A Seven Species Cake for Tu B"Shevat
Created by Shmuel Shimshoni
It is written in the Holy Scriptures: "A land of wheat and barley and grapes and figs and pomegranates, a land of olive-oil and honey (dates). A land where no food shall lack when eating bread where nothing is missing from it, a land whose stones are iron and from who's hills shall copper be mined." (Parshat Ekev Devarim 8 : 8-9)
The utensils include: measuring cups and spoons, a large bowl, flour sifter, rolling pin, spatula, wooden spoon, a small pan, a sharp knife, and a baking tin.
The dough is made up of:
| 4 | Cups | Flour (before sifting) |
| 1 | Package | Baking powder |
| 1 | teaspoon | Baking soda |
| 1/2 | Cup | Sugar |
| 1/2 | Cup | Oil (to include I tablespoon olive oil) |
| 1/3 | Cup | Black beer (this is the barley) |
| 1/3 | Cup | Bee's honey |
| 1/3 | Cup | Pomegranate wine or juice |
| | Pinch | Table salt |
| 1/2 | Teaspoon | Allspice |
| 2 | | Eggs (optional) |
The dough is thoroughly kneaded and 2/3 of it rolled out and spread over the bottom of the baking tin (may be spread with margarine or better still, lined with baking paper).
About 400 to 500 grams of date spread is applied over the bottom layer of the dough.
Some people don't like the small fig seeds, so as a special favor to them:
Slice open the figs and scrape off the seeds. (this is the time consuming part of the preparations, but seeing that they are soft its not difficult).
Over the date spread we lay out the fig halves of about:
| 300 | Grams | Figs (about 18-20) |
| 300 | Grams | Raisins (sprinkled over the figs |
The remaining 1/3 of the dough is rolled out and laid over the fruits.
As a topping mix:
| 1/6 | Cup | Sugar |
| 1 | Teaspoon | Cinnamon |
Mix and sprinkle sugar & cinnamon over the top.
Bake for about 20 minutes at 1800 C or till it begins to tan nicely
Remove from the oven – it can be cut into some 40-48 pieces while warm.
Though quite sweet, each portion contains a minimal amount of fat, but has no cholesterol.
Shmuel Shimshoni
