I always bake Easter cakes for Easter. Because I’m sure that they are real, true Easter baked goods. We bake them every year in special Easter cake molds, three dozen at a time, and treat all our family and friends!
But recently, readers asked me to review Easter baking... and I was greatly surprised: how many interesting and beautiful things you can bake for Easter!!! There are so many different types of Easter baked goods in the world! Look what I found...
Easter cakes
These are the kind of Easter cakes we bake every year! Closer to Easter, I will share with you a family recipe. Because they are very tasty, rich and aromatic!
Easter nests
We roll small braids of butter dough into a ring - and you get cute Easter nests! You can put Easter eggs or painted eggs in them.
Easter wreath
And a bigger nest - that’s already it! Not one, but several paints will fit there. It’s very beautiful and easy to make, you can find the recipe in the link above.
Raisins and dried fruits are added to the dough, and in the middle of the “nest” you can put eggplants or plant a duck or chicken family - you get this Easter decor.
In general, Easter decorations are dominated by everything sunny, bright, green, and spring! After all, Easter is a holiday of Resurrection, Sun and Spring! Nature is awakening, the sun is warming, young grass is growing, little hares, lambs, and kittens are born!
Easter ducklings
These are some cute duck-shaped shortbread cookies! It is very aromatic thanks to the cinnamon. Recipe here: .
Easter bunnies
This is what bunnies love to bake for Easter. This is a bun made from butter dough in the shape of a bunny, it’s not difficult to sculpt :)
Easter lambs
And if you make a lot of small curlicue buns, then you can make a lamb like this out of them. Let's attach a bun head, legs, and the cutie is ready.
Curls can be made either simple from dough or with poppy seeds, sugar, and cinnamon.
But for such a lamb you will need a special form. I tried this kind of baking once. What a delicious dough with raisins!!! Maybe some of you know how to cook it?
Easter kittens
I also really liked these cute kittens! Simple and original cookies. Can be made from curd dough, and eyes and noses from candied fruits.
Easter cupcakes
Here are some interesting silicone molds for Easter baking that we came up with! You can bake cupcakes or
Another baking option is baskets. We baked these in the summer with cream and berries, remember? And in winter - with Christmas trees and snowmen. Well, for Easter, sand baskets can be filled with miniature quail eggs. Try coloring them together with chicken eggs, the kids will be delighted with such tiny colorful eggs! Which are also very useful!
Easter cookies
Remember when we made Christmas cookies for the Christmas tree? So, shortbread figurines can be baked for Easter too! Only, of course, the figurines are not in the form of Christmas trees, but on an Easter theme: eggs, bunnies, lambs. And how beautifully you can then paint it with sugar pencils!..
There are also many types of Easter baked goods from different nationalities. The British, Italians, Poles, Austrians - each country has its own holiday recipe! They are so diverse that this is a topic for a separate article. And I will definitely write about this in the near future, so let’s stay in touch!.. :)
Easter or the Holy Resurrection of Christ is the most ancient and joyful holiday celebrated by Christians all over the world after the biggest fast of the year. Therefore, those who observe Lent will get the most out of all Easter dishes. In the Easter baking section you will find recipes to suit your taste, which are ideal both for the table and as a gift for family and friends. You will also find out what they bake for Easter.
Kulich - the bread symbol of Easter
On Easter, it is customary to replace regular bread with specially baked butter bread with raisins, nuts, dried apricots, candied fruits, marzipan or other fillings. Kulich (as the baked goods are usually called) has a peculiar shape, according to legend, symbolizing the decorated dome of the church. And indeed, housewives decorated the top of the Easter cake with cream, beaten eggs with sugar and brightly colored sprinkles.
Modern housewives prepare Easter cakes for the holiday of the Resurrection of Christ according to various recipes, since there is no single recipe for its preparation. Some adhere to traditions and bake Easter cakes according to the recipes of their mothers and grandmothers, others decide to experiment. To do this, we have posted Easter cakes on our website: recipes with photos and step-by-step instructions for their preparation from all over the world.
Also, new recipes and forms of Easter cakes appear every year. The standard cylindrical shape of the pastry has not lost its relevance, but it is also made in the form of wreaths, flowers, cupcakes, and pyramids. Such breads not only look original, but are undoubtedly a true decoration of any holiday table.
Don’t think that Easter baking recipes only involve making Easter cake. In addition to this bread, housewives also prepare other interesting sweet dishes, such as:
- Curd Easter;
- nests (small twisted rolls in which you can place Easter eggs “pysanka” or “krashenki”);
- yeast buns in the shape of animals (for example, Easter bunnies), sometimes with raisins, poppy seeds or other fillings;
- gingerbread (with the addition of ginger, ground cloves, cinnamon, vanilla);
- cookie;
- rum women;
- rolls, braids, bagels with poppy seeds, honey, jam, cream.
