The Christian holiday Easter is approaching, and the housewives are already putting pastry on Easter cakes. There are many recipes for making Easter cake, but despite the different composition of the dough, the right cakes turn out to be lush, tall, ruddy and well-baked. In addition, homemade Easter cakes are always tastier than store-bought ones, because they are made by hand, with love and in a peaceful mood. We have already told you how to cook Easter cake at home so that it rises and bakes well, and today we will talk about how to bake Easter cake and decorate it festively. Easter baking should be beautiful, bright and spectacular!
What can you bake a cake in
It is necessary to choose in advance the form in which it will be baked. In Soviet times, housewives baked Easter cakes in saucepans, mugs, ceramic flower pots, tin cans, and it turned out very well - small Easter cakes resembled church domes and looked very original. Until now, many grandmothers continue to bake in cans, not recognizing modern baking dishes.
Traditional forms for Easter cakes resemble cylinders of various sizes and sizes, silicone or metal, with a non-stick coating or a removable bottom. Do not get carried away with too high forms - the height of the container should be about 1.5 times higher than the width, but not more than 20 cm.
Paper forms made of thick paper resistant to high temperatures, moisture and grease are also very popular. Many of them have a corrugated bottom and small holes for air circulation, because the Easter cake must breathe. It is customary to take Easter cakes in beautiful paper forms with you and give them as an Easter souvenir. You can bake homemade Easter cake in ordinary cupcake molds or disposable aluminum foil molds, which are convenient because they do not need to be washed after use.
How to bake a delicious cake: put the dough in a mold
First, the forms are lubricated from the inside with butter or vegetable oil - with a brush, especially when it comes to paper containers. Silicone molds need only be lubricated the first time they are used, while molds with a non-stick layer, resembling a multicooker bowl, can be left unlubricated at all. It is advisable to cover ordinary metal containers or foil molds with oiled baking paper - while some housewives also sprinkle the paper with flour or breadcrumbs.
It is better to spread the dough into molds by half the volume or even a little less - it all depends on what result you want to get. If you need a more airy cake, fill the form by a third, and if you need a denser pastry, spread the dough in half of the form. Well kneaded dough will increase several times, so it needs free space.
Proofing continues until the dough rises to the edges of the form. Do not neglect this important step in the preparation of Easter cake if you want to get light, fluffy and beautiful pastries. At the same time, you need to remember that candied fruits, nuts and dried fruits make the dough slightly heavier, so it needs a little more time to increase in size. Try not to move the forms with Easter cakes, because the risen dough falls off so easily! If, with a careless movement, the cake still fell right in the mold, do not expect it to rise - it is better to take out the dough, knead it slightly and place it back into the mold for proofing.
The risen Easter cake, so that it browns beautifully in the oven, can be greased with an egg beaten with milk, water, butter or vegetable oil. However, if you will cover the pastries with fudge, then one oil is enough. Interestingly, some housewives sprinkle Easter cakes with sugar or nuts even before baking.
How to bake Easter cake correctly: working with the oven
Forms with dough are placed in a well-heated (up to 180–240 ° C) oven, on the “top + bottom” mode. Place a bowl of hot water on the bottom of the oven to humidify the air and prevent the dough from drying out. Half an hour after the start of baking, it is better to reduce the temperature by 20 ° C. While the cakes are baking, do not open the oven door - just watch the baking through the glass. The fact is that because of the cold air, Easter cakes that are capricious of temperature changes can settle down and lose their splendor. As soon as the top of the cake is golden and ruddy, you can cover the cakes with damp baking paper so that they do not burn.
In order to bake Easter cakes for Easter according to all the rules, you should calculate the required baking time, which usually depends on the weight of the product. For example, a one-kilogram cake takes 45 minutes to bake, a 2 kg cake should take about 1.5 hours in the oven, and small cakes weighing 0.5 kg or more will be ready in half an hour. It is not recommended to bake cakes that are too small, as they will dry out in the oven, lose their taste and aroma.
Many housewives stick a wooden torch into the center of the cake even before it is in the oven. After the cake is baked, you can finally make sure that it is ready by pulling out the splinter. A dry splinter is a sure sign that it's time to take the cake out of the mold. Another way to check is to lightly press the muffin with your finger: if it quickly returns to its previous shape, the cake is ready. First, it should cool down in a form, which is better to put on a cold towel: this helps to easily remove the pastries and not damage them. The cake taken out of the mold cools down perfectly on its side - slowly, over 3-4 hours, under a thick towel and even a blanket. In this case, it must be turned over to cool evenly. It is important to remember that the slower the Easter cake cools, the longer it retains its freshness.
