Secrets of baking delicious cakes. Paper baking dish

A paper baking dish is a unique invention of our time, without which many housewives cannot imagine cooking. delicious desserts. Universal cups differ in size, density and color, but they are all multifunctional, environmentally friendly and cheap. In this article, you will learn everything about paper baking dishes: how to use them and what are their advantages.

Muffin and cupcake molds

There are many types of small pastry cakes. The most convenient are those made of thick paper (it can be corrugated or smooth), since you can bake cupcakes directly in them. If the paper baking dish is made of thin material, then it should first be placed in an aluminum or silicone mold and only after that the dough should be placed in it. Cook with us delicious muffins according to a simple recipe:

• In a suitable pan, heat 100 grams of butter, 40 grams of chocolate and two tablespoons
• Beat 130 grams of sugar with three chicken eggs.
• Combine four tablespoons of cocoa, a glass of flour, 60 grams grated chocolate and a teaspoon of baking powder.
• Thoroughly mix all the prepared products, and then put the dough into small paper forms. Please note that cups should only be filled 2/3 full.

Bake the treat in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes. Ready muffins can be decorated with icing or powdered sugar. When they have cooled down a bit, serve them with tea or coffee.

Baking Easter cakes in paper form

Even in the last century, our mothers and grandmothers baked Easter cakes in tin or despite all the difficulties that accompanied the cooking process. Nowadays, a paper baking dish has come to replace it, which has a number of advantages. Firstly, it is quite dense and does not require additional support. Secondly, the cake will never burn in it, and the paper will not get wet during the cooking process. And thirdly, you can easily decorate ready meal by cutting the paper to the desired mark. Baking Easter cakes in paper form will not create any difficulties for you. To make sure of this, prepare a dish according to our recipe:

• Slightly warm one and a half glasses of milk and dissolve 40 grams of dry yeast in it.
• Add 500 grams of sifted flour to a bowl and mix.
• While the dough is rising, separate six eggs into whites and yolks. Beat the yolks with sugar (just take a glass or one and a half) and vanilla (to taste), and until thick and dense foam.
• Combine all the products, add another 300 grams of soft butter, a little salt and 500 grams of flour to them.
• Knead the dough and leave it in a warm place to increase in volume. Add the washed raisins, chopped candied fruits and nuts to the dough that has come up.

After that, you can start baking. Note that the paper baking dish should only be one-third full. When the dough rises to half, the future cake can be put in a preheated oven.

Easter baking in paper forms

To cook one more indispensable dish on light, disposable forms will also come in handy. Thanks to them, the dish will look beautiful on your table. Recipe:

• One kilogram fresh cottage cheese pass through a sieve twice.
• Add two eggs, sugar to taste (0.5-1 cup), 100 grams of soft butter, vanillin and 200 grams of sour cream to the bowl. Beat the products for about ten minutes until they turn into a homogeneous mass.
• Add chopped candied fruits, raisins, nuts to Easter and mix everything well again.
• Cover a colander with damp gauze, put in it curd mass and place it in a suitably sized pan. Send the design to the refrigerator overnight.

The next day you will need a paper baking dish - pack the Easter firmly into it and put the dish on festive table.

Conclusion

As you can see, disposable forms have firmly entered our lives and have become indispensable helpers in the kitchen. They are suitable for both traditional and new - cupcakes and muffins. Cook cupcakes in them, and use bright paper cups to decorate your favorite sweets.

How to bake Easter cakes in paper forms- this important aspect housewives are often overlooked, and the final stage of preparing Easter baking and, without exaggeration, the success of the whole process depends on this. And now let's start from the moment how to process the cake before putting it in the oven, and, finally, we will figure out at what temperature and what types of dough in paper forms are better to cook.

Correctly cover the cake with yolk

Before baking Easter pastries, dough products are smeared with various finishing semi-finished products. For this purpose, slightly whipped egg yolk(usually mixed with a small amount warm water), finishing crumbs and cream.

