Easter Bread for Paska Basket

I can't believe that I have not blogged on Easter Bread as it is very much something my granddaughter and enjoy doing together.   There was a lot of excitement especially by the older grandkid and planning to make the different breads for Easter.  The individual bread is made for each of the girl's basket to be taken to be blessed Easter weekend for Easter Sunday Brunch.

The girls love to make the birds for their Paska bread.

So proud of her Paska

Each of the girls have their own Paska Basket and are learning the traditional foods that are part of this and the symbolism.   

There is always an air of excitement with everyone when the food is displayed and blessed.  The love put into preparing and arranging the basket is apparent.

Thai Coconut Pudding! Khanom Krok

I am also looking for recipes to use my cast iron pan what is moulded and in which I have cooked Danish Pancakes and Japanese Octopus ball called Takoyaki. So far, I have loved cooking meatballs in this pan the best as it keeps the shape of your meatballs and the meatballs can be baked in the oven in this pan.

Thai Coconut Pudding or Khanom Krok is a street food that is cooked in this cast iron pan and served with two half cooked puddings together to form a ball. 

The recipe seemed simple enough for the grandkids to make. The green onions and corn seemed odd, but does work! 

The Thai coconut puddings have two layer

Bottom layer

• 1 cup rice flour
• 2 cup water
• handful of cooked rice
• 1/2 c coconut

Top layer

• 1 cup coconut cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• pinch of salt
• corn
• green onions chopped

Method

Bottom layer; Mix rice flour with 1 c water in a bowl. Mix well, and let it sit for at least and hour. In a blender, mix cooked rice with shredded coconut, add the salt and 1 cup water. Blend together until finely mixed. Pour into the bowl of rice flour and water. 

Mix well by hand. Top layer; Mix coconut cream, sugar and salt in a bowl until dissolved.

The cast iron pan needs to be heated and oiled well. Fill the moulds 2/3 full with the bottom layer mixture. Let cook for 1-2 minutes and then fill with the top layer. Sprinkle the top with a few corn kernels and chopped green onions. Cover with lid to steam the puddings. cook until crispy bottoms, about 8 to 10 minutes. 

Serve warm!

Empty Tomb Roll

Empty Tomb Rolls are an awesome way to explore the mystery of Easter and Resurrection 

The symbolism of the Empty Tomb rolls

Marshmallow - the body of Jesus

Butter- the anointing oils

Cinnamon- the anointing spices 

Dough- the shroud of Jesus

Oven- the tomb

Empty Rolls- the mystery of resurrection

This is the second year, I have baked these rolls and as much wonder to the disappearance of the marshmallow as last year! "Where did it go?"

Basically, melt butter to dip the large marshmallows and then a bowl with sugar and cinnamon to dip the buttered marshmallow 

Small pieces of dough are wrapped tightly around the marshmallow.. Yes, it is difficult to do as the butter makes it slippery.  

Where did the marshmallow go! 

Sadly with all the school restrictions, the children were not able to make this in school!

Tiger Birthday Cake

My grandchild has been asking for a Tiger Cake since her older sister's birthday last Sept.  

This request was always the same even when her birthday came closer.  When asked how old she was, she would hold up 3 fingers and say that I was making her a Tiger Cake and that the Tiger said "Grrrrrrr" 

The look on her face told me the cake was a big success!

The cake was baked in two 8" round pans.  

When the white batter cake is mixed up, using three bowls, divide your cake batter into three parts.  I needed more white batter to get more white in the cake.

One bowl of batter is left white; 

to one of the other white cake batter, add about 1/2 c of cocoa; 

to the three bowl of white cake batter, add orange dye  until you get the desired orange colour. 

Line both of the baking pan with parchment paper, first drop about a 1/3c of one of the batter   in the centre, then the next colour of the batter, drop it over the first layer, then the same with the next colour, continue until you have used use half of the amount in each bowl.  Then do the next round pan, the same way to get the tiger coloured cake! 

The cake was first assembled on a pedestal cake stand, with chocolate chip cookies for the ears and the paws along with large marshmallows for the tail.  Remember to line under the cake and cookies with parchment before icing the cake. 

Butter Frosting was used to cover the cake and in between the layers

Butter Frosting

• 1/2 c butter, softened
• 1/2 c shortening, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• 2 T milk
• 4 c icing sugar

Blend shortening, butter and vanilla

Add cup of icing sugar at a time, beat well

Add in the milk, beat until fluffy

Chocolate frosting was melted and poured in a plastic zip bag. The end was cut to use as decorating tip, but the chocolate was still hot and the tip too big, so the tiger had thick Strips! 

Old Fashion Cheesecake with Rhubarb toppping

Cheesecake for Easter Dinner, why not?  I have been making cheesecake with cottage cheese and quark cheese for Easter, but not recently.  This year, I decided to find my recipe and was reminded that using cottage cheese is more like a cheese tasting cake than when using the sweet cream cheese version

The recipe I used was very easy to make and delicious.  Very much like my Grandmother used to make. 

Cottage Cheese Cheesecake 

• 2c Cottage Cheese
• 1/2 c Milk
• 2 Eggs
• 1/3c Sugar
• 3T Flour
• 1 Lemon, juice and rind
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• pinch of salt

Base

• 3/4 c flour
• 1/2 c oatmeal
• 1/2 c butter
• 1/2 c nuts

This is a great base for the cheesecake.  I prefer this base to a graham wafers base

Place everything into the blender or food processor to blend until smooth! 


Since I did not have any graham wafers, I used coconut cookies and pulsed them in a food processor to make crumbs, pulse in 1/3 c of melted butter and form crumbs

Press into a spring form pan, pour in the cottage cheese mixture
Bake in a preheated oven of 325 for 50 to 60 minutes

I have seen topping of Rhubarb for cheesecakes in Europe

Rhubarb topping

• 2 cups Rhubarb
• 1/3 c sugar, or to taste
• Lemon rind and juice
• fresh ginger
• orange slices

Cook on the stove in a sauce pan until rhubarb soft

Yes, peeps and sprinkles certainly add to this cheesecake in my grandchild's opinion!