How to make fondant for cake
Fondant and icing are needed not only for the cake to be spectacular and beautiful. The fact is that they protect pastries from drying out and keep them fresh for a long time.
If you plan to decorate the cake with fondant or icing, you need to do this before it has completely cooled.
The most popular glaze is protein. It is easy to prepare, various decorations stick well to it, and besides, it is very tender, airy and amazingly tasty. To prepare this fudge, beat the egg white into a strong foam, add 100 g of powdered sugar to it, mix the mass and add 1 tsp. lemon juice, causing the fudge to turn white. Beat it with a blender at high speed, gradually introducing another 100 g of powdered sugar in small portions. At this stage, if necessary, dye is added to the fondant, trying to ensure that it is evenly distributed over the egg mass. Now spread the fondant on the cake, and apply all the decorations and sprinkles immediately, before the fondant is frozen. You need to cut the cake only after the fudge has hardened, and if there is no time at all and you need to serve the pastry on the table, you can hold it in the oven for several minutes at temperatures up to 100 ° C.
The fondant is applied with a pastry brush, a pastry bag, or by dipping the top of the cake into liquid glaze. With a pastry bag, of course, you can decorate Easter cake in a more original and unusual way.
Lemon fudge is also suitable for Easter cake, which has a fresh and pleasant taste, and its pale yellow color is associated with spring, sun and warmth. How to make lemon curd fudge? To do this, mix 100 g of powdered sugar and 3 tbsp. l. lemon juice, grind well and cover the surface of the products. Instead of lemon juice, you can take the juice of any berries and fruits, or use ordinary warm water, which is mixed with powdered sugar until it thickens - this fudge is called sugar fudge. In general, any fudge is suitable for Easter cake - creamy, chocolate, vanilla, nut, creme brulee, coffee and cognac. Rose water sweets are very pleasant to the taste, not worse than pistachio and coconut - you can experiment to your taste. Easter baking should be original and bright!
How to make a topping for cake
The easiest decoration option is to sprinkle the product with powdered sugar or cocoa powder through a strainer or using holiday stencils. Simple topping options are poppy seeds, coconut flakes, multi-colored sugar, ground nuts, dried fruit, candied fruit, and regular store-bought confectionery topping. First, the cake is covered with icing or fudge, and after a few minutes, when the icing thickens slightly, you can sprinkle something delicious on top of the cake. If you do this earlier, the topping will sink into the glaze and be invisible.
Easter cake decorated with patterns made using sugar pencils of all shades looks very impressive, and children will be happy to take part in this interesting activity. You can also decorate Easter cookies with sugar pencils.
You can decorate the cake before baking with dough sides, braids, crosses and flowers, only the decor dough should be denser so that the decorations do not blur. By the way, it is better to attach pigtails and flowers with the help of raw egg white.
The most creative housewives can make decorations from marzipan or mastic, decorate Easter cake with fresh flowers, decorate it with lace, ribbons and candles. In this case, the Easter cake can be turned into a real work of art.
How to bake Easter cakes at home: a step by step recipe
Enough theory - finally, let's move on to practice. Let's try to cook a very simple cake that even inexperienced chefs can handle. Prepare the following foods.
For test: 50 g fresh pressed yeast (16 g dry), 2-3 cups sugar, ½ tsp. salt, 6 eggs, 200 g butter, ½ liter milk, 3 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, 1½ kg flour, 20 g vanilla sugar, 1 cup raisins.
To decorate the cake: 2 cups sugar, 1 cup water, candied fruits and any nuts.
Cooking method
1. Mix yeast and 100 ml of warm milk, add 1 tbsp. l. sugar and 1 tbsp. l. flour. Place the fermentation brew in a warm place.
2. Combine the butter with the remaining milk (0.4 liters), put on the stove and heat until the butter is melted.
3. Beat eggs with sugar until fluffy.
4. Combine the dough, warm milk with butter, beaten eggs with sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla, salt, raisins in one bowl. Mix well.
5. Enter the flour and knead the dough.
6. Put the dough in a deep bowl, cover with a towel and place in a warm place for fermentation. The dough should double in size. This usually takes up to 5 hours.
7. Fill the molds with dough by about a third and leave for half an hour for proofing.
8. Bake Easter cakes in the oven at a temperature of 180 ° C, calculating the time according to the weight of the baking.
9. Remove the finished Easter cakes and cool them.
10. Make sugar fudge. Boil the syrup from water and sugar over low heat - until the “test” state, when a drop of syrup in water does not spread, but turns into a soft ball, resembling dough in consistency.
