Mazurek is a variety of cake baked in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

for

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

. It has a flat shape and is very sweet. According to Polish gastronomy coursebooks, typical ''mazurek'' is a cake that can be made of one or two sheets of short (or half-short) pastry or one sheet of short (or half-short) pastry covered with a sheet of butter sponge cake. The two sheets are fixed together with a help of a layer of

marmalade Marmalade is a fruit preserve made from the juice and peel of citrus fruits boiled with sugar and water. The well-known version is made from bitter orange. It is also made from lemons, limes, grapefruits, mandarins, sweet oranges, bergamo ...

. In case of one-sheet version, marmalade is skipped or goes on top, under the layer of icing. The top of ''mazurek'' is covered with a layer of icing (i.e. sugar icing or fudge caramel cream) or jelly. It is also decorated with nut-based icing or almond-based icing and

candied fruit Candied fruit, also known as glacé fruit, is whole fruit, smaller pieces of fruit, or pieces of peel, placed in heated sugar syrup, which absorbs the moisture from within the fruit and eventually preserves it. Depending on the size and type o ...

s. Traditionally, home-baked ''mazurek'' cakes are often decorated with

dried fruit Dried fruit is fruit from which the majority of the original water content has been removed either naturally, through sun drying, or through the use of specialized dryers or dehydrators. Dried fruit has a long tradition of use dating back to th ...

s and nuts. In the one-sheet version, the cake includes the borders made of rolled half-short pastry. Sometimes the shortcrust base is crowned with a lattice made of half-short or

macaroon A macaroon ( ) is a small cake or biscuit, typically made from ground almonds (the original main ingredient), coconut or other nuts (or even potato), with sugar and sometimes flavourings (e.g. honey, vanilla, spices), food colouring, glacé ch ...

pastry. Among other versions, often to be found in popular

cook book A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first cours ...

s and gastronomy coursebooks is "Gypsy mazurek" (''mazurek cygański''). A sheet of half-short pastry is half-baked, covered with a layer made of dried fruit, almonds, egg yolks creamed with sugar and

whipped egg white Egg white is the clear liquid (also called the albumen or the glair/glaire) contained within an egg. In chickens it is formed from the layers of secretions of the anterior section of the hen's oviduct during the passage of the egg. It forms arou ...

and baked again.

Mazurek tradition

Name and origin

The cake's name may have its origins in the

Masovians Masovians, also spelled as Mazovians, and historically known as Masurians, is an ethnographic group of Polish people that originate from the region of Masovia, located mostly within borders of the Masovian Voivodeship, Poland. They speak the Mas ...

(old ''Mazurzy'') tribe inhabiting the

Mazovia Mazovia or Masovia ( pl, Mazowsze) is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. It spans the North European Plain, roughly between Łódź and Białystok, with Warsaw being the unofficial capital and largest city. Throughout the centuri ...

region of central Poland. Another theory says it might originate from the word mazurek (Polish for

mazurka The mazurka (Polish: ''mazur'' Polish ball dance, one of the five Polish national dances and ''mazurek'' Polish folk dance') is a Polish musical form based on stylised folk dances in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, with character de ...

), traditional folk dance in

triple metre Triple metre (or Am. triple meter, also known as triple time) is a musical metre characterized by a ''primary'' division of 3 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 3 ( simple) or 9 ( compound) in the upper figure of the time signature, with , , ...

from Poland. A

shortcrust pastry Shortcrust pastry is a type of pastry often used for the base of a tart, quiche, pie, or (in the British English sense) flan. Shortcrust pastry can be used to make both sweet and savory pies such as apple pie, quiche, lemon meringue or chicken ...

, Mazurek is considered one of the primary desserts of Easter across Poland. What distinguishes it from other festive dessert cakes is the abundance of decoration with

and nuts, its overall sweetness, and chocolate icing, contributing to its prolonged freshness. Although considered uniquely Polish, almost a seasonal national dessert, the recipe for Mazurek came to Poland most likely from the East, via the spice trade-route from

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

in the early 17th century.