It is convenient to cover the surface of Easter cakes and other Easter baking with egg grease with a soft culinary brush that does not deform the surface. If you hit the surface of the cake with a brush too hard, the dough, especially some of its types, easily fall off. Lubricate Easter cakes on the working surface of the table and place on a baking sheet already ready.

If you grease the surface of the Easter cakes directly on the baking sheet, there is a risk that you will splatter the yolk mass on its surface. As a result, you will get extra soot. Before baking, the surface of the Easter cake should be covered with egg grease thickly, evenly, but without excess flowing along the edges. It is this lubricant that will ensure the formation of a thin, dense and shiny crust.

Some types of muffins, after being smeared with egg mass, are still sprinkled with chopped nuts and / or powder on top. But in the case of Easter cakes, it is better to decorate them in this way after baking. Note that yolk-brushed Easter cakes are baked in an unheated oven, as the steam neutralizes the shine of the egg grease and dissolves the powdered sugar if it's called for in the recipe.

If you didn’t smear the surface of the Easter cakes with yolk before baking, then the recipe usually provides that right amount eggs are added to the dough. More about how to bake cakes in paper formsvideo below.

Baking temperature

Now let's dwell on another important point - how long it takes to bake Easter cakes in paper forms. Traditionally, Easter cakes in paper forms are baked in a well-heated oven at a temperature of 180 to 200 degrees. It is important to navigate optimal temperature for other types of Easter baking. Focus on what mini-cakes or buns are from sweet dough weighing from 100 g baked at a temperature of 200-220 degrees for 14-16 minutes.

If you are using puff pastry, bake it at a temperature of 230-270 degrees. This is necessary in order to prevent oil leakage and ensure high-quality baking. For biscuit dough you will need a temperature of 200-220 degrees and about 40 minutes.

Depending on the size of the product, baking them in some cases will take one hour. If you bake thin cakes from biscuit dough, it will take about 10 minutes. shortcrust pastry will require a higher temperature - 220-250 degrees and 15 minutes in time. For choux pastry, from which Easter cakes are sometimes prepared, it will take at least 30 minutes of baking at a temperature of 180-200 degrees.

Highly important point- avoid shaking and other sudden movements of Easter cakes that have already come up in paper forms. Once you have put the dough in the mold, left it to come up, do not let the Easter cakes fall off. Carefully place the molds on a baking sheet and just as smoothly place in the oven. How to bake Easter cake in paper form (recipe), see below.

Ingredients:

• white flour premium- 900 g
• Milk - 300 ml
• Fresh yeast - 30 g
• Chicken eggs - 3 pcs.
• Granulated sugar - 250 g
• Butter - 150 g
• Raisins - 150 g
• Lemon juice - ½ tsp
• Ground cinnamon - 1 tsp
• Vegetable oil for lubricating hands
• Powder for Easter cake

How to cook:

1. Mix 2 tablespoons of sugar, yeast and 100 ml of warm milk. Stir and leave in a warm place for 10 minutes.
2. Sift the flour twice through a sieve.
3. Pour a glass of flour into a kneading container, pour the remaining warm milk, mix.
4. Connect yeast mixture and dairy. Mix well, cover the container cling film and put in a warm place for half an hour.
5. Take two eggs and separate the whites from the yolks. Put the whites in the refrigerator. We use them to make frosting.
6. Combine yolks with sugar. Mix well with a mixer until white. Add melted butter. Keep whisking.
7. Add the risen dough to the egg-sugar mixture.
8. Pour flour into a large container, add the dough. Knead the dough first with a spoon, gradually introducing the remaining flour. Then stir with your hands, greasing them with vegetable oil.
9. Stir cinnamon and raisins into the batter. Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for about 1.5 hours.
10. The finished dough needs to be kneaded, kneaded again and distributed over the forms.

