Easter cakes (breads) are cakes prepared and served during the Easter season. Sharing a cake with family for Easter is an Easter tradition in many denominations and countries.

Background

Often what is meant by traditional Easter cakes are sweet yeasted

dough Dough is a malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from flour (which itself is made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops). Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes ...

s, enriched with eggs and butter. These holiday breads have been made for centuries before the invention of modern baking powder. They were sometimes shaped like animals - in Germany the cakes were shaped like hares, a symbol of

Ēostre ''Ēostre'' ()Sievers 1901 p. 98Robert Barnhart, Barnhart, Robert K. ''The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology'' (1995) . is an List of Anglo-Saxon deities, Anglo-Saxon goddess mentioned by Bede in his 8th century work ''The Reckoning of ...

, and a precursor of the modern Easter bunny. In Italy the preferred shape was the dove, symbolic of Christ's innocence and ascension. These holiday cakes often include candied fruits, a luxury reserved for special occasions. By the 1950s baking powder cakes had become household staples. In Germany,

sponge cake Sponge cake is a light cake made with egg whites, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during ...

was baked in the shape of lambs and decorated with powdered sugar. In modern times even traditional recipes like gugelhupf and

babka A babka, or an Ugat Shmarim (Hebrew: עוגת שמרים) is a sweet braided bread that originated in the Jewish communities of Poland and Ukraine. It is popular in Israel where it is known as a yeast cake. It is also popular in the Jewish dias ...

have been adapted to be made with baking powder.

Types

Babka

Easter

() is a

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom (biology), kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are est ...

cake that is part of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

's Easter traditions. Made with raisins, and other dried and candied fruits, the cake is soaked in rum syrup before it's served.

Paska

Paska is part of the Easter traditions of several countries, including Ukraine, Belarus and Georgian (in Russia is Kulich). Similar to Italian

panettone Panettone is an Italian type of sweet bread and fruitcake, originally from Milan, Italy, usually prepared and enjoyed for Christmas and New Year in Western, Southern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as in South America, Eritrea, Australia, ...

, it's made with yeast instead of baking powder. The cake is often decorated with Christian symbols. It is a famous Ukrainian tradition to take the cake to

Holy Saturday Holy Saturday (), also known as Great and Holy Saturday, Low Saturday, the Great Sabbath, Hallelujah Saturday, Saturday of the Glory, Easter Eve, Joyous Saturday, the Saturday of Light, Good Saturday, or Black Saturday, among other names, is t ...

services so it can be blessed before Easter breakfast.

Mazurek

Mazurek is a Polish easter cake made with short pastry with

butter cake A butter cake is a cake in which one of the main ingredients is butter. Butter cake is baked with basic ingredients: butter, sugar, Egg (food), eggs, flour, and leavening agents such as baking powder or baking soda. It is considered one of the q ...

"glued" together with a layer of

marmalade Marmalade (from the Portuguese ''marmelada'') is a fruit preserves, fruit preserve made from the juice and peel of citrus fruits boiled with sugar and water. The well-known version is made from bitter orange. It also has been made from lemons ...

Simnel cake

Simnel cake has become associated with the Easter season, but according to Davidson it was not always traditional to Easter.

References

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