Recipe | Gugelhupf (Austrian Easter Cakes)

In Medieval Austria, a Gugelhupf was served at gatherings, including weddings, and it was the cake chosen to represent Austria at an event during the country’s presidential reign of the European Union.

Throughout the seasons, it’s decorated with flowers, leaves, fruits, candles or a dusting of icing sugar. Typically, it’s a yeast-based cake more akin to a bread – with echoes of hot cross bun – but some versions are more cake-like. This recipe makes mini versions, but you can also use a larger tin and bake for longer (see timings for the Nid de Pâques in our April issue).

Serves 12

2 oranges, zested and juiced

1 lemon, zested and juiced

125g raisins, currants or sultanas

125g unsalted butter, softened,

plus extra for greasing

125g golden caster sugar

2 eggs

125g plain flour or buckwheat flour

1 tbsp mixed spice or ground

cinnamon

1 tbsp baking powder

100g ground almonds

4 tbsp orange juice from soaking fruit, plus extra to glaze

 To make

1 Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4. Meanwhile, butter 12 mini bundt moulds or a single large bundt tin.

2 Add the zest and juice of the oranges and lemon to a pan, along with the dried fruit. Gently simmer

for 5 mins, then remove from the heat and leave the fruit to continue soaking while you prepare the cake mixture.

3 Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until smooth and pale. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add the flour, spices, baking powder and almonds, and mix to combine.

4 Drain the dried fruit, reserving the liquid. Stir in the 4 tbsp of the strained liquid, to loosen and flavour the batter (keeping the rest to gloss the baked cakes). Fold the dried fruit through the cake mix, then divide the batter between the cake moulds. Tap the tin firmly to settle and level the batter.

5 Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 mins, or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle of a cake comes out clean. Invert the tin onto a serving plate, leave to cool for 5 mins, then lift off the tin. Leave the mini cakes to cool completely, then glaze with the reserved soaking liquid. 

This recipe is just one of our Easter bakes from across Europe, which are featured in our April issue. Buy a copy of the magazine to find the rest of the recipes, including Lampropsomo from The Balkans, French Gateau Nid de Paques, Italian Crostata di Pasqua alla Ricotta and Polish Chocolate Mazurek. The recipes are by Rachel de Thample and photography by Ali Allen.

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Make | Naturally Dyed Eggs

When you use natural dyes, you might be surprised by the end result. Part of creating is not always knowing quite how things will turn out, so give yourself permission to go with the flow. You can use these for an Easter egg hunt or to decorate a spring table.

You will need:

Eggs (we used brown and white)

Materials for dyeing, such as red cabbage, blueberries, turmeric, onion skins, avocado stones, nettles or hibiscus flowers/teabags

White vinegar

Containers (large enough to hold the eggs in the fridge overnight)

To make:

1 Start by hard boiling the eggs for around 6-8 mins. Then remove from the pan and set aside.

2 For each colour, add your dyeing material to a full pan of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 mins, or longer, until the liquid is deeply coloured.

3 Remove the material from the pan and stir in a teaspoon of white vinegar.

4 Place the eggs and the dye in a container and leave in the fridge overnight. Don’t crowd the container or the eggs will not dye evenly.

5 The next day, remove the eggs from the container and allow them to dry. You can discard the dye or

use it to make another batch of eggs.

Maker’s note: The eggs will fade over the coming days and hard boiled eggs should be disposed of after a week.

This mini project is just one of the ideas from our regular feature, Kitchen Therapy, which this month also includes recipes for Egg Mayo Tartine with Spring Herbs, Cavatelli pasta, Pistachio Pesto, Artichoke Hearts with Ricotta & Salsa Verde and a White Chocolate Cheesecake. The recipes are by Lottie Storey and the photography by Kym Grimshaw.

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Traditions | Osterbaums

This Easter decoration is simple to make and is an easy way to bring a little spring indoors

Osterbaums have a long history in Germany. Sometimes trees outside are decorated for Easter, but more often, branches are brought into the home. Blossoming boughs – perhaps cherry or blackthorn – are particularly pretty, or those with catkins such as pussy willow or hazel. It’s traditional to adorn them with painted or dyed eggs, though you could also use feathers or ribbons – anything colourful that captures that feeling of spring.

Photography by Sussie Bell. Styling by Selina Lake/Living4Media

This idea is from the March issue of The Simple Things, which you can still buy from our online store and includes lots of ideas for celebrating the season.