Grease paper molds from the inside with vegetable oil and fill them no more than half. Leave to rise in a warm place, then bake in a well-heated oven at 180 degrees for 40 minutes. Check readiness with a skewer.

The golden rule of baking Easter cakes

When baking Easter cakes, it is important to ensure convection, in which case they will bake evenly on all sides. If there is enough steam during baking, then the crust will not prematurely form on the dough, which then bursts. You have seen how, when baking some types of Easter cakes, tears and breaks form on top of them.

It is especially important to ensure that there is enough steam when baking large Easter cakes in paper forms. To do this, at the beginning of baking, you need to spray the product with a small amount of warm water and put it in the oven at a temperature of at least a third lower than the main one.

After 5-10 minutes, depending on the size of the product, it is sprayed again and the full temperature is turned on. Spray the dough again before the end of baking. Thus, the dough will expand during baking and not be covered with a tightening crust. Slow heating ensures that the entire volume of the dough is baked.

As for Easter cakes of medium and small sizes, so that they do not burn and do not become covered with a hard crust, a small amount is usually poured onto the lower baking sheet. hot water. In this case, the Easter cakes are immediately set to bake at a given temperature. AT this case light and dense paper forms are ideal for baking Easter cakes. Thus, there is no question whether it is possible to bake Easter cakes in paper forms.

And a few more important recommendations when baking Easter cakes in paper forms. Use only fresh, live yeast and only the highest grade flour. Be sure to sift it before use. The same goes for butter. It must be fresh, and before kneading the dough, it is softened at room temperature or melted.

The final stage - we take out Easter cakes from paper forms

Extract ready-made Easter cakes from paper molds after they cool down a bit. Small Easter cakes can be completely left in the forms, decorated, and then given to relatives and friends on the Bright Resurrection of Christ. The surface of such Easter cakes is decorated without taking them out of the molds. Just gently coat the top with a pastry brush with frosting and sprinkles. You can use finely chopped nuts, candied fruits and raisins.

If we are talking about a high cake, then so that it does not fall off, put it on a towel laid on a tight pillow or other soft surface. Cover the top with another towel. As it cools, the dough will firm up a bit more. After that, you can transfer the cake to a dish covered with a decorative or ordinary large white napkin.

So, is it convenient to bake Easter cakes in paper forms? You will see that it is not only convenient, but also very practical and aesthetically pleasing.

First of all, a few words about the meaning of Easter cake. Kulich is attributed to ritual bread, and in essence it is twinned with the sacred bread of artos - consecrated on the first day of Easter and located in the church on the lectern in front of the Royal Doors or in front of the icon of Jesus Christ during worship. Artos is the oldest symbol of the Resurrection of Christ, and Easter cake is its domestic equivalent.

Today, Easter cakes on the eve of Easter can be seen on sale in any supermarket, but, of course, of much greater importance, not to mention a more wonderful taste, will be home-baked Easter bread.

Cooking Easter cake at home is a matter that takes more time than "special education". And with our recommendations, any hostess can bake a delicious cake at home. So let's get started.

Cooking Easter cake involves the following steps:

Preparation of dough;
kneading dough;
Infusion of the test;
Cake baking.

Each stage is associated with certain subtleties and tricks that allow you to cook a successful cake.

Steam preparation. Use only fresh pale yeast nice smell, the algorithm is as follows: the yeast is mixed with part of the flour and warmed milk, the mass is whipped, covered and left warm until doubled in volume.

Test preparation.
Cook the dough only in a warm place, without drafts, use only dry sifted flour, good fresh oil, which must be melted before adding to the dough and cooled to a warm, not hot temperature. When preparing eggs, carefully separate the yolks from the whites. The dough for Easter cake should not be too liquid and not steep, one of the signs correct test- when cut with a knife, it does not stick to it. You need to knead the dough carefully - as a result, it should not stick to the surface and hands.

For flavor if desired, add to the dough: lemon zest, almonds, cardamom, cinnamon, saffron, nutmeg, rose or lemon oil.

