I loved my grandmother. I would get a crisp new bank note every time I kissed her, half a jelly baby for a treat (I might have choked on a whole one, apparently) and the best chicken soup in the world.

But come Passover, in her flour-less home, her cakes tested my love… on occasion, to the limit. I used to dream up good uses for her Passover cakes: jacking up the car in the event of a flat tire; foundation stones for the new housing estate down the road; surely something the army could use during times of war (and I am thinking weapons here). Anything but eat them.

Where the heck was this recipe then?

Ready

• 6 eggs
• 6oz sugar
• 6oz plain chocolate
• 6oz butter
• 6oz ground almonds
• Zest of an orange
• Zest of a lemon
• Grand marnier (you decide how potent to make it: I use in a good slug)
• Crème fraiche

Set

• Two large mixing bowls
• Electric whisk (for egg whites)
• Bain marie
• 24 inch tin (springform or, ideally, silicone)

Go

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. First, make a sugar syrup by dissolving the sugar with a little water (about 50 ml).
3. Then, in a bain marie, melt the chocolate. Add the butter until it melts too.
4. Combine the sugar syrup to the chocolate mixture and allow to cool for a bit (you will be adding egg yolks soon and you don’t want them to cook!).
5. Separate the eggs.
6. Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.
7. Add the egg yolks slowly to the chocolate mixture followed by the ground almonds, zest and Grand Marnier.
8. Fold in the egg whites.
9. Pour the mixture into the tin.
10. Bake for about 25mins. The cake should be pretty soft in the middle when you take it out.
11. Serve with crème fraiche.

What you should know

You can modify the proportions for a bigger or smaller cake tin as long as you maintain the proportions of 1 egg to 1oz of sugar to 1oz of chocolate etc…