Easter Baking

It’s the Monday before Easter and I’m madly making a list of things to do before the long weekend. We have house guests for Easter and menu planning is top of mind. I’m not sure how you celebrate Easter, but in our home it always centers around the kids. So of course there will be an Easter egg hunt. Hopefully the bunnies have left some eggs! There are jobs to be around the farm too. Preparing a few veg beds by harvesting the very last few zucchinis, cucumbers and basil is on my ‘must do’ list!

But foremost, is a little Easter baking. Do you bake for Easter? I’ve made our own hot cross buns for quite a few years. But in recent times I’ve baked a traditional Italian ricotta cake. Oh my, it is delicious. The most challenging part of the cake is sourcing one ingredient; wheat berries. I found them at Jo’s Pantry in Colac. They’re simply the whole wheat kernel. A basic ingredient with a fancy name to throw me off track! The full name of the cake is Pastiera Nappoletana Con Ricotta e Crema Pasticcera. The recipe I chose to use was by Emiko Davies. It’s not the quickest tart to bake, but it is very rewarding! I didn’t have any candied citrus peel on hand, so I subbed some cumquats that had been steeping in brandy. Pretty good swap! You can find the recipe here: http://www.emikodavies.com/blog/pastiera-napoletana/

The fire ban for our area hasn’t been lifted yet, so there will be no paddock bonfire. But we will light a fire in the barbecue pit and roast some marshmallows with the children. The adults will sip something red and nibble on cheese, home made crackers and quince jam. What could be better!

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