Test insistence. The dough for Easter cake should be infused at least three times. According to tradition, the dough rises first, then after adding the rest of the ingredients, the dough rises twice or more again, then the dough is kneaded again (by hand or with a spatula), divided into Easter cakes or laid out in a mold and rises again before baking. To evenly raise the dough, you can use a wooden toothpick - stick it in the very center, then bake the cake directly with it and you can also check the readiness with it.

Cake mold should be filled with dough for a quarter or a third of the volume, no more, after the dough fits, it should fill no more than ¾ of the form. It is better if the form is detachable, you can also use an aluminum pan or metal can(for example, from under pineapples), the optimal volume is 1-1.5 liters, then the dough will bake well. The form must be lubricated with softened butter or lined with greased paper and sprinkled with breadcrumbs. You can also make the form yourself by gluing it from thick paper (for small Easter cakes) and also lubricating it with oil. When the dough in the form came up in last time before baking, it must be very carefully placed in the oven, without shaking or making unnecessary movements.

Cake baking.
The baking time of Easter cake depends on its size: up to 1 kg - 30 minutes, 1 kg - 45 minutes, 1.5 kg - 1 hour, 2 kg - 1.5 hours. Temperature 180-200 degrees. Place a container on the bottom of the oven to prevent burning. hot water. When the top of the product is browned, it must be covered with foil. The readiness of the cake is checked with a wooden stick - it should come out of the product completely dry without dough. After checking, if the cake is not yet ready, you need to close the oven door smoothly, without sudden movements.

After baking, the Easter cake is very carefully, also without shaking, it is taken out of the oven, placed on a plank, covered clean towel cools a little, then the paper is carefully peeled off. If the cake is high, having taken it out of the mold, it must be very carefully laid on its side on a towel while it cools, it must be carefully rolled with this towel several times so that the sides are strengthened and the product does not fall off, before placing the cake vertically, make sure that the bottom it got cold.

EASTER PASTRY RECIPE WITH RAISINS

2:9

It will take(for 3 Easter cakes 17 cm wide and 11 cm high): 500 ml milk, 250-300 g sugar, 300 g raisins, 50-60 g raw or 11 g dry yeast, 1-1.3 kg flour, 6 eggs, 200 g butter, 1 tsp. vanilla sugar; 100 g sugar and 2 squirrels for glaze.

Cooking kulich. Dissolve the yeast in slightly warm milk, add 500 g of sifted flour, mix thoroughly, leave to rise twice, covered with a towel. Separate the egg whites from the yolks, grind the yolks with sugar, add a pinch of salt to the whites, beat into foam, then add the yolks to the dough (approached), mix, put the melted butter, mix, add the proteins, mix, add the remaining flour and knead the dough, leave to rise for an hour. Soak the raisins for 10-15 minutes in warm water, then drain it and add the dried raisins to the dough, mix, let the dough rise again and transfer it to the mold, filling it by a third, cover with a towel and let it rise. Put the dough in the oven, heated to 100 degrees, bake for 10 minutes, increase the heat to 180 degrees, until ready to bake. Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until foamy, add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Coat the top of the finished cake with icing.

The top of the cake can be decorated with candied fruit, confectionery sprinkles, sweets, powdered sugar, and the icing can be colored by adding food coloring to it.

PASTRY RECIPE WITH LEMON ZEST, ALMONDS AND RAISINS 2:115

You will need: 500 g flour, 250 ml milk/cream, 100 g butter, 150 g sugar, 40 g fresh yeast, 6 egg yolks, 1 lemon (grated zest), 4 almonds, 2 tbsp. raisins, vanillin / vanilla sugar, powdered sugar.

