Passover Orange Sponge Cake

Preparing breakfast is a real challenge for the home cook during Passover, since the use of flour is forbidden during this eight-day period. But I love breakfast, and over the years I have created many Passover dishes that my family enjoys at the morning meal. Passover begins at sundown on March 27.

Try starting breakfast with a bowl of cold fruit soup made with freshly squeezed orange juice. Use blood oranges, now in season; they yield a strikingly beautiful raspberry-colored juice. You may not think of serving orange juice in this manner, but it is delicious. Simply pour the juice over sliced strawberries, which are at their sweetest this time of the year.

One breakfast challenge in my house is attempting to satisfy everyone’s tastes. Our daughters and their families, who live in Oregon, stay with us during the holiday, and finding something everyone likes to eat is almost impossible. I tried buying the usual Passover dry cereals for the grandchildren, but they did not go over very well.

But they all love my Matzo Farfel Granola. It has become a popular snack, and sometimes the kids combine the granola with milk and sliced bananas. I now make it year-round and use dried fruits that vary from cranberries to chopped apricots.

One breakfast treat comes from leftovers. I always bake several different sponge cakes for our Passover Seders, and I like to use slices the next day to make Passover French Toast. A little sweeter than the traditional kind made with bread, it has a light, airy consistency. It’s delicious with fruit preserves.

For something more different yet, thin slices of fruitcake are a nice treat with your morning latte or cappuccino. This fruitcake recipe, which I adapted for Passover, came from Sandy Krusoff. She makes her fruitcakes for friends three or four times a year, and this year we were lucky to receive one. The ingredients, a combination of dried fruits and nuts, remind me of the charoset we serve at our Seder.