11. Cool the syrup and beat it with a mixer until a fluffy mass of a pleasant white color.
12. Cover the cake with fondant using a brush.
13. Top the fudge with finely chopped candied fruits and chopped nuts.
How to make an Easter cake is half the battle, besides this, you still need to save it until Easter, or better, until the end of the Easter week. The most reliable way to store Easter cakes is in cotton napkins, in a saucepan with a tightly closed lid. So they will survive even the Bright Week and at the same time remain tender, fresh and tasty. Have a nice holiday!
Dear hostesses, we celebrate the bright holiday of Easter!
For you, we have prepared a wonderful selection of Easter cakes for every taste.
Only the most ideal, successful and proven recipes with step-by-step photos.
You will succeed, even if you have not tried to bake Easter cakes on your own before!
Alexandria cake with raisins
Alexandrian dough is considered one of the best for making Easter cakes.
Baking from it turns out soft, tender and very tasty. It is from such a dough that we will prepare this cake!
Ingredients:
For test:
- Eggs0 - 1 pc
- Yolk - 1 pc.
- Sugar - 100 gr
- Dry yeast - 1 tsp
- Warm milk - 125 ml
- Melted butter - 80 gr
- Raisins - 50 gr
- Flour - 250 gr
- Vanilla - on the tip of a knife
- Salt - a pinch
For glaze:
- Powdered sugar - 100 gr
- Egg white - 1 pc.
- decoration, sprinkle
Cooking:
Pour yeast into warm milk, stir and leave to stand at room temperature.
While the yeast is accelerating, we will take the melted butter, pour sugar into it and add the eggs.
Shake everything together with a whisk or fork, after which we add the yeast mixture. We mix.
Add raisins to the resulting liquid.
Cover the bowl with cling film and leave warm for 30 minutes.
After this time, open our mixture and add vanilla and salt, shake.
We add the sifted flour in portions, kneading a not very thick dough.
Lubricate the form for Easter cake with vegetable oil, put the dough into it, about half the volume.
Cover with clingfilm and leave for 4 hours. The dough will rise well and take up the entire volume of the form.
Remove the film and bake for about 40 minutes at 180 degrees.
Time may vary depending on your oven.
Kulich is ready and it's time to make icing for him.
To do this, beat 1 egg white and icing sugar in one bowl until white foam with stable peaks.
Cover the finished cake with icing on top.
If it turned out to be too liquid, then you can put the cake in a still warm oven, where it will seize a little and stop flowing.
While the icing is still liquid, sprinkle it with decorations.
This is such a wonderful and very easy recipe!
Perfect cake with sour cream and candied fruit
The recipe is really perfect!
Soft sour cream dough melts in your mouth and goes well with chocolate icing. Be sure to try!
Cooking:
For chocolate lovers, we have prepared a special recipe for the softest and amazingly delicious Easter cake!
Ingredients:
- Warm milk - 100 ml
- Dry yeast - 1 sachet
- Flour - 400 g
- Eggs - 2 pcs
- Sugar - 150 g
- Melted butter - 100 g
- Curd 100 g
- orange peel
- Salt - a pinch
- Cocoa - 40 g
Cooking:
We add yeast, a tablespoon of sugar and three tablespoons of flour to warm milk. Let's stir.
We will get a liquid sourdough. Cover it with a towel or cling film and leave it in a warm place for 20-30 minutes.
Grate the zest of an orange. Only the orange skin, try not to get the white fibers, otherwise it will turn out bitter.
Add the foamy yeast mixture and melted butter there too.
We send cottage cheese there, it should not be grainy, and mix everything together.
Then add a pinch of salt and cocoa, stir.
Add flour in batches and knead the dough.
We knead a not very dense dough, it should retain softness and plasticity.
Cover the dough ball and leave it in a warm place for an hour.
The mass should approximately double in volume.
Divide it into portions and place in pre-greased molds.
The dough should take up no more than half of the form, you need to leave room to rise.
We cover our blanks again and wait about an hour until they rise almost to the top of the molds.
We bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes (for small forms) and 30-40 minutes for large ones.
Cooking delicious chocolate icing.
Melt a chocolate bar in two tablespoons of milk in a water bath.
You can take not only dark, but also milk and white chocolate, it will still be very tasty.
Dip the top of the finished cake in melted chocolate.
Top with confectionery powder or nuts until the chocolate has set.
Lacy cake kraffin
It will decorate any Easter table thanks to its intricate and very beautiful shape.
It is not difficult to prepare it at all, and the taste will surprise you!
Cooking:
Delicate cake with cottage cheese and raisins
An amazing successful recipe for cottage cheese cakes, designed for a large family!
The dough is very soft with a pronounced curd taste, just overeating and without much difficulty.