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Recipe | Easter Pie (Torta Pasqualina)

A traditional Easter pie from Liguria, Italy, that can be traced back to the 1500s and still enjoyed today

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

500g whole milk ricotta
550g chard, spinach, or a mix
160g parmesan, finely grated, or a mix of parmesan and aged pecorino
5 medium eggs
Nutmeg (optional)
Olive oil or melted butter, to brush
1 pack filo pastry (around 270g)
Fine salt

To make

1 If your ricotta is watery, drain it for 30 mins in a sieve set over a bowl.

2 Discard any tough stems from the greens. Rinse and divide across 2 large pans and allow to wilt, stirring occasionally over a medium heat (or blanch in a pot of boiling water for a minute or two, just until wilted), then refresh under cold water. Transfer to a colander and squeeze out as much water as possible, then chop finely.

3 In a bowl, mix the ricotta with the greens, parmesan and 1 egg. Add a few gratings of nutmeg and season with salt to taste.

4 Preheat the oven to 210C/Fan 190C/Gas 6–7 and brush a deep, 23cm springform tin with olive oil or melted butter.

5 Layer sheets of filo over your tin, letting them settle so they cover the base and drape over the sides. Brush each sheet with oil or butter as you layer. Reserve 1 sheet for the top.

6 Spoon the ricotta mixture into the pastry, level out with the back of a spoon, then use the spoon to create 4 small hollows in the filling.

7 Crack the remaining 4 eggs into the holes and season the yolks. Dot a little butter onto each egg. Fold the overhanging pastry over the top and use the remaining sheet, to cover any gaps. Brush oil or butter over the top.

8 Cook for 40 mins until golden on top, then cover with baking paper. Cook for a further 20–30 mins.

Cook’s note: Can be stored in the fridge for 5 days and eaten cold, or gently reheated. Traditionally, families without ovens took their pie to a local bakery to be cooked, carving their initials into the crust so that the right pie came home for Easter Sunday

Taken from: Stagioni: Contemporary Italian Cooking to Celebrate the Seasons by Olivia Cavalli (Pavilion, HarperCollins Publishers). Photography: Sophie Davidson

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Cake facts | Simnel cake

This light fruitcake, served traditionally for Mothering Sunday and Easter, and layered with marzipan might look innocent enough, but it is, in fact, steeped in mystery and intrigue. 

Leaving aside the missing 12th marzipan apostle (that’s Judas, who betrayed Jesus and therefore is not deserving of a marzipan sphere in his name), there are other puzzles… Such as where Simnel cake got its moniker.

There are several stories. Are you sitting comfortably? Then take a slice of Simnel and we’ll begin.

One tale goes that the cake was named for Lambert Simnel, who invented it while working in the kitchens of King Henry VII as punishment for trying to usurp the throne. Simnel, a boy of ten, had been passed off as one of the two princes in The Tower, who were allegedly murdered by Richard III (so not a terribly convincing story, really). He turned out to be a much more convincing kitchen hand though and did so well he was eventually promoted to the position of Falconer by the King. However, we remain unconvinced that Lambert is the true King of Simnel cake. When you’ve made up a whopper like being heir to the throne of England, who’s going to believe you when you say you’ve invented a new cake, after all? 

An even bolder story appears in Chambers’ Book of Days in 1867. This story says that the cake was invented by a couple by the name of Simon and Nelly (we expect you already have a hunch where this is going). They had set about making a cake to mark the end of Lent, using some leftover plum pudding from Christmas. Simon thought they should boil the cake and Nelly was convinced it should be baked. After a brief domestic disagreement they compromised, deciding to boil the cake first and then bake it. And this happy union of baking methods produced a cake that became named after both of them - the Sim-Nel cake. (We’d have gone for Nelsim, had we been young Nell… assuming, of course, that we believed this very tall tale). 

The least charming, most tedious story, is probably the most believable. ‘Simila’ is Latin for the sort of fine, white flour that was used for these Lenten cakes, and it’s easy to see how Simnel would come from simila. We told you it was slightly tedious. There’s no arguing with Latin though (unlike Simon and Henry VII, who it seems were both up for a bit of a disagreement).

The rather fine Simnel cake pictured above is taken from Fitzbillies: Stories & Recipes From a 100-year-old Cambridge Bakery by Tim Hayward and Alison Wright (Quadrille) with photography by Sam A. Harris. You can find the recipe on p23 of our March ‘Blossom’ issue. 

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