Cooking lemon curd. Make a dough by combining 100 g of flour, milk or cream, yeast pounded with sugar. Grind the yolks with sugar into foam, add the remaining flour, add the dough that came up, salt, add vanillin, knead the dough well, add melted butter, grated lemon zest, raisins and chopped almonds. Put the dough into a form smeared with oil and powdered with flour, filling it by a third, let it come up until the form is filled, put in an oven preheated to 180-200 degrees and bake until done.

The Christian holiday Easter is approaching, and the hostesses are already setting butter dough for cakes. There are many recipes for making Easter cake, but despite different composition dough, the right Easter cakes are lush, tall, ruddy and well-baked. In addition, homemade Easter cakes are always tastier. shop baking, because they are prepared with their own hands, 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. AT Soviet times housewives baked Easter cakes in saucepans, mugs, ceramic flower pots, cans, and it turned out very well - small Easter cakes resembled the domes of churches 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 volumes and sizes, silicone or metal, with non-stick coating or 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.

Very popular and paper forms, made of thick paper, resistant to high temperatures, moisture and grease. 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 gifts. 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 forms it is enough to lubricate only at the first use, and forms with a non-stick layer, resembling a multicooker bowl, can not be lubricated at all. It is desirable to cover ordinary metal containers or foil molds with oiled baking paper- while some housewives also sprinkle 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 more air cake, fill the form by a third, and if denser baking is required, spread the dough on 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. To the bottom oven you can put a bowl of hot water 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 fondant, beat into a strong foam egg white, add 100 g of powdered sugar to it, mix the mass and enter 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, pastry bag or dipping the top of the cake in 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 is 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 options sprinkles are poppy, coconut flakes, multi-colored sugar, ground nuts, dried fruits, candied fruits and the usual confectionery topping from the store. 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 in one bowl, warm milk with butter, eggs beaten with sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla, salt, raisins. 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. Do fudge sugar. 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. Most reliable way storage of Easter cakes - in cotton napkins, in a saucepan with a tight closed lid. So they will survive even the Bright Week and at the same time remain tender, fresh and tasty. Have a nice holiday!

It is difficult to imagine a festive table for Easter without a beautiful, fragrant and, of course, delicious Easter cake.

homemade cake, although it requires quite a lot of time and effort, it will never compare with the store.

Made only from natural products and with love, he will create a unique Easter atmosphere in the house and will not become stale for a week and a half. In order to get a delicious Easter cake, you need to properly make the dough for Easter.

By the way, do not forget to decorate the eggs for Easter, they, like the Easter cake, are traditional for festive feast this Holy Sunday.
Along with Easter cake and eggs, this holy holiday decorates the table.

Beginning housewives and experienced chefs Those who are worried about the results of their efforts should be refreshed with a few tips for preparing a real Easter cake.

Recipe for Success: How to Make Easter Dough

1. Careful preparation

All products that are needed according to the recipe should be prepared in advance. Eggs, milk should be taken out of the refrigerator in advance, butter should be softened, raisins should be soaked, nuts should be chopped. The same applies to dishes: everything you need should be at hand, washed and wiped dry.

2. Quality flour

To make the yeast dough for Easter cake lush and tasty, you need to use only the most the best flour. It should be stored in a clean container, in a dry and dark place. If the flour is damp or there are insects in it, in no case should you knead dough for Easter cake from it.

3. Natural yeast

Many housewives try to follow modern trends in cooking and, in particular, replace natural yeast dry. Perhaps, in some cases, this product really justifies its popularity, but it is not suitable for making Easter cakes. Easter dough with dry yeast is less suitable and stale much faster. However, natural yeast, if stale, can also be a fiasco.

The amount of yeast is also important. The average recommendation is 50 g per 1 kg of flour. However, if the Easter recipe involves the use of a large number of eggs and dried fruits, it is recommended to increase the percentage of yeast by a third.

4. Spices

Any pastry needs spices. But there should not be many of them in the Easter cake test. The task of spices is only to emphasize its taste, but in no case to interrupt it.
Therefore, it is usually enough to limit yourself to a small amount of vanilla, cardamom or nutmeg(sometimes cinnamon or ground cloves are added, but this is not for everyone).
pleasant citrus note will give a little lemon or orange peel, and a pleasant color - a teaspoon of natural ground saffron or turmeric.
Using cocoa, you can cook an unusual chocolate cake.