Gingerbread cookies occupy a special place in Easter baking. They are usually prepared in the shape of eggs, and after baking they are painted with a special glaze. By the way, if you have children, decorating these gingerbread cookies will be a great creative activity with your family. Who knows, maybe this process will become a tradition for your family before each Easter holiday.
Without a doubt, among the millions of Easter recipes, you will definitely find your favorite one, which will symbolize the spring holiday. The main thing is not to stop experimenting and looking for new ideas and recipes for Easter cakes, gingerbread, buns with photos, step-by-step descriptions of preparation, detailed descriptions of ingredients, and you will certainly succeed!
Easter baking differs from any other in its beauty and design features. This could be icing sugar, cookies in the shape of eggs painted with colored fondant, Easter bunnies in the form of buns, cupcakes, and pastries. Or pies with an unusual filling, which is visible in the cross section.
The five most commonly used ingredients in Easter baking recipes are:
All Easter baking recipes must have step-by-step photos so that even a beginner can cope with the cooking process. In fact, despite the apparent complexity, it is quite simple not only to bake various products, but also to decorate them.
For example, a bright and beautiful carved ring pie, in the center of which painted eggs are placed. It is prepared on yeast dough with a juicy filling of poppy seeds, walnuts, and dried apricots. You can wrap the filling in a roll or tube, roll it into a ring and make light cuts on the sides. So that they open not before, but during baking.
Gingerbread or oval-shaped cookies look very cool on the table. You can paint them with colored icing with your children, it will turn out friendly and fun. The same with dough bunnies, sheep and other cute little animals. Use your imagination, imagination, and you can create confectionery masterpieces without leaving the kitchen))
Five of the fastest Easter baking recipes:
In our country, Easter is often limited to preparing Easter cakes or cottage cheese. Many people love collapsible pies - those in which the pieces are easily separated from each other and do not get your hands dirty. Everyone can look like a small Easter cake. And also a braid or braid made of dough, decorated with colored eggs and tied with a real ribbon.
There are special Easter baskets that are assembled from different types of baked goods, decorated with flowers, grass, and artificial decorations. And then they give it to friends or put it in a prominent place in the house to imbue it with the spirit of the great Easter.
Easter cake is a wonderful, wonderful pastry. It is unlikely that there will be any brave souls who will decide to abandon it completely, and this is not necessary. Let's think about how to diversify your Easter menu with something unusual - let's remember about aromatic ones, and at the same time agree that the Easter menu certainly may not be limited to common and world-famous options. Maybe we can chat about rare Easter baking recipes that are popular in one country or another, but are not very common outside of it? We promise that the conversation will be tasty, aromatic and exciting.
Spain – Hornazo Easter bread
In Spain, for Easter it is customary to bake a traditional filled pie - jornazzo, which is also called bread. Most often it is performed in a savory version - with minced meat, sausages, eggs. However, they also love the aromatic sweet version. That's what we're talking about.Ingredients:
- 10 quail eggs;
- 150 g warm water;
- 1 g dry yeast;
- 1 chicken egg in the dough + egg for brushing the dough;
- 60 ml olive oil;
- 1/2 tsp. salt;
- 1 tsp. anise seeds;
- 60 g sugar;
- 425 g flour.
Boil quail eggs hard. Drain the hot water, place the eggs in cold water, let them cool.
Place the water, chicken egg, yeast, salt, sugar, anise seeds, olive oil and butter in a large bowl and mix thoroughly until smooth and elastic.
Divide the dough into 11 equal balls. Cover with a damp towel and place in a warm place until doubled in size. After about an hour, knead 10 balls, form beautiful round buns, place them on a baking sheet lined with paper, taking into account that the buns will increase during the baking process. Press a quail egg into the center. From the eleventh piece of dough we form a long rope, cut it into 20 equal parts, make a cross on each bun - lay out the ropes in an X shape on top of the quail eggs.
Leave the buns under the towel for another 30-40 minutes to proof, then bake in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for about 20 minutes.
Recipe taken from here: http://www.aspoonfulofspain.com/hornazo-de-jaen/
Portugal – Easter bread folar
Luxurious option! Marzipan, fennel, cinnamon - and all this in the softest fluffy dough. Be careful when implementing this recipe: if you put the folar on the table, no one will be able to eat anything else until they have eaten every last crumb of this bread.
Ingredients:
- 250 g flour;
- 1 tsp. dry yeast;
- 150 g milk;
- 100 g butter;
- 100 g marzipan mass;
- 30 g sugar;
- 1/2 tsp. ground fennel seeds;
- 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon;
- 1/2 tsp. salt;
- butter or milk for greasing the dough.
Mix warm milk with yeast and sugar, add a spoonful of flour. Leave for 15-20 minutes until the dough rises, then add salt and flour to it and knead a fairly stiff dough. Melt the butter separately, add fennel and cinnamon, mix and add into the dough in small portions, after each addition knead until smooth. As a result, the dough should become soft and tender. Place it in a warm place to proof.