Ingredients:
- Flour - 500 g
- Cottage cheese not grainy - 150 g
- Butter - 100 g
- Sugar - 100 g
- Milk - 100 ml
- Water - 100 ml
- Eggs - 2 pcs
- Salt - 1/2 tsp
- Fresh yeast - 25 g (You can dry 1 sachet)
- Raisins - 100 g
Cooking:
Crumble the yeast, pour it with warm water, let stand for 1-2 minutes.
Then stir until the yeast is completely dissolved.
Add three tablespoons of flour, a whisper of sugar to the yeast solution, mix until smooth.
You will get a liquid yeast starter. Cover the bowl and leave it warm for 20 minutes.
While the yeast is activated and rising, we take the cottage cheese, pour milk into it and interrupt with a blender so that there are no lumps left.
The cottage cheese should turn out to be like sour cream in consistency, then the cake will turn out to be very tender, without curd lumps.
Add chicken eggs, salt, sugar, melted but not hot butter to the curd mass.
And with the same blender, stir again until smooth.
Add the foamed yeast mash to the curd mass and mix.
Add the sifted flour in stages and knead the dough.
The dough will gradually thicken.
When it becomes impossible to stir it with a spoon, you can proceed to manual kneading.
It will take approximately 10-15 minutes to knead the dough. We pull it out, turn it over, crumple it, we do not regret it.
Even after making all the flour according to the recipe, the dough should remain sticky, soft and fluffy.
During kneading at the end, we introduce already prepared, steamed raisins, knead for a couple more minutes and you're done!
We cover the finished dough and let it stand for 2 hours in a warm place to rise. It should double its size.
Punch down the risen dough. We prepare the forms by lubricating them with oil.
We separate small pieces from the dough, round for beauty and place in cake molds.
We fill out the forms with a test no more than 1/3, because the dough will still rise!
Try to keep the top of the pieces smooth, then during baking you will get neat hats, without protruding raisins.
We put the forms in heat for another hour and a half to rise. These Easter cakes can already be greased with egg yolk and sent to the oven.
We bake at 180 degrees for 30 minutes, small, as in the photo. If you have a larger form, then it will be baked correspondingly longer.
Large Easter cakes are baked for about an hour.
Leave the finished cakes to cool in the form for 15-20 minutes, then they will come out easily.
Let them cool completely and decorate with white frosting caps. How to do it, see the first recipe.
Delicious, tender cottage cheese cakes are ready!
Custard Easter cake
Choux pastry always surprises with its softness, it does not get stale for a long time and tastes incomparable.
We suggest you prepare such beautiful custard cakes that will surely decorate your table.
Ingredients:
- Flour - 350-400 g
- Cream 10-20% - 200 ml
- Egg yolks - 6 pcs
- Butter - 100 g
- Sugar - 100 g
- Salt - 1/2 tsp
- Dry yeast - 6 g (fresh 15-20 g)
- Dried fruits - half a cup
- Vanilla - 1 tsp
- Cardamom - 1/2 tsp
Cooking:
Pour boiling water over raisins or other dried fruits in advance so that they become soft enough.
Take 30 g of cream, warm it up a little and add yeast to it. Stir until dissolved.
Separate two heaped tablespoons from the bulk of the flour. Bring the remaining cream to a boil.
Mix flour and boiled cream and rub well without lumps.
Cool to 40 degrees (so that the hand is not hot to touch) and add the yeast solution to this custard dough.
Mix everything together, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place until it doubles in size.
You can determine the readiness of the dough in this way: at first, the dough actively grows and tends to rise, but then there comes a moment when it begins to settle, which means it is ready.
It took us about 45 minutes to make our dough.
Mix the remaining flour with salt and cardamom.
Beat the yolks with sugar with a blender, add vanilla and soft butter there.
The yeast dough stood for 45 minutes, it has already begun to settle and it is all so pimply and airy.
Add to it the egg mixture that we just made and, while stirring, begin to add flour, gradually.
Put the remaining flour on the table and continue to mix it into the dough.
We interfere for a long time and carefully, all the flour should go into the dough.
Knead and knead for 10 minutes.
As a result, the dough is homogeneous, soft, but does not stick to your hands.
Grease a bowl with oil, round the dough and cover with cling film.
Leave warm until doubled in size. For this amount of testing - 1 hour 20 minutes.
If you want a beautiful and unusual cake, then divide the dough into five identical pieces.
Cover them with foil and let them rest for 10 minutes. Then we start cooking.
Roll each of the pieces into a cake, grease with warm butter, lay dried fruits on top and overlap one on top of the other, as in the photo.
