Easter cake facts for kids
Easter cakes are special sweet breads or cakes that people traditionally make and eat during the Easter season. These delicious treats are often part of celebrations in Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Russian Orthodox churches, as well as other Christian churches in Northern Europe. They are a yummy way to celebrate the holiday!
Types of Easter Cakes
Babka
Babka is a popular Easter cake from Poland. It's a soft, fluffy cake made with baker's yeast. Bakers often add tasty ingredients like raisins and other dried or candied fruits. After baking, the cake is sometimes soaked in a sweet syrup to make it even more moist and delicious before it's served.
Choerek
Chorek is a sweet Easter bread from Georgia. It gets its special flavor from aniseed, which is a spice. This bread is often braided into fun shapes, like snails or wreaths, making it look as good as it tastes!
Hot Cross Buns
In England, one of the most famous Easter breads is the hot cross bun. These sweet, spiced buns are usually marked with a cross on top, often made from icing or a pastry strip. They are a very popular treat during the Easter season.
Kulich
In Russia, a special Easter cake called kulich is baked on Maundy Thursday. This is the Thursday before Easter Sunday. Holy Saturday is a day of fasting, meaning people don't eat much. Then, at midnight, there's a church service, and an Easter Mass at dawn. The kulich is blessed at church. Families take it home and enjoy it with other foods like paskha for a big, festive breakfast. Many people consider kulich to be the most famous Russian Easter bread.
Lamala
Lamala is a traditional Easter lamb cake from the Alsace region of France. It's called a "paschal lamb cake" because it's shaped like a lamb, which is a symbol of Easter. This cake is made using a special mold to give it its unique lamb shape.
Mazurek
Mazurek is another Polish Easter cake. It's made with a short pastry base, which is a type of crumbly, buttery crust. A layer of marmalade or another sweet filling is often used to "glue" the pastry to a butter cake layer, creating a delicious and colorful Easter treat.
Simnel Cake
The Simnel cake is a cake that has become very popular during the Easter season. It's often decorated with eleven marzipan balls on top, which are said to represent the twelve apostles, minus Judas. While it's now strongly linked to Easter, it wasn't always a traditional Easter cake.