5. Proper dough

The sponge dough for Easter cake should be very well kneaded. According to tradition, this is done by hand, for 20-30 minutes, clockwise. Under no circumstances should you interrupt or change direction. You can, however, make it easier for yourself by calling a mixer for the initial mixing of the components. A sign of the readiness of the dough is when it stops sticking to the walls of the dishes and hands.

6. Constant temperature

The main enemies of the dough for Easter cake are sudden changes in temperature and drafts. It is best that it rise in indoors at room temperature. But heating the dough or putting it in a slightly warm oven, as is sometimes advised to speed up its rise, is not worth it.

7. Shape and size

Because the yeast Easter dough during baking, it increases in volume at least twice; cake molds are usually only half filled. If you want to get a product with a less dense texture, you can leave two-thirds of the mold free.

The size of Easter cakes depends almost entirely on the preferences of the hostess, but it should be remembered that too large specimens can remain raw in the middle, and too small ones risk being too dry.

8. How to bake Easter cake

The oven must be preheated to desired temperature. Putting Easter in the oven, try to open the door as little as possible during the entire baking time.
If the cake found golden brown outside, but not yet baked inside, you can put a circle of baking paper on top of it: this will help it not to burn.

9. How to cool Easter cake

Cooling an Easter cake is a whole science. Due to the high density of the dough, this requires a long time and does not tolerate haste. The baked hot cake must be wrapped in a towel and put on its side. To ensure the most uniform cooling, sometimes it will have to be rolled. Even if the outside of the cake is already cold, you must definitely wait until it has completely cooled inside. On average it takes 3-4 hours. Be patient and take your time so that your cake stays fresh for a long time and does not get stale.

10. Preparing the Glaze

traditional icing for Easter cakes- beaten egg white with sugar. But it can be any other icing at your discretion. Its main function, in addition to decoration, is to keep the freshness of the product longer. Important condition: only a completely cooled cake is covered with icing.

11. Positive attitude

Along with all the above tips, the mood of the hostess is no less important. Yeast dough since ancient times, it was no coincidence that it was considered almost a living organism, in Rus' it was impossible to swear, shout, get angry with him - these were sure signs that the dough would not rise and generally turn out to be unsuccessful.

Therefore, before starting an Easter cake, try to forget about everyday stresses and problems for a while, put aside all other things and focus on good and bright thoughts. And then the Easter cake will “thank you” and succeed in glory!

Rules and secrets of cooking Easter cake

The dough for Easter cakes is perhaps the most capricious and requires special knowledge, skills and, of course, skill. About how to make a dough and how to knead the dough to get the perfect Easter cake for Easter, tells famous pastry chef Alexander Seleznev.

What should be the dough for Easter cakes?
Yeast and rich - this is required condition. There is a lot of butter, eggs, sugar, milk or cream in the dough for Easter cake. And, of course, candied fruits, dried fruits, raisins are added to it.

Is the dough for Easter cake usually capricious?
It is complex. He does not like drafts, does not like being disturbed once again. If you have covered the dough, you do not need to come up every five minutes and see if it has risen or not. We kneaded the dough, set it, covered it and wait for it to ferment.

Again - it is better to knead the dough for Easter cake with fresh yeast, and fresh yeast difficult to buy. Because they have a short shelf life. So, if you come across high-quality yeast, they can be frozen and then stored for a very long time.

About yeast and dough

How to calculate the amount of yeast for Easter cake?
Live yeast goes in a ratio of one to two - 22 grams of live yeast per 500 grams of flour. Dry, I prefer french ones: one sachet ( 11 grams) per 500 grams of flour.