Starting from the edge, roll the cakes into one large "sausage", fastening the edges.
We will cut this "roll" in half.
We will get two such pink-shaped dough blanks.
Place them in oiled molds.
Let them stand for 40-45 minutes, the dough will rise again. And such lush blanks can be sent to the oven.
We bake at 170 degrees for 40-55 minutes, depending on your oven and the volume of Easter cakes.
Readiness is checked with a wooden stick.
We pierce in an inconspicuous place, if the stick remains dry and there are no traces of dough on it - it's ready!
Hint: if the top of the cakes is already starting to burn, and they are still damp inside, then cover the top with foil.
When they are ready, let cool and remove from the mold. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top and you're done!
The softest, lush and very fragrant symbol of Easter on your table!
Lush Easter cake without yeast and interesting ways to decorate
For those who do not like and do not accept yeast baking, we have found a wonderful recipe for yeast-free cakes.
He is very lucky! Allows you to bake beautiful, lush Easter cakes that will be no worse than yeast cakes.
And in addition, see interesting options for decorating the top from a professional pastry chef!
Cooking
An easy option for those who are busy and prefer to cook everything in a slow cooker.
Here is such a lush, voluminous, one might say family, Easter cake you get according to this recipe. Enough for everyone!
Ingredients:
- Milk - 200 gr
- Butter - 150 gr
- Eggs - 3 pcs
- Sugar - 150 gr
- Vanilla sugar - 1 sachet (8g)
- Orange juice - 100 gr
- Raisins - 100 gr
- Yeast (dry) - 9 gr
- Flour - 700 gr
- Salt and vegetable oil
Cooking:
Pour raisins with orange juice.
Place yeast, 1 tablespoon sugar and 4 tablespoons flour into warm milk.
Stir and put in a warm place for half an hour.
Pound eggs with simple sugar and vanilla, combine with melted butter, mix.
Combine the dispersed yeast mass with the egg mass and mix well. Start slowly, add flour with spoons and knead the dough.
Add flour until the dough allows you to stir it with a spoon, you do not need to knead anything with your hands.
The dough is soft and sticky. Place it in an oiled multicooker bowl.
We select the Multicook program, set the temperature to 35 degrees, the time is 1 hour 20 minutes.
We press "Start". The dough will rise inside.
If you do not have the Multi-cook function, use the Yoghurt function or another one that is close in temperature.
After the set time has passed, remove the dough from the multicooker. Punch down by adding flour.
Drain the liquid from the raisins and fold them into the batter. Place the dough for a few minutes.
Lubricate the mold again and lay the dough again.
We select the “Multi-cook” function 35 degrees for 35 minutes so that the dough comes up again.
The dough should rise to half of the bowl.
After that, turn on the baking mode. For this dough volume, the baking time is 1 hour 40 minutes.
Check readiness with a wooden skewer.
Let the finished cake cool down and remove from the bowl.
Usually, the top of baked goods in multicookers remains unbrown, but in our case this is not a problem, because. it will be hidden under the egg glaze.
For the egg glaze recipe, see the first recipe above.
Decorate the cake with confectionery sprinkles and you can treat your home!
It turns out soft, tasty, and enough for everyone!
Tasty and tall Easter cake in a bread machine
Cooking cakes in a bread machine is very convenient!
She will knead the dough herself and you will not have to put in much effort to get beautiful, tall pastries.
Our recipe will help you with this.
Ingredients:
First bookmark:
- Water - 50 ml
- Eggs - 4 pcs
- Sugar - 2 tbsp. l
- Butter - 80 g
- Flour - 290 g
- Yeast-2 tsp
Second bookmark:
- Salt 0.5 tsp
- Sugar - 2 tbsp. l
- Vanilla sugar - 1 tsp
- Wheat flour - 145 g
- Yeast - 0.5 tsp
- Raisins - 70 g
For glaze:
- Egg white - 1 pc.
- Sugar - 20 g
Cooking:
The recipe is divided into two tabs. First, let's prepare the brew.
To do this, pour water into the bowl, break 4 eggs there, 2 tablespoons of sugar, put soft butter, yeast.
We put the dishes in the bread machine. We put on the program with kneading and baking for 3 hours 40 minutes.
In the process of kneading, 20 minutes after the start, you will need to make a second bookmark.
Add half a teaspoon of salt, two tablespoons of sugar, a spoonful of vanilla sugar, the remaining flour and raisins.
While the bread machine is cooking, make the egg white frosting.
Beat the egg white with sugar with a blender until a stable white foam.
It turns out such a high cake, ruddy, soft and aromatic.
Let it cool and then take it out of the mold.
Top it with frosting and sprinkles.
You can serve guests!
