Open up almost any cookbook with a cake section, and more likely than not, you’ll find a recipe for Jewish Apple Cake.

Moist, dense, and full of cinnamon and sugar-dusted apples, these beautiful cakes make a wonderful finale to any festive dinner, as well as being delicious for breakfast or with coffee.

Everyone agrees that they’re luscious, but how and why are these apple cakes Jewish? Do you have to be Jewish to bake them? To eat them? What’s the story here?

It finally dawned on me: Jewish apple cake recipes are completely dairy-free – pareve. They call for vegetable oil instead of butter, and orange juice instead of milk. A recipe with dairy ingredients could not be eaten after a festive Shabbat or holiday meal that traditionally includes meat or chicken. That’s the Jewish connection.

But why don’t we ever see recipes for Jewish chocolate cake or Jewish banana cake? And why is Jewish apple cake such a hit in Pennsylvania’s Amish country? This mystery must remain unsolved, for the time being, at least.

But I believe that there are at least two more cakes that can be classified as traditionally Jewish. Take marble cake, for instance. Every Jewish bakery sports its own version of this pareve cake. And then there’s the ubiquitous jelly roll. Anyone who flew any domestic or international airline in the 1980s and 1990s and ordered a kosher meal always received a jelly roll for dessert, usually with a lemony filling. They may seem to have fallen out of favour of late, but today’s cooks are filling jelly rolls with everything from chocolate cream to spicy pumpkin mixtures. The roll’s beautiful pinwheels look especially attractive on a delicate white doily.

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups and 5 tbsp. sugar (divided)
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup oil
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1/2 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice
4 large, firm, crisp apples, peeled, cored, and sliced (try Gala or Granny Smith)
4 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Beat flour, 2-1/2 cups sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla, oil, eggs and juice until smooth. Stir together apples, cinnamon and 5 tablespoons sugar in a separate bowl. Layer half the batter in a greased and floured tube or bundt pan and top with half the apples. Repeat, finishing with a layer of apples in overlapping concentric circles. Bake for about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours or until cake passes the toothpick test. Check during the last 15 minutes to see if cake is getting too brown on top – if it is, cover with aluminum foil. Cool on a rack before carefully removing from pan.

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
non-stick cooking spray
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup apple juice
1/2 cup unsalted margarine, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Stir flour and baking powder together. Spray a 12-cup bundt or angel food cake pan with nonstick spray. Preheat oven to 350.

Beat sugar and eggs until creamy.  Stir in vanilla. Add oil gradually and continue to beat until well mixed and airy. Add juice and beat again to combine. Add flour mixture and beat until blended.

Melt margarine in a small pan over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and stir in sugar and cocoa. (This may be done in a microwave oven: melt margarine for approximately 30 seconds and then stir in sugar and cocoa.)

Pour half of the white batter into the prepared pan.  Add cocoa mixture to the second half, mix, and pour on top of the white batter. Swirl batters together a few times with a knife.

Bake for 50-60 minutes until cake pulls away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove from pan when cool. Leave unfrosted or top with your favourite glaze or icing.  An easy way is to simply drizzle melted bittersweet chocolate over the top.

4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
powdered sugar
filling: about 1 cup jam

Preheat oven to 400. Line a 15x10x1-in. jelly roll pan with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks with an electric mixer until light. Gradually add sugar and vanilla, and mix until smooth. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the yolk mixture and beat until just combined.

Wash and dry beaters well, then beat the egg whites to soft peaks.

Gently fold half of the egg whites into the flour mixture, then fold in the rest of the whites until the batter is even. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake at 400 for 8 to 10 minutes, until the cake is golden and springs back when lightly touched.

When cake comes out of the oven, loosen edges and immediately invert on a towel sprinkled with powdered sugar. Carefully remove paper. Trim off any stiff edges.

While cake is still hot, roll cake and towel together starting from narrow end. Cool on wire rack for at least 30 minutes. Unroll cake carefully and remove towel. Spread with soft jelly or filling. Roll again. If desired, sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cut into 1-in. slices or size desired.