How to Choose the Right Easter Cake: 5 Signs of Perfect Baking

Even Orthodox Christians who don’t hold Great Lent still look forward to Easter. It is understandable: few people will miss the opportunity to feast on the main symbol of the holiday – Easter cake with sweet fudge on top!

Church pastries can be purchased everywhere today: from stores in temples to supermarkets, restaurants, pastry shops and markets. But in such a variety, how not to make a mistake when choosing Easter bread? Based on Roskachestvo’s recommendations, we’ve compiled a list of 5 signs of the perfect cake that will help you find the right one!

Do not rush to be guided by the appearance of the cake and first carefully examine the packaging. The high quality bakery label should contain the name of the product and manufacturer, the legal address of the manufacturer and the address of production, nutritional value, calorie content, composition, information on allergens and genetically modified organisms, net weight, date of manufacture and expiry date, storage conditions, information on packaging materials and unified market circulation mark (EAC). This basic information will be a sure sign that you have a good quality product.

There aren’t many ingredients in a quality church loaf. Here are the main elements that you must find on the label: flour, eggs, sugar, margarine or butter, baker’s yeast, raisins or candied fruit, salt, flavorings (eg vanillin). Sometimes the list may also contain dairy products, nuts and other types of raw materials, as well as marmalade pieces, candied fruits, nuts or sweet sprinkles which are used to decorate holiday baking.

When you are satisfied that everything is in order with the information on the label, take a closer look at the appearance of the holiday treat. First, assess the color: for the right cake, it should be even and golden. Immediately put aside even a slightly burned product: in such products, the level of carcinogens and toxic acrylamide is increased.

The shape of a quality Easter cake usually resembles a cylinder with a domed top. There should be no cracks in the crust: they indicate violations of the technological process at the stage of kneading the dough or baking. Fondant, sprinkles and other decorative elements are evenly distributed on the right cake.

Before buying, it is also worth evaluating the ratio of weight and volume of the cake. If with a small weight it looks very magnificent, then, most likely, it is made using accelerated technology with the addition of baking powder, stabilizers and other enhancers.

The severity of a not too large Easter cake should also alert: such a product can be undercooked. In general, experts advise buying large Easter cakes: firstly, they are tastier, and secondly, they go stale more slowly.

There is no single standard here: on average, Easter cakes are kept from 2 weeks to 40 days. At the same time, the long shelf life of the product is not always associated with harmful preservatives in the composition. As a rule, it is obtained through the use of special materials with barrier properties and a very low content of so-called active water when wrapping Easter cakes. Therefore, do not be afraid of a long shelf life, but for your peace of mind, carefully study the composition.

If you don’t have a lot of time to carefully check the perfect cake for the 5 signs, trust the artisans of the Pechorin bakery. Year after year, before Easter, they bake two traditional sweet breads at once: the traditional Russian Easter cake and the Italian panettone.

The classic yeast cake is made with raisins dipped in sugar syrup with the addition of a very small amount of vanilla and cardamom, and covered with a thin sugar glaze – that’s why a lot of people call it “the same childhood cake”.

It takes about 3 days for the pastry chefs of the bakery to make a magnificent panettone. Candied fruits, raisins, melting chocolate during baking, vanilla and citrus pastes are added to the dough, and the top of the holiday bread is covered with protein pastes, almond flour and sugar with the addition of corn flour and semolina. You can buy or order Easter treats for the holiday table in Pechorin from April 7.