Knead the risen dough. We collect it into a ball - pulling the dough down, we form a fairly dense loaf with a diameter of about 15-17 cm. Place it on a sheet of baking paper.
Divide the marzipan mass into 4 equal parts and roll them into balls. Place the balls on the dough, pressing down slightly. Leave for 15-30 minutes in a warm place to proof, then grease the shaped bread with milk or butter and bake in a well-heated oven at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes.
Italy – Colomba di Pasqua
A completely traditional cupcake in the shape of a dove with almond glaze and lemon zest - a pastry that on the eve of Easter can be bought in any supermarket, found in any shop, found in every home. An analogue of our Easter cakes, “Easter Dove” is at the same time quite different. Firstly, the shape - Colomba di Pascua is baked in special paper baskets in the shape of a dove. Secondly, the composition - it necessarily includes orange zest, rum, almonds. The dough is airy, almost weightless - in industrial conditions it ferments for at least 14 hours, in household recipes, of course, the time is reduced to a convenient minimum, but in some families they adhere to classic recipes - and in fact wait until the dough has matured for the required period.Ingredients for the dough:
- 250 g butter;
- 200 g sugar;
- 600 g flour;
- 110 ml milk;
- 30 g fresh yeast;
- 60 ml water;
- 25 ml rum;
- 100 g raisins;
- 1 tbsp. l. lemon zest;
- 2 tbsp. l. orange essence;
- 4 eggs;
- 1 tbsp. l. vanilla essence;
- 1/2 tsp. salt.
Ingredients for glaze:
- 15 g corn starch;
- 30 g corn flour;
- 75 g peeled almonds;
- 75 g peeled hazelnuts;
- 100 g sugar;
- 3 squirrels;
- sugar decor and almond petals for decoration.
Combine warm water with yeast, add 100 g of flour, mix, cover with cling film, leave for half an hour in a warm place. The dough is ready.
Add warm milk, half the eggs, 100 g of softened butter, 400 g of flour, sugar, salt, lemon zest, vanilla and orange essences to the dough. Mix, put in a clean bowl, cover with film, put in a warm place until the mass triples.
After the dough begins to fall (the very beginning), add rum, raisins, the remaining butter and 100 g of flour. Mix, spread the dough into the molds so that it fills them by 1/3 of the volume. Place in a warm place - the dough should rise enough to fill the molds to the top.
Glaze. Grind almonds, hazelnuts, and sugar in a processor. Beat the egg whites, combine them with starch and flour, add nuts. Spread the resulting mass with a spoon over the surface of the “Easter doves” - already risen. Sprinkle almond flakes on top.
Bake Colomba di Pasqua at 160 degrees for about an hour. Be sure to let it cool before serving.
Holland – Easter bread kerststol
In general, of course, in our Slavic understanding, the proposed recipe has nothing in common with bread - it is rather a luxurious cupcake, a rich pie. Nevertheless, in the original language we are talking about bread, so we will call it that way.Ingredients:
- 375 g flour;
- 9 g dry yeast;
- 50 g sugar;
- 160 g cream;
- 1 egg;
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon;
- 5 g salt;
- 50 g softened butter;
- 100 g of nuts (ideally pecans, can be replaced with walnuts, hazelnuts);
- 1/2 cup raisins;
- almond paste (170 g almonds, 170 g sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp lemon juice).
If you don’t have ready-made marzipan mass, start by preparing it - place sugar and almonds in the bowl of a food processor, grind everything into a homogeneous paste, add an egg and lemon juice - you should get a soft mass. Place it on a sheet of cling film, wrap it and put it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
Dough. Mix flour, salt, cinnamon, sugar, yeast, add cream and egg, mix with a spoon, then place on a work surface and knead into an elastic, tight dough. Having set aside a small part of the butter to grease the bread, add the rest into the dough in parts, kneading each time until smooth - the dough should absorb all the butter. Round and leave in a warm place to rise for about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Roll out the dough into a rectangle, distribute nuts and raisins over it, and put the marzipan mass into a “sausage”. We roll it up into a roll, then form a ring, turning the roll around its axis several times.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown, remove from the oven, let cool for 10 minutes, then brush with butter. If desired, sprinkle the bread with decorative sugar for decoration.
UK – marzipan cake
Britain is a country of traditions, and the cake they bake for Easter is, of course, very, very traditional. In general, it is extremely important to boast that the family recipe, according to which the English housewife prepares Easter baking, was inherited from her great-great-great-grandmother. In fact, they are all more or less the same, but it is important to be proud, so each of the British women has the most traditional option. Of course, like the one we offer you (recipe from here: http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/recipes/recipe_directory/t/traditional_simnel_cake.html)
Ingredients:
- 200 g butter;
- 100 g flour;
- 150 g sugar;
- 200 g almonds;
- 50 g dried apricots;
- 50 g raisins;
- 120 ml of any citrus liqueur;
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger;
- 1 tbsp. l. orange zest;
- 5 eggs + 1 white;
- 225 g powdered sugar;
- 1 tsp. lemon juice;
- 1 tsp. baking powder.
