Easter Cakes

Airy, tender, fragrant Easter cakes, with notes of lemon zest and vanilla, just melt in your mouth!

Cook: 5 hours 20 minutes

Ingredients

• Flour – 550 g
• Milk – 200 ml
• Butter 82% – 150 g
• Eggs – 4 pcs.
• Dry yeast – 10 g
• Sugar – 130 g
• Vanilla sugar – 10 g
• Zest of one lemon
• Raisins – 100 g
• Sunflower oil – 5-6 tbsp

For glaze:

• Powdered sugar – 100 g
• Gelatin – 1 teaspoon
• Water – 3.5 dess. l. (27 g)

For decoration:

• Candied fruits – 50 g
• Sesame seeds

Directions

1. Let’s make a dough. Add yeast to warm milk, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp flour and mix well. Cover with a clean towel and let “ferment” in a warm oven for 40 minutes. (I preheat the oven for 2 minutes to keep it warm.)

   

2. Melt the butter and cool.
3. Grind eggs, remaining sugar, vanilla sugar and lemon zest with a whisk.
4. Add cooled butter, egg mass to the “suitable” dough, mix.
5. Pour in flour 3-4 tbsp, stirring well each time.
6. When all the flour has been mixed in, little by little add pure dry raisins, mixing them into the dough, and sunflower oil. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Put the dough
   in a bowl greased with vegetable oil, cover with cling film and send the dough for proofing in a warm oven for 1 hour.
7. We spread the dough in shapes, rounding it and tucking the edges with raisins inward. We fill the molds by 1/3 part, lightly press the dough with your hand so that the cakes rise evenly, and leave it for proofing for another 1 hour.

   

8. We bake cakes in a preheated oven, on the second level from the bottom, at a temperature of 160 degrees for 30 minutes.
   (The baking time and oven temperature depend on the characteristics of your oven and on the size of the cakes.)
9. We check the readiness with a wooden skewer. Cool the cakes completely and prepare the icing.
10. Add half of the water norm to the gelatin and leave it to swell.
11. When the gelatin swells, pour the remaining water into the icing sugar, put it on fire and bring to a boil with constant stirring.
12. Remove from heat, add the swollen gelatin, stir until dissolved. Beat with a mixer for 4-5 minutes.
    (Gelatin and powdered sugar are different for everyone. If the frosting remains rather thin after beating, add a little more powdered sugar).
13. Lubricate the cakes with hot sugar icing, immediately sprinkling with chopped candied fruits and sesame seeds fried in a dry pan.

    

Easter cakes are ready. Bon Appetit!