Cake meal is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store it, what to substitute, and 8 recipes to get you started.

What is cake meal?

Cake meal is matzo ground to a fine, soft powder, finer than regular matzo meal. It is the Passover baker's stand-in for flour, used when a recipe needs a smooth crumb rather than a coarse one.

The texture is the whole point. Where matzo meal is sandy and good for binding and coating, cake meal is milled almost as fine as wheat flour, so it folds into batters cleanly and bakes into a tender result.

It carries the same faint, toasted matzo flavor, and it has no leavening power of its own. During Passover, when wheat flour is set aside for the eight days, cake meal does the lifting in sponge cakes and cookies. See the flour hub for the wider family.

Baking With Cake Meal

Cake meal belongs in airy bakes that lean on beaten eggs for lift rather than gluten. Passover sponge cakes are the classic case: the eggs are whipped to a foam, and the cake meal is folded in gently to keep that air in.

It works the same way in cookies and tortes. The Pineapple/Nut Passover Sponge Cake and the Viennese Chocolate Torte Passover both use it to hold a light, moist crumb.

Many recipes pair it with potato starch, since cake meal alone bakes a little denser than wheat flour. The Banana Passover Sponge Cake shows that fruit-and-egg approach.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Cake meal suits the sweet flavors that carry Passover desserts: chocolate, citrus, nuts, and dried fruit. Its mild toasted note sits in the background and lets those flavors lead.

The big mistake is overmixing. Cake meal has no gluten to develop, so all the lift comes from air beaten into the eggs. Stir hard and you knock that air out, leaving a flat, heavy cake.

Fold, do not beat, once the meal goes in.

The other pitfall is expecting a clean 1:1 swap for flour. Cake meal absorbs more moisture, so batters often need extra egg or liquid to stay tender.

Substitutes

Regular matzo meal pulsed in a food processor until powdery is the closest stand-in, since it is the same thing ground finer. Sift it well to catch any coarse bits.

Outside Passover, cake flour or all-purpose flour gives a lighter result, but neither is kosher for Passover, so they only work the rest of the year. Potato starch can replace a portion of the cake meal to lighten a sponge.

Buying and Storage

Cake meal appears in stores in spring, shelved with matzo and other Passover goods, and can be hard to find off-season. The box says cake meal or matzo cake meal, distinct from the coarser matzo meal beside it.

Keep it airtight in a cool, dry cupboard, where it lasts several months like any dry meal. If it smells stale or musty, replace it.

Quick facts

In Chinese

麸粉

British (UK) term

Cake meal

en français

tourteau

en español

harina de tortas

Recipes using cake meal

There are 8 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 8 recipes