Over the coming eight days of Passover, the Bakehouse’s lovely Lemon Sponge Cake will grace any number of local tables. That said, you don’t have to be Jewish or celebrate Passover to enjoy it. Rachel Seng, marvelous manager of the Roadshow, says this has long been one of her favorite Bakehouse offerings! This lemon sponge cake, made by hand with great skill, has a LOT of loyal fans.
Sponge cakes, leavened as these are only with beaten eggs, go back centuries in culinary history, perhaps to medieval Spain. They gained popularity in England. The first written recipes appeared in the poet Gervase Markham’s early-17th-century book The English Huswife. To this day, sponge cake serves as the base for jelly rolls, Swiss rolls, bûche de Noël, and tres leches. I realize now, it’s the source of the Twinkies I used to eat regularly when I was a kid!
Made without flour, sponge cake has long been a Jewish Passover tradition. In 1903 (the year after the Deli’s building was built), Milwaukee social worker Lizzie Kander put out the second edition of The Settlement Cookbook. The book was based on recipes from Settlement House, a Milwaukee institution set up to help immigrant families, many of whom were—like Kander—Jewish. The book was created to raise money, but the board of trustees refused to invest the $18 to have an initial 1000 copies made. Determined to get her book out into the world, Kander decided to accept advertising to fund the printing. The book sold for 50 cents, and it sold remarkably well. The second edition—which included the sponge cake recipe—had a bigger print run of 1500. Today, it’s in its 33rd edition.
The Bakehouse crew describes this delicious offering as a “light and lemony sponge cake with lemon curd between the layers and a caramelized meringue exterior. A pretty, flavorful, and light ending to any feast. Plus, it’s wheat-free!” (The Bakehouse itself is anything but wheat-free, so please use appropriate nutritional or religious caution that’s right for you and yours.) Back when I was a kid, Passover meant a very dry sponge cake baked from a Manischewitz mix. I’m happy to have learned in recent years that there’s a lot more to it than that! The Bakehouse’s version is terrific—light and lemony, not overly sweet, with a lovely, long finish.
You’ll find the Lemon Sponge Cake through April at the Bakeshop, Deli, and, during Passover, on the dessert menu at the Roadhouse as well. Sip some of the Guatemala El Regalito coffee, savor small slices of Lemon Sponge Cake, and see what wonderful things might come during the course of the day!
In 1982, Ari Weinzweig, along with his partner Paul Saginaw, founded Zingerman’s Delicatessen with a $20,000 bank loan, a Russian History degree from the University of Michigan, 4 years of experience washing dishes, cooking and managing in restaurant kitchens and chutzpah from his hometown of Chicago. They opened the doors with 2 employees and a small selection of specialty foods and exceptional sandwiches.
Today, Zingerman’s Delicatessen is a nationally renowned food icon and the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses has grown to 10 businesses with over 750 employees and over $55 million in annual revenue. Aside from the Delicatessen, these businesses include Zingerman’s Bakehouse, Coffee Company, Creamery, Roadhouse, Mail Order, ZingTrain, Candy Manufactory, Cornman Farms and a Korean restaurant that is scheduled to open in 2016. No two businesses in the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses are alike but they all share the same Vision and Guiding Principles and deliver “The Zingerman’s Experience” with passion and commitment.
Besides being the Co-Founding Partner and being actively engaged in some aspect of the day-to-day operations and governance of nearly every business in the Zingerman’s Community, Ari Weinzweig is also a prolific writer. His most recent publications are the first 4 of his 6 book series Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading Series: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business (Part 1), Being a Better Leader (Part 2), Managing Ourselves (Part 3) and the newly-released Part 4, The Power of Beliefs in Business. Earlier books include the Zingerman’s Guides to Giving Great Service, Better Bacon, Good Eating, Good Olive Oil, Good Vinegar and Good Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Ari regularly travels across the country (and world) on behalf of ZingTrain, teaching organizations and businesses about Zingerman’s approach to business. He is a sought-after Keynote speaker, having delivered keynotes for Inc. 500, Microsoft Expo Spring Conference, Great Game of Business Gathering of Games, Positive Business Conference at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, American Society for Quality (ASQ), and the American Cheese Society. Most recently, Ari and Paul Saginaw were invited to address an audience of 50,000 for the University of Michigan 2015 Spring Commencement.
One of Zingerman’s Guiding Principles is being an active part of the community and in 1988, Zingerman’s was instrumental in the founding of Food Gatherers, a food rescue program that delivers over 5 million pounds of food each year to the hungry residents of Washtenaw county. Every year Zingerman’s donates 10% of its previous years profits to local community organizations and non-profits. Ari has served on the board of The Ark, the longest continuously operating folk music venue in America.
Over the decades, the Zingerman’s founding partners have consistently been the recipients of public recognition from a variety of diverse organizations. In April 1995, Ari and Paul were awarded the Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County’s first Humanitarian Award. In 2006, Ari was recognized as one of the “Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America” by the James Beard Foundation. In 2007, Ari and Paul were presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from Bon Appetit magazine for their work in the food industry. Ari was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Cheese Society in 2014. And Ari’s book, Building a Great Business was on Inc. magazine’s list of Best Books for Business Leaders.
Notwithstanding the awards, being engaged on a daily basis in the work of 10 businesses and 21 partners, writing books on business and in-depth articles on food for the Zingerman’s newsletter, Ari finds time to be a voracious reader. He acquires and reads more books than he can find room for. Ari might soon find himself the owner of the largest collection of Anarchist books in Ann Arbor outside the Labadie collection at the University of Michigan library!