Royal cake
Truly royal!
Fragrant spices give it a special charm, and lemon glaze - a unique magical taste!
Cooking
Large Viennese pastry cake
Viennese pastry is very suitable for Easter baking.
Let's make such a beautiful, fragrant and lush cake out of it!
Ingredients:
- Warm milk - 500 ml
- Sour cream - 200 g
- Butter - 120 g
- Vegetable oil - 3-4 tbsp. l
- Sugar - 2 cups
- Eggs - 3 pcs + yolk - 2 pcs
- Salt - 1 tsp
- Orange peel - 1 tbsp. l
- Raisins - 250 g
- Yeast - 3 tbsp. l
- Warm water - 70 ml
- Flour - 1500 g
- Vanillin - 1 tbsp. l
Cooking:
Pour dry yeast with warm water, add 70 g of warm milk and 2 teaspoons of sugar.
Mix well and leave for 15 minutes.
We turn to kneading the dough.
To do this, add salt, three tablespoons of sugar, yeast mixture, half of the flour to warm milk.
Knead the liquid dough. Then cover it and let it stand until it doubles in size.
After that, add sour cream, eggs and yolks, all the remaining sugar, orange zest, a spoonful of vanillin, softened butter, three tablespoons of vegetable oil, raisins, the remaining flour.
It will be necessary to interfere for a very long time and carefully so that all the flour is dispersed and absorbed. We don't regret it.
In total, intensive kneading of the dough will take about fifteen minutes. At the same time, it should remain soft and not tight.
Place the finished dough in a bowl, cover and let rise again.
Then put the dough into a greased form.
You can divide the entire volume of dough into portions and make many smaller cakes.
The dough should take up no more than half the volume.
Let the dough rise. After an hour, it occupies almost the entire volume of the form. Time to put it in the oven.
Bake at 180 degrees for 35-40 minutes.
We decorate the finished cake with protein glaze. How to make it, see 1 recipe.
While the icing is still soft, decorate the cake with sprinkles and confectionery sugar flowers. Or any other decoration.
Kulich turns out well, simply royal. To a big happy family!
Italian Easter cake Panettone
Italians usually bake it for Christmas, but in Russia it fell in love and took root precisely at Easter.
The recipe is not very simple, but it is worth it, the Easter cake, which is obtained as a result, impresses with its great taste!
Cooking:
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Happy Easter, peaceful sky, spring and goodness to you!
Kulich is a traditional pastry that is prepared before the Easter holiday. Fragrant, glazed and decorated - not a single festive tea party can do without it. A simple recipe for making delicious Easter cake at home.
Ingredients:
- white wheat flour - 4 tbsp;
- sugar for dough - 8 tbsp. l;
- powdered sugar for glaze - 8 tbsp. l;
- butter - 8 tbsp. l;
- eggs - 8 pcs;
- yeast (live) - 20 g (it is preferable to use live yeast, but if not, then replace them with 7 g of dry ones. Often this is exactly one small bag);
- salt - 0.5 tsp;
- milk 3.2% fat - 1 tbsp;
- dried fruits / nuts - 1 tbsp (you can take any dried fruits of your choice. Chop large slices).
Heat up the butter until soft. Add it at the end of the batch, mix thoroughly. Cover the bowl with the dough and let rise in a warm place for 60 minutes. 
Dried fruits and nuts, chosen by you for the filling, chop and roll in flour. Leave small dried fruits like raisins whole. 
When the dough has stood for 60 minutes and rises well, add the prepared dried fruits. Stir so that the filling is evenly distributed. 
Prepare your baking dishes. Line the bottom and sides with parchment. The edges of the parchment should be higher than the walls of the form. Soften the butter and grease the inside of the parchment with it so that the finished cakes do not burn. Fill molds 3/4 full with batter. 
Let the dough rise a little. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and put future cakes in it. Bake 40 minutes. Check readiness with a wooden stick. It shouldn't be wet. Release the finished products from the mold and leave on a wire rack to cool. 
Prepare frosting. To do this, mix powdered sugar and 6 proteins in a bowl and beat with a mixer until strong peaks form. 
Use the icing to decorate the cakes to your liking. You can use a confectionery syringe, colored beads, chocolate chips, mastic figures. 
The main thing is to follow our rules and keep the proportions, and on your Sunday table there will be a surprisingly lush and airy muffin with a unique aroma of orange, spicy vanilla and a subtle hint of rum.
So what you need to know:
1. Eggs, butter, sour cream must be of the best quality and very fresh.
2. Before adding candied fruits, dried berries or raisins to the dough, soak them in cognac or rum, the taste of the cake will become truly divine.
