Glittery Eggs and Armenian Easter Cake (Paska)

Why hasn’t anyone established “MEAA” (Mini Eggs Addicts Anonymous) for all of us who have serious addictions to Cadbury mini eggs? This morning, I am allowing myself exactly 5 mini chocolate eggs. No more. They are addictive and probably the main reason I love Easter.

The weather is beautiful today and while Shawn has been in the backyard, sanding the wooden rocking horse he is building for our little blue-eyed beauty, I have been decorating orange-scented Armenian Easter cakes called Paska. My grandmother Nina used to bake them in big coffee cans.

Reputed to be very difficult to make (I will look into this for you), most people just resort to picking one up from a local Armenian bakery.

Since I love a good challenge, you know I am going to be testing recipes for next Easter. And the one at the top of my to-do list is my godmother’s. She did all the hard work and I get the fun part of decorating them.

Real marzipan was tinted with a few drops of food coloring and rolled out to about 1/8th of an inch thickness. I placed a plate over the top and traced around the plate with a sharp knife.

It was centered over a round paper doily and draped over the cake. After sprinkling with some powdered sugar, a bowl placed over the top helped shape it around the paska.

Two were made as I had two cakes, one blue and one peachy-red. I mixed powdered sugar with a few drops of water as glue to decorate the tops flowers, small plastic birds, even 3 Cadbury eggs. (Yes, I do keep count.)

One is blue with bright orange poppies, a teeny bluebird and golden cross.

The red one has a couple of birds and 3 pink-speckled chocolate eggs on top.

On the back sits a teeny Chi Chai Monchan monkey and plastic daisy that is really just a button.

They look fabulous!

Paska Armenian Easter Bread

Adapted from Natasha
Makes: 3 large Paskas
Prep: 20 mins
Inactive: 6 hours
Bake: 30 mins

Ingredients
2 cups + 2 Tb warm milk
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
6 free-range eggs, room temp
1 Tb active dry yeast
2 cups sugar
½ tsp salt
½ cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
9 cups flour
1 orange, zest only
1½ cups raisins
3 large Panettone paper molds or large coffee cans

Instructions

Add milk and butter to a pot and set onto a medium-high flame.
Heat just until butter has melted. 
Whisk  eggs, yeast, sugar, salt, sour cream, vanilla and warm milk-butter.

Gently incorporate 4 cups flour. Batter will be thick like yogurt.

Cover and let it rise in a warm oven (about 100˚F) for 2 hours.

Add remaining 5 cups of flour, one cup at a time.  Dough will now be soft.
Add raisins and orange zest.
Cover and let dough rise another 2 hours in a warm oven (100˚F).

Divide dough evenly into the three paper baking molds; try not to mix it or stomp it down too much.

Let dough rise uncovered in a warm 100˚F oven again for 2 hours, til its filled the molds 2/3s full.

Remove from the oven and preheat oven to 350˚F.
Bake at 350˚F for 30-35 minutes in the middle of the oven until the top is golden brown.
Cool completely before decorating.

Little Hands & Glittery Eggs 

The day started with a breakfast mainly of hard-boiled eggs, because we had to decorate them for Easter, anyway. Afterwards, Daisy and I got right to work.

A simple formula of food coloring, vinegar and hot water was perfect for dying the eggs. They dried quickly so we used ordinary clear Elmer’s glue and fine glitter to decorate them.

Manicure stickers made the cutest embellishments. One has little heart-shaped Union Jacks all over it.
We even have a Hello Kitty egg. That one is Daisy’s favorite.

Glittery Easter Eggs
Decorates 2 dozen

What to Get
Newspaper or vinyl tablecloth to protect work surface
24 hard-boiled free-range white eggs
egg carton
4 coffee mugs
4 big spoons
Food coloring
4 tsp white vinegar
2 cups boiling water

Elmer’s clear glue (non-toxic)
2 paintbrushes (so you can work with your own li’l buddy)
2 small bowls
2 little spoons
3 Tb green glitter
3 Tb copper-gold glitter

What to Do
Cook eggs in boiling water for 10 minutes.
Eat a Mini Chocolate Egg.
Remove any cracked ones and eat them the same day.

While the eggs are cooling, boil a teapot of water.
Pour 1/2 cup of boiling water each into 4 coffee mugs.
Add 1 teaspoon of vinegar into each.

For the food coloring, do the following:
Blue mug = 30 drops
Green mug = 25 drops
Pink mug = 30 drops of red coloring
Orange mug = 20 drops red + 8 drops yellow

Using a spoon, gently settle an egg into each mug.
Turn the spoon so that it keeps the egg immersed
under the liquid.
Set a kitchen timer to 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, remove the coloured eggs and
gently place them into the empty egg carton.

Repeat until all eggs have been dyed.

Pour glitter into bowls.
Eat another Mini Chocolate Egg.

Once the eggs have dried (~10 minutes), use a
paintbrush to apply glue over the shell in a random
design.

Put the egg into a bowl and gently roll around the glitter
with a small spoon.
Transfer back to egg carton to finish drying.

Once dry, apply manicure stickers to areas that
have not been covered with glitter.

Display proudly on your Easter table.

Spring is a wonderful time of year that everyone can celebrate. The trees are covered in blossoms, baby birds are heard chirping, the sun comes out of hibernation and makes everything shine. And the Easter Bunny brings plenty of good chocolate.

Daisy and I are now covered in glitter, but we do not really mind because we had so much fun together.
Celebrate the season with these beautiful eggs that will add sparkle to your spring-time table.