And how to make steam?
For one tablespoon of yeast, you need to take one teaspoon of sugar, about 50 ml of warm water and flour, and mix it all. Ideally, there should be enough flour so that the consistency of the dough becomes similar to not too much. thick sour cream. Sugar and flour are added to yeast so that they begin to feed, multiply and divide. If you put the dough in a warm place, then in 30-60 minutes it will be ready for sure.

In order for the yeast to start “growing” faster, the dough can be made without water and flour. Take fresh yeast and sugar ( source of nutrition and propagation of yeast) in a one-to-one ratio and mix. The sugar will begin to melt quickly and the yeast will increase in volume in a couple of seconds.

What absolutely can not be added to the dough?
If you add salt to the dough, it won't rise at all. Salt kills the fermentation process. Even vegetable oil is never added to the dough. The fatty film envelops the yeast - they will not be able to take food.

How to understand that it's time to add the dough to the dough?
Don't forget about steam. First it rises, and then it starts to fall. It is this moment that indicates that the dough is ready and it is time to introduce it into the dough.

Some make a big mistake: they let the dough rise, then it falls, as it should be, but they leave it, deciding that when it comes up a second time, it will become even better. Opara rises, but not so high, because the yeast in it is already starting to die, because they have nothing else to eat: they have already processed all the sugar and multiplied.

About dough

What flour is suitable for cake?
Top or first grade. Before kneading the dough, you need to sift it twice to saturate it with oxygen and get rid of impurities.

What temperature should the dough be?
the same room temperature. Products must be taken out of the refrigerator two hours before you start kneading the dough, and let them stand at room temperature.

Typical mistakes when kneading dough?
Many people dilute milk with yeast, add sugar, eggs and then add flour. And it should be the other way around. Flour should not be poured into the liquid, because there will be lumps. Even our grandmothers knew The right way: they poured flour on the table, made a hole and added eggs there, then poured liquid and began to knead the dough. The same applies to the cake. Sift the flour, make a hole, pour in the eggs, add the dough, and only then - the liquid. It can be water, milk or cream. And start kneading dough.

And, so that the fatty medium does not envelop the yeast and they can eat, soft butter is added to the dough as a last resort. You can tell when the dough is ready and gathered into a ball. After the butter is added, everything must be mixed for a very long time. Until the oil is completely absorbed into the dough, which will stick to everything at first because you added fat. But when you mix it until smooth, it will immediately begin to peel off both from the walls of the dish and from your hands.

Does it matter how you knead the dough?
You can knead either with a mixer for 20-30 minutes, or by hand for 40-60 minutes. My grandmother always said that the dough for Easter cake should be kneaded until the sweat comes down from the back of the head to the waist. Only then can the dough be considered ready. Therefore, it is better to take a mixer or combine with a hook attachment. In order for the cake to come out porous and rise, the yeast must be distributed evenly throughout the entire volume of the dough.

When is the right time to add dried fruits and nuts?
Dried fruits, nuts and candied fruits are added to the dough at the very last moment. Raisins must be sorted out so that there are no seeds, sticks or debris. Be sure to wash and preferably soak. I like to soak raisins in cognac or rum, or orange or apple juice- so that he swells. Then it will become juicy and will burst when you eat Easter cake. More can be added candied oranges, candied lemon peels.

When the dough is kneaded, it should stand for an hour and a half in a warm place, covered with a linen napkin or towel, to rise. If you add nuts, raisins or dried fruits all at once, it will be difficult for the dough to rise. These supplements they will imprison and it just won't rise.

How to properly proof dough for Easter cake?
So, you kneaded the dough, covered it with a towel and put it in a warm place. ( Keep in mind that during the first approach, the dough can increase in volume by ten times, or even more..) In order for the dough to stand apart, you need to make two punches. My grandmother reined him in, hitting him with her fist, but you can use her palm as well. When the dough will do the first time and about an hour later, when the dough rises a second time. Now you can add raisins, nuts, dried fruits and candied fruits. Add and mix. Leave the dough again to rise a third time, and only after that put it on the table.

