Sweets for your Easter table

LITTLE EARS
Auksukės, krustai

2 eggs
1¾ cups pastry flour
3 Tbsps. sweet cream
1 Tbsp. sugar
Oil for frying
Powdered sugar

Beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar and cream. Add enough flour to make a dough which can be rolled very thin. Cut into diamond shapes. Slash the center of each diamond, twist one end through the hole to form a knot. Fry in hot deep oil until lightly browned. Drain on absorbent paper. Dust with powdered sugar.

NUT BREAD
Riešutų ragaišis

1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, or filberts)
½ cup poppy seeds
½ cup vegetable oil
1 oz, yeast
2 Tbsps. sugar
4 cups (or more) flour
1 Tbsp. salt
3 cups lukewarm water

Rinse poppy-seeds in hot water. Dissolve yeast in 1 cup of the lukewarm water, stir into 1 cup sifted flour. Set in warm place to rise. Mix in nuts, poppy seeds, sugar, salt and oil. Alternately and gradually add remaining sifted flour and water. Knead until smooth. Form into loaves. Place in loaf pans, let rise again. Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour.

EASTER GYPSY CAKE
Čigonas

12 eggs, separated
Candied orange peel
Prunes, apricots, figs, dates, raisins (all fruits cut into small pieces – about 4½ to 5 pounds)
1½ cups sugar
1½ cups flours (Wondra is easiest to blend)

Wafers to line cookie sheet (Optional) Beat yolks with sugar until light and fluffy. Add to fruit. Whip egg whites till stiff, add to egg and fruit mixture. Last, add flour. (Keeping this sequence makes things much easier to put together.) Pour batter into a cake pan, lined with thin wafers or buttered wax paper. Bake in a 325-degree oven for 1 hour or more until golden brown. This recipe yields 4 to 5  large, flat cakes.

PORCUPINES
Ėžiukai

10 egg yolks
12 egg whites
1½ cup sugar
1½ cup poppy seeds
1 cup dry white bread crumbs
1 Tbsp. melted butter
1½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. vanilla or grated lemon rind
½ cup almonds
Cream yolks and sugar. Add parboiled and drained poppy seeds which have been sprinkled with a little flour and potato starch. Add egg whites beaten stiff. Combine well with other ingredients (except almonds). Bake on shallow cake tins 20- 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Cut a “foundation” piece of the cake in outline form of a porcupine. Spread with filling, build up into a rounded porcupine body, using progressively smaller cut pieces of cake, spreading each layer with filling. Shape carefully to resemble a porcupine. Cut a small, round piece of cake for head. Attach to body with toothpicks. Use cloves for eyes. Ice entire cake. Prepare almond quills, insert all over the form to resemble porcupine quills.
Almond quills:
Soak almonds. Peel. Cut into lengthwise slivers. Brown very slightly in oven.
Filling:
Beat 5 eggs in top of double boiler. While the eggs are heating, gradually stir in 1½ cup sugar. Heat and stir until thick. Cream 1½ cup of butter. Cool eggs, slowly beat in the creamed butter, a little at a time. Add vanilla or other flavoring.
Icing:
Boil together 2 cups sugar, ½ cup water and 1 tsp. lemon juice until quite thick. Beat well.

FRUIT BREAD
Vaisių pyragas

1 oz. yeast
1½ cups sugar
1½ cups milk, scalded and cooled
1½ tsps. salt
8½ cups flour
¾ cup melted butter
3 well-beaten eggs
¾ lb. mixed candied fruit, chopped fine
1½ cup raisins
2/3 cup chopped nuts
1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Mix yeast with ½ cup sugar until liquefied. Mix with milk. Beat in salt and 3 cups flour until smooth. Cover and let stand in a warm place for 1 hour. Add ½ cup butter, eggs, ½ cup sugar, and remaining flour. Knead on a floured board until smooth and elastic. Place in a large greased bowl. Cover and let rise until double in bulk. Turn out on pastry board and sprinkle with fruit and nuts. Knead into dough. Divide into 2 parts. Roll each into a rectangle about 12 by 16 inches. Spread with remaining butter and sugar mixed with cinnamon. Roll up lengthwise and place in 2 large greased loaf pans. Cover and let rise until double in bulk. Bake in hot oven (400 degrees) for 10 minutes. Lower heat to 350 degrees and bake 50 minutes longer.