Has Easter Celebration Changed? Ukrainians Choose Easter Cakes with New Flavors and Decorations

Recall your last trip to the store. You probably noticed shelves lined with Easter cakes topped with white icing. However, each year, more people are choosing new options, such as Raffaello or Dubai-style cakes. Why are Ukrainians leaning towards festive luxury?

Easter in Ukraine is increasingly distancing itself from traditional family celebrations, where tables were laden with a variety of dishes, including sausages, homemade baked meats, broth, mashed potatoes, stews, aspic, and countless types of cookies, cakes, dyed eggs, and salads in bowls.

In the past, prior to Easter, it was customary to slaughter a pig to prepare lavish dishes 'in abundance.' But as most Ukrainians now live in cities and do not have their own farms, the festive table is becoming smaller, although it remains luxurious. Modern hosts strive to showcase their family's wealth through their Easter cakes. While grandmothers used to boast about the height, fluffiness, and color of their cakes, today, the youth share their confectionery masterpieces on social media. Rivers of cream, ornate decorations soaring half a meter high, packaging that screams that inside is not just a cake, but a neo-classical delight.

According to a study by Poster, during the Easter week of 2025, Ukrainian establishments sold 456,000 Easter cakes totaling 65 million hryvnias, with the classic version being the most popular among buyers. The second place went to cheese pastries, while experimental flavors such as Dubai, Snickers, and sushi cakes served more as loud novelties than new norms.

But has there been a substitution of concepts as Ukrainians began to prepare and purchase cakes with fillings? Let's try to figure it out.

It is worth noting that Easter is not the only holiday that is now celebrated unconventionally. Religion and the church have ceased to have a significant influence on society, and important dates for Christians, such as Christmas, Epiphany, Transfiguration, and Easter, are no longer the only times for rest and contemplation of the sacred. This phenomenon is not unique to Ukraine. Religious identity is declining in many countries. From 2010 to 2020, the share of the population belonging to any religion decreased by at least 5 percentage points in 35 countries, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center. Therefore, adherence to religious traditions, such as baking sacred bread, has also changed its meaning. The Easter cake has ceased to be a spiritual element and has taken on the significance of a dessert.

Olena Braichenko, a candidate of historical sciences and founder of the project Food Culture, spoke about the appearance of Easter cakes in the past: 'In the past, no less than 7-12 cakes were baked, or even more, as the oven was large. The cake resembled more of a round-oval loaf or bread baked from white wheat flour, rather than what we are accustomed to buying today.' She also added that back then, this bread was simpler, not always sweet, but its luxury lay in the fact that the flour was white: more expensive and rare, intended for special occasions.

Easter babkas, which were also popular, served a different function. Raisins, saffron, and ginger were added to the dough, and they were not always sweet but contained a large number of eggs, fat, and various spices such as cloves, cinnamon, and ginger. With the decline of home baking practices, the Easter cake increasingly came to be understood as a sweet, fluffy bread.

Various additions to the cake, such as spices and dried fruits, were considered true luxury. A family's wealth could be determined by the presence of saffron, the most expensive spice in the world, in their cake. Families of clergy and officials made special orders for the delivery of spices for use in their cakes. This was a kind of status indicator among friends, guests, and other social strata. A beautiful cake adorned with precious spices in the 18th century was not accessible to every family. The wealthy Cossacks added nutmeg, saffron for color and aroma, cinnamon, ginger, and later, in the 19th century, cloves to their cakes.

At the same time, Mykola Markevych, in his work from 1860, described a cake recipe: white flour, milk, yeast, honey (the elite added sugar), many eggs (up to 50 yolks), and a large amount of butter. However, this recipe does not include an important element of the cake that is considered traditional today—raisins. Ukrainians seem to be divided into two types: those who love and eat them, or those who cannot stand them. Raisins were also added to babkas and later to cakes. Archival materials from the 18th century mention that, for example, raisins and spices were ordered specifically for Easter baking at the Sophia Monastery. They were not a mandatory element but were also quite common ingredients that added sweetness to the dough.

Decorated cakes were a source of pride for hosts—with birds, braids, flowers, and patterns. On a wide cake, any scenes could be depicted using dough. Doesn't this remind us of modern 'cakes'? Nests of eggs, chocolate bunnies, little houses, flowers made of marshmallows or jelly, cookie decorations... Perhaps the Ukrainian Easter cake has remained the same, just created with different means?

Once, abundance meant 50 yolks and expensive white flour, and now it means pistachio cream, ganache, passion fruit, designer decor, and a limited set from a trendy brand. In 2026, establishments in Kyiv will offer flower cakes.