3. Butter dough for Easter cakes is very capricious, it is afraid of shakes, temperature changes and drafts, so it is advisable to leave the dough in the oven, if possible, turn on the backlight - it will give a constant temperature.
4. As a spice, vanilla seeds are most often used, and cardamom and nutmeg are much less common. Vanilla can be replaced with more affordable vanillin or vanilla sugar.
5. In order for the dough to be not only fragrant, but also to acquire a delicious golden color, add a little saffron to the dough. We do not recommend that you buy ground saffron, it is often counterfeited. Turmeric can be used as a substitute for saffron.
6. Easter cakes are baked in high, special forms: tin or silicone. Forms must first be greased or laid out with oiled parchment.
And now the recipe for the best cake
The best kulich
Necessary:
Opara:
300 ml warm milk
1 tbsp Sahara
13-15 g fresh yeast (can be replaced with dry yeast, in this case take 10 g)
200 g flour
half a vanilla pod
Dough:
200 ml warm milk
1 tsp salt
40 g butter
saffron on the tip of a knife (0.5 tsp turmeric can be substituted)
200 g sugar
2 eggs
4 yolks
850-900 g flour
150 g raisins
orange
30-40 ml of rum, cognac or vodka
1 egg - for greasing the cake
1 tbsp butter - for greasing molds
Glaze:
3 egg whites
half a vanilla pod
salt on the tip of a knife
250 g sugar
How to cook:
1. The night before, wash the raisins, remove the zest from the orange, pour the raisins and zest with rum and leave to infuse until morning.
The night before, rinse the raisins, remove the zest from the orange, pour the raisins and zest with rum and leave to infuse until morning
2. For the dough, scrape out the seeds from half of the vanilla pod (we will need the seeds later, while we set them aside). Bring the milk to a boil with half the vanilla pod. Cool until warm. Remove the pod and discard. Add to warm milk 1 tbsp. Sahara. Stir.
3. Pour fresh yeast with warm milk. Stir with a whisk until the yeast dissolves.
4. In a large bowl, using a mixer, mix warm milk and sifted flour.
In a large bowl, using a mixer, mix warm milk and sifted flour. Leave for 30-40 minutes in a warm place, covered with a damp towel or cling film.
5. For the dough, heat the milk, adding salt and butter to it. The butter should completely "disperse" in warm milk. Add vanilla seeds and saffron (turmeric).
Add vanilla seeds and saffron (turmeric)
6. Pour the milk mixture into the approached dough.
Pour the milk mixture into the approached dough
7. Add sugar and eggs with yolks.
Add sugar and eggs with yolks Beat at low speed mixer.
8. Add sifted flour in portions, it may need a little less or a little more, the dough should not be steep; if the mass sticks to your hands, then you are on the right track.
9. Add raisins to the dough along with alcohol and zest.
Add raisins to the dough together with alcohol and zest. Knead with a mixer for another 2 minutes and leave to proof in a warm place for 1.5-2 hours.
Cover with a towel and leave the blanks in a warm place for another hour. Lubricate the forms with butter, spread the dough, filling the forms by 1/3.
Lubricate the molds with butter, spread the dough, filling the molds by 1/3 Cover with a towel and leave the blanks in a warm place for another hour.
10. Preheat the oven to 200 ° C, grease the risen Easter cakes with an egg.
Brush risen cookies with egg
11. Bake for the first 15-20 minutes at 200°C, then reduce the temperature to 180°C and bake for another 20 minutes until golden brown. Readiness to check with a wooden stick.
12. Remove the baked Easter cakes from the mold, lay them on a towel on their side and roll every 5-10 minutes so that they are even.
Remove the baked cookies from the mold
13. For glaze, beat well-chilled whites with seeds from half a vanilla pod and salt until stable foam. Continuing to beat, sprinkle sugar in parts. Beat until dense smooth mass.
14. Decorate Easter cakes with protein cream and, if desired, sprinkle with confectionery decorations.
Easter cakes are traditionally baked for Easter as the main treat. They must be cooked in large quantities. How else? The family will eat them together with the guests all week until Radonitsa. The dough for Easter cake is rich, sweet, lush, and the finished pastry remains soft for a long time. This is achieved by adding a large amount of eggs, butter and sugar. In addition, kulichny dough must be yeast-leavened, because traditional pastries should be high, well-risen.
The dough for Easter cakes requires a special approach, you need to do it gradually, slowly, carefully adding the ingredients. Drafts should not be allowed for anything, and the dishes with it should be well wrapped with towels.