Peel the almonds (pour boiling water over them, leave for 5 minutes - the skin is easily removed), dry in a frying pan. Grind into crumbs using a food processor. Add ginger and orange zest, baking powder, sugar and softened butter. Whisk. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Stir in flour. Add liqueur and dried fruits. Carefully pour the dough into a baking pan, bake for an hour in an oven preheated to 160 degrees, then cover the pan with foil and bake for the same amount of time.
After cooling, cover the cake with glaze - beat the egg whites, add powdered sugar and lemon juice, knead, apply to the product, and, if desired, decorate with sugar decorations, nuts, and candied fruits.
Austria – Easter Reindling cake
In Austria, rich aromatic rolls are traditionally baked for Easter - filled with nuts, dried fruits, the aromas of almonds, rum, and zest. Very fluffy, light, festive baked goods.
Ingredients:
- 11 g dry yeast;
- 500 g flour;
- 250 g milk;
- 1/2 tsp. salt;
- 3 tbsp. l. sugar + 100 g;
- 1 egg;
- 150 g butter;
- 50 g raisins;
- 50 g pitted dates;
- 50 g walnuts;
- 2 tbsp. l. cognac;
- 1 tsp. cinnamon.
Cut the dates and raisins into small pieces, pour in cognac, and leave to infuse.
Mix yeast with 3 tbsp. l. sugar, pour warm milk. As soon as they begin to “play”, add salt, sift the flour, and mix. Add 100 g of butter, knead until smooth. Place the finished dough in a clean bowl, cover with a towel, and place in a warm place.
Meanwhile, mix chopped walnuts, 100 g sugar, cinnamon.
When the dough has risen, knead it, place it on a work surface, roll it into a rectangle 1 cm thick. Grease with 50 g of softened butter. Sprinkle nuts with sugar and cinnamon on top, distribute evenly dried fruits soaked in cognac. Roll it up, put it into a ring, and place it in a baking dish. Put it in a warm place again, after 20-30 minutes put it in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 40-50 minutes.
Once cooled, sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired and enjoy.
Canada – buttery Easter lamb
In countries where lambs are baked from rich yeast dough for Easter, special molds are sold, thanks to which the product turns out to be voluminous - the cake is placed in the center of the table, generously decorated with glaze and decorations. In the absence of a shape, of course, you can bake a flat beast, which will be just as tasty, although perhaps less spectacular.
Ingredients:
- 1 tsp. dry yeast;
- 250 ml milk;
- 100 g sugar;
- 1 egg;
- 100 g butter;
- 600 g flour;
- 20 g poppy seeds.
In a fairly large bowl, stir the yeast, 1 tsp. sugar and warm milk. After 10 minutes, when the yeast is activated, add 300 g of flour, mix, cover the bowl with cling film and put it in a warm place for 1 hour. After doubling the volume of the dough, melt the butter, dissolve the sugar in it, add the egg, add everything into the dough and gradually stir in the remaining flour. The dough will be soft, not thick, elastic. Cover the bowl again with cling film and place in a warm place until doubled in size.
After this, knead the dough, place it on the work surface, roll it out into a layer 1-1.5 cm thick. Using a stencil, cut out the contours of the lamb: head, paws, torso, tail. We collect the remaining dough into a ball, leave a small piece for the ear, roll the rest into a rectangle, sprinkle with poppy seeds, roll into a roll, cut into pieces up to 1 cm thick - lay them flat on the body, imitating wool. We form an ear from a separate piece - roll it out into a circle, make a fold on one side, and apply it to the head. We make an eye from a raisin or a nut.
Leave the lamb to proof under a clean towel for 20-30 minutes, after which, if desired, brush the pie with egg and bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for about 30 minutes. The finished lamb can be additionally decorated with ribbons, artificial grass, and flowers made from mastic.
You really don’t think that Easter baking is limited to Easter cakes and the recipes above? This is a whole world in which there is a place for Neapolitan Easter pies with ricotta, Romanian cozunac (a rectangular pie with nuts, dried fruits, poppy seeds, marmalade), Serbian poppy seed roll made from rich yeast dough, Corsican cocoavel with a huge amount of orange zest and a hidden whole egg, Japanese miniature buns that are distributed to everyone in churches, American rhubarb tart and dozens of other recipes that can be sold on Easter. Variety is great! Imagine, bake, try and be happy with the current moment, it is unique and wonderful. Christ is risen!
