Pasca (Romanian Easter Cake)

With one day left until the big day, I hope those of you that celebrate have your Easter menus all ready to go! If you’re still searching for a great dessert this Pasca, which is a Romanian Easter cake, would be perfect.

I went into this a little intimidated. It looks and sounds far more complicated than it really was. Although I do have to say that the recipe (which was the only Pasca recipe I could find) was complete crap. I ended up adding almost 3 cups of flour to the dough so hopefully I’ve adjusted the recipe to reflect all the changes I had to make. If you have a favorite sweet dough recipe – like cinnamon roll dough – use it! Just add a touch of lemon zest and you’re good to go.

I started planning my week of Easter goodies a few weeks back and this recipe reminded me of something but I just couldn’t figure out what. As soon as I started braiding the dough I went “OMG! It’s like a giant cream cheese danish from Starbucks!” And it totally was. My only complaint was that I let the dough rise too much before adding the filling. Next time I won’t skimp on the lovely raisin studded cream cheese.

• 1 cup milk, warm
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 6 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted and cooled
• 1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• zest from ½ lemon
• 4 to 5 cups flour

• 1 (8 ounce) brick of cream cheese
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ cup raisins

• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon water

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