Appearance and symbolism

Its symbolism is closely associated with the period of '' Wielki Post'' (Polish for

Lent Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and L ...

) thus marking its successful completion. In fact, after a 40-day fast (not a total abstinence from food by any means), which is celebrated in Christian liturgy in memory of the

Temptation of Christ The temptation of Christ is a biblical narrative detailed in the gospels of Gospel of Matthew, Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Mark, and Gospel of Luke, Luke. After being Baptism of Jesus, baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus in Christianity, Jesus was ...

, mazurek was supposed to be the rich reward for adherence to faith and tradition. Although today, the religious meaning of mazurek is virtually lost in Poland, the cake is closely associated with the seasonal celebrations nevertheless. Usually, the decorative patterns includes Easter symbols like

hares Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores, and live solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The gen ...

, pussy willows and Easter greetings. News portal

Wirtualna Polska Wirtualna Polska (WP ) is a group of companies operating in the media and e-commerce sectors. The WP Group owns the Wirtualna Polska horizontal portal. It operates various specialized websites and e-commerce websites like AutoCentrum.pl S.A., ...

insisted that mazurek cannot resemble any other regular cake. It is supposed to be flat in multitude of varieties, each with different flavour and lavishly decorated. Twelve of them (served side by side, as claimed by the magazine), would not be entirely out of line traditionally. At Christmas, the emphasis on a symbolic number twelve is closely related to the

Twelve Apostles In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and minis ...

at the

Last Supper Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...

, celebrated by Catholics by twelve different food offerings.

Mazurek on the List of (Polish) traditional products

The nutty mazurek ("nutty Easter shortcake", pol. ''mazurek orzechowy'') was entered onto the list of Polish traditional bakery and confectionery products for the

Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, also known as Cuiavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship or simply Kujawsko-Pomorskie, or Kujawy-Pomerania Province ( pl, województwo kujawsko-pomorskie ) is one of the 16 voivodeships (provinces) into which Poland is divid ...

by the

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

(MRiRW) on 3 November 2011, described in a particular way. The

shortcrust Shortcrust pastry is a type of pastry often used for the base of a tart, quiche, pie, or (in the British English sense) flan. Shortcrust pastry can be used to make both sweet and savory pies such as apple pie, quiche, lemon meringue or chicken ...

(half-short) base is prepared from ground

walnuts A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true b ...

flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many c ...

, sugar,

margarine Margarine (, also , ) is a spread used for flavoring, baking, and cooking. It is most often used as a substitute for butter. Although originally made from animal fats, most margarine consumed today is made from vegetable oil. The spread was orig ...

, small number of eggs and a little bit of

sour cream Sour cream (in North American English, Australian English and New Zealand English) or soured cream (British English) is a dairy product obtained by fermenting regular cream with certain kinds of lactic acid bacteria. The bacterial culture, w ...

. The frosting is a walnut cream or, according to ''Polish Food'' magazine published by MRiRW, icing made of sugar, water and

milk powder Powdered milk, also called milk powder, dried milk, or dry milk, is a manufactured dairy product made by evaporating milk to dryness. One purpose of drying milk is to preserve it; milk powder has a far longer shelf life than liquid milk and do ...

melted together. The thick layer of icing is spread over baked cake and finally decorated with dried fruit (raisins), almonds and walnuts into a pattern. "Nutty mazurek" is supposed to be considerably flat, rectangular, by in size, very sweet with distinct aroma of walnuts, golden or golden-brown in colour.

Notes

References

External links

Cookbook: Mazurek Cake
recipe at

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* The Polish edition of ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

magazine'' offered a gallery of ideas about how to decorate mazurek with slivered almonds and sliced dates including chocolate-written greetings. {{Cakes Polish desserts Easter cakes Christmas food Marmalade Walnut dishes Polish pastries Easter traditions in Poland