Mona de Pasqua

Mona de Pasqua is the Easter ring cake of Catalonia, Valencia, Aragon and Murcia, an enriched sweet dough made with flour, sugar, eggs, olive oil or butter, lemon zest, anisette or sweet wine, and a little sourdough or fresh yeast so the cake is light and feathery. The dough is shaped into rings, braids, or rounds with the characteristic hard-boiled eggs pressed into the centre, and glazed with egg yolk and sugar before baking. In its simplest form it is a plain sweet bread; in its more elaborate modern form, baked by specialist pastisseries, it is layered with chocolate, marzipan, cream and truffle, and the eggs are replaced by whole chocolate eggs wrapped in coloured foil.

The tradition is a deeply social one: on Easter Monday the padrí (godfather) gives the mona to his godchild, the family takes it to a country field, and the cake is cut and shared with chocolate eggs after the children have been allowed to break them open. The most traditional versions are still sold in pastisseries in Barcelona, Tarragona, Reus, Tortosa, Valencia, Zaragoza, Castellón and Murcia, where the simplest bread version is eaten at home and the elaborate chocolate version is given as a gift. After Easter Monday the leftover bread is used for torrijas, the Spanish version of French toast, dipped in milk, egg and cinnamon.