For the various recipes of "Easter Cakes" which come in various shapes such as donkeys, dolls, baskets, and half moons see the categories, "Cookies without Nuts" and "Holiday Breads."

These style of sweets are generally identified as "Easter Cakes" on the world-wide web. Nonetheless, they taste a lot more like cookies than cakes. I suppose the reason they are identified as "Easter Cakes" is because Italians in Southern Italy often call them "pasticc'" which can mean cake, but it can also mean cookie. It's a kind of generic word for sweets, but in some areas in the South it might only mean cake, and in some areas it might only mean cookie. Hard to say, it all depends.... Also, I suppose the other reason these sweets are identified as cakes rather than as cookies is because of their size. Because they're often made as big, if not bigger, than an average cake, it's understood they're meant to be divided up and eaten by more than one person. While prior to World War II these "Easter cakes" were given to children as gifts on Easter Sunday, it was understood that the "Easter cakes" would be shared, possibly the next day on Easter Monday, when families and friends got together and had large get-togethers in the countryside, picnic-style.... In Casacalenda, Molise, the names of these "Easter cakes" were actually known by their shapes. So one would have a "puppata" (doll) or "cestino" (basket) or a "cuccio" (donkey) or a "carosello" which according to my father (He may be wrong) didn't mean anything else but what it was -- a coiled and braided "Easter cake" young boys got on Easter Sunday.... The photo was taken by Mary Melfi but the real artist was Gemma Forliano who decorated the sweet-looking donkey.

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