that she left the recipe for me, and my kids that I will one day make Oma Chanah’s leicach with.
When you make Oma Chanah’s leicach I want you to sit and think about your Oma Chanah, the person who provides you with the passion and love to keep baking for your loved ones. Everyone has an Oma Chanah, you just have to find out who it is.