Traditionally, Easter cakes are prepared in advance, from Thursday. During Friday they are baked, and on Sunday night they are taken to church to be blessed. There are many Easter recipes (there are about 20 types of Easter cakes alone), but not every housewife bakes successfully. In order for everything to work out, you should familiarize yourself in advance with all the intricacies of preparing dough for Easter cakes, test your skills on proven recipes.
Secrets of successful Easter cakes
The dough for Easter cakes for Easter is very demanding, the slightest violation of technology will spoil, if not the taste, then the appearance of baking. A few tips to help avoid this:
Features of Easter baking
Baking Easter cakes requires a special approach and attention:
Baked cakes are removed from the oven, laid on their side to cool. When the bottom of the mold has cooled down, the pastry can be taken out.
Finished products can be watered with all kinds of glaze, decorated with sprinkles, Easter inscriptions, patterns, candied fruit, poppy seeds.
If you follow the technology of cooking and baking, then Easter cakes will certainly turn out. And this is very important, because according to legend, a successful Easter cake brings prosperity and good luck to the house, and a cracked, fallen or burnt one promises trouble.
Traditional Easter cakes
The simplest Easter cake dough recipe will allow even an inexperienced hostess to make this traditional pastry quite easily and quickly. The original version involves the use of fresh yeast, but they can be replaced with dry ones, as well as a large number of eggs.
Advice! Compared to fresh yeast, dry yeast needs three times less. For 100 g of fresh, there will be only 30 g of dry.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Dough for Alexandrian Easter cakes
According to this old recipe, it is better to leave Easter dough to ferment overnight, and in the morning to start baking and decorating. According to the classic recipe, Alexandrian Easter cakes are made with raisins and cognac. But you can put any dried fruits: dried apricots, candied fruits, dried berries, and rum or whiskey is suitable instead of cognac.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Cottage cheese cakes
Kulichny dough with cottage cheese is easy to prepare and allows you to get soft, tender pastries. Cottage cheese with milk is best taken with maximum fat content, and to save time, use dry yeast instead of fresh.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
- Pour water and warm milk into a deep saucepan, pour in sugar, break eggs, add softened butter and mix everything with a homogeneity mixer.
- Add cottage cheese with vanilla sugar, mix again.
- Sift flour there, salt and knead elastic dough.
- Scald dried fruits, cut if necessary.
- Finely grate the zest from the oranges.
- Add dried fruits with zest to the dough, stir again.
- Wrap the dough in a towel and leave in a warm room for at least an hour.
- Knead the risen dough and divide into pieces.
- Arrange them in molds, filling them by 1/2 volume + 1 cm, cover with a towel, leaving to approach for another hour.
- Bake at 180 degrees for 30 to 50 minutes.
Cottage cheese and yeast dough for Easter cakes - video
Custard dough for Easter cake
Custard cakes stay fresh much longer than regular ones. Such baking itself is soft, but also does not get stale for a long time. But the base takes a long time to prepare, so it’s better to calculate the time in advance.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Advice! The higher the room temperature, the faster the dough will rise. The optimum temperature is considered to be 26-30 degrees, it is with this that the finished cakes will turn out tastier.
The main thing is not to exceed the threshold of 55 degrees, otherwise the yeast will die, and the dough will not rise at all.
Sour cream dough
Easter cake with sour cream is prepared quickly, and the result is pleasing: the pastries are tender, fragrant, crumbly and very soft.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
- Warm milk to 38 degrees, add yeast with a teaspoon of sugar, mix.
- Sift 250 g of flour there, mix with a mixer, cover with a film, wrap and leave to rise for about 30 minutes.
- Separately grind white eggs with sugar.
- Pour the beaten egg mixture into the risen dough, add a bag of vanilla sugar, stir.
- Soften the butter by mixing it into the dough.
- Pour sour cream over the dough, mix again.
- Gradually add the remaining flour to the dough, without ceasing to knead it until it stops sticking to your hands. After that, cover it again and put it away for half an hour in heat.
- Add raisins to the risen mass, knead, remove again in a warm place.
- Tear the dough that has increased in volume with your hands into portions and lay each in the appropriate forms, pre-oiled.
- Heat the oven to 100 degrees, put the cakes in it for 10 minutes, then increase the heat to 180 degrees and bake them for about half an hour.
Easter cake on sour cream - video
Dough for Moscow Easter cake (with vodka)
Strong alcohol (vodka, rum, whiskey) is added to the dough for Easter cakes so that the finished pastries are soft and crumbly for as long as possible. The so-called Moscow Easter cakes are made with vodka, this old recipe has survived to this day almost unchanged.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
What to do in case of problems with the test
What to do if the dough for Easter cake does not rise? Common problem. There are several options to avoid or correct this situation.