What's next?..
The table should be greased with vegetable or melted butter. It is undesirable to sprinkle with flour: the dough will dry out and take excess flour. But we don’t need this: then the Easter cake will be hard to rise. Hands are also well lubricated with oil and begin to form small pieces 300-400 grams of dough, which is desirable to lay out in special forms for Easter cakes. They are covered with silicone, which means that the dough will not stick. The form must be one-quarter or one-third full.

And can you put it in the oven?
No. Cover the molds with cheesecloth or a towel and again proof in a warm place for about an hour. Maybe even in a closet. And be sure to place a cup of water next to it - for moisture, so that the dough does not dry out. And when it again approaches almost to the very top of the form, you can send the cake to the oven.

If the form is not silicone, but metal, then it is necessary to lay out its bottom and walls with parchment, otherwise the cake will stick. It will not help even if you grease the form with butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs, because the Easter cake is very tender.

How long to bake a cake?
Big Easter cake 40-50 minutes or even an hour at 180°C. If the Easter cakes are small, they are baked for 20-30 minutes at 220°C. Keep in mind that the larger the cake, the lower the temperature should be and longer time baking. Therefore, you should not put a large cake and small ones together.

If the dough falls through in the middle, what's the problem?
The dough just didn't bake. Kulich was not brought to readiness. Or often opened the oven; the heat came out, and the temperature dropped - from this, the cake can also fail.

If the surface of the cake is uneven or rises from one side?
This means that the dough was poorly kneaded, and there was more yeast in one place than in another. Also, the reason may be in a malfunctioning oven. When the heat is stronger on one side and less on the other.

After what time can I look into the oven?
Approximately 30-40 minutes later, but it is still undesirable to do this. You can open it only if you see, for example, that the crust is starting to burn. Then put foil or parchment on it to reduce the heat from above.

How to remove the cake from the mold?
You can not immediately get it out of the form. The sides of a freshly baked Easter cake are not quite dense, and can settle. Therefore, leave it in the form until it has completely cooled down, and only then take it out.

As soon as the cake has cooled, the surface must be greased with melted butter. This will increase the shelf life of the cake. If you want to store Easter cakes for a long time, you need to cover them with a linen towel and leave them in a warm place. Thanks to a large number sugar, eggs and fat, Easter cake can be stored for a week.

I always cook Easter cake with cream. It turns out airy, almost weightless. I discovered this recipe about five years ago and have been using it every year since then.

Easter cake on cream from Alexander Seleznev

For test:

• 640 g flour
• 5 eggs (250 g)
• 200 g sugar
• 200 ml cream (22% fat)
• 100 ml milk
• 100 g seedless raisins
• 100 g candied fruit
• 25 g dry yeast
• a pinch of salt

For glaze:

• 200 g powdered sugar
• 1 protein (30 g)
• 1 st. l. lemon juice

What to do:
Dissolve yeast in warm milk, add a pinch of sugar and 2 tbsp. l. flour. Let go 20 minutes.

Sift flour, add lightly beaten eggs with sugar, salt and dough. Knead the dough and gradually pour in the cream. Knead the dough for at least 5-10 minutes with a mixer with a hook attachment.

Put the dough in a warm place and let rise for 1 hour, punch down, let the dough rise again, punch down, add raisins and candied fruits to the dough and mix until smooth. If you are in a hurry, it is enough to let the dough rest for an hour and, after making one punch, add raisins and candied fruits.

Dip your hands in vegetable oil and divide the dough into 6 servings, put them in paper forms for Easter cakes. Let go 1 hour. Place in the oven preheated to 180°C for 40 minutes. Bake until fully cooked.

Cool the finished cakes well and grease the surface with glaze. For glaze, beat egg whites with powdered sugar and lemon juice to a homogeneous consistency and apply on the surface of the Easter cakes.