Pască

Pască is a sweet baked Easter cake filled with curd cheese and raisins. It is made in Moldova and also in Romania, where it belongs to the Easter table, and it is traditionally blessed at Easter.

What it really is

Pască has two parts. The dough is enriched with flour, butter, sugar and eggs. The filling is curd cheese mixed with eggs, sugar and raisins, and it sits inside the cake while the whole is baked until the outside turns golden. The cheese gives the filling a moist, slightly tangy taste, and the raisins add small sweet bursts through it.

Pască is not a savoury cake. Although cheese is its main ingredient, the cheese is sweetened, and the cake is eaten as a dessert.

How it's served

• Cut into wedges and served as a sweet item, most often at Easter.
• Eaten at room temperature once it has cooled from the oven.
• Shared among the family alongside the other festive food of the holiday.

How to write it on the menu

• Name the main ingredient as curd cheese, and say that the cake is sweet and contains raisins.
• Flag wheat in the dough, eggs in the dough and filling, and milk from the butter and cheese.
• Ask the kitchen to confirm the full recipe, since fillings and doughs vary from one baker to the next.
• State whether the cake is sold whole or by the slice, and the weight or size of each portion.
• Say that it is served cold or at room temperature, and that the filling is curd cheese, not cream cheese.