‘La Mona de Pasqua’: Catalan bakeries let their creativity flow

The ‘Mona de Pasqua,’ the traditional Easter cake, is a sponge cake topped with a chocolate figurine, very commonly given in Catalonia during the Catholic festivity. Bakeries across the territory plan their designs long in advance to come up with the most appealing designs and styles. 

The cakes are made with chocolate, almonds, flour, and eggs, but some bakers differentiate between the sponge cake and the chocolate structures that they design well in advance. 

Listen to our podcast about religion and the 'Mona de Pasqua'.

One of these bakeries that prepares their products months prior to Easter is Pastisseria Canal located on Barcelona’s Carrer Muntaner, one of the longest streets in the Catalan capital. 

"For us, the ‘Mona de Pasqua’ is one of the coolest times, as it allows us to be more creative, the bakery looks nice, and kids stare at our shop window. It’s one of the nicest days bakers have," Lluís Estrada Canal told Catalan News. He is the second generation of his family that is running the bakery for more than 50 years now.

Right now, people can identify the ‘Mona de Pasqua’ as two different options, either a sponge cake with almonds and peach jam or the one made with chocolate figurines. 

The traditional cake "has been modernized, as we also do the sponge cake, also called an Easter cake. In Catalonia, for several years now we’ve been making chocolate figurines. The rest of Europe has Chocolate Easter eggs, but in Catalonia, we have the figurine and we are very proud of it," Estrada Canal explained. 

The most important thing about chocolate Easter cakes is their design. The different models will appeal to customers to buy one instead of the other and creativity with the ‘Mona de Pasqua’ is the chance for bakeries to stand out. However, traditional figurines remain, such as eggs, rabbits, and chickens. 

The decision-making process starts months in advance. 

"Once the Christmas season is over, we start thinking about Easter and we check the new trends, what will we do this year, what do we think kids will like, and how the Barça players are doing to see which one to pick," Lluís Estrada Canal said.

Picking the best Barça player at the time is important, as football fans will be looking for those figurines, but also for other more cinematic ones. However, bakeries start moving away from traditional requests to create their own Easter cakes. 

"What we are most proud of is getting away from traditional requests such as Disney characters or the latest movie," Estrada Canal explained. "We try to get away from that and that’s why I am proud. We do our own pieces and they sell well," he added. 

Before Easter, the Barcelona Pastry Guild was optimistic for the sale of Easter cakes, expecting figures to reach pre-pandemic levels across Catalonia. This year, with no restrictions on family reunions, they have also recovered the average size of the cakes, which were made smaller in past years due to the expectation that fewer people would be meeting up. Now, the normal size, suitable for ten people, will be brought back. 

Every year, a variety of different topical themes take center stage. This year, Alexia Putellas’ Ballon d’Or is one of the most popular new cakes available in bakeries. 

The Barça Femení star’s success has proved massively popular in the Easter cakes as well as in the stands of the Camp Nou, so much so that according to Elies Miró from the Barcelona Pastry Guild, she has managed to dethrone an annual classic, that of Lionel Messi, who is no longer with FC Barcelona. "We are happy because we have changed to another Barça legend and she is a woman," Miró said.

Other popular themes include superhero characters such as Spiderman, fictional characters such as Harry Potter and the Star Wars saga, and Internet phenomena such as Baby Shark and the video game Fortnite, among others. 

Creativity is important for bakeries but also planning, as "sponge cake lasts for one day" and people have to bake it the day before on request, while at Pastisseria Canal they "start preparing chocolate eggs in February, and there is a moment your warehouse is full and you are waiting for everything to be sold," the baker at Canal said. 

In fact, at the bakery visited by Catalan News, the company had shown their chocolate figurines for weeks in their shop windows "so people could reserve them" as they always make about up to 20 different designs.  

One of these unique styles was a big chocolate monkey that sold out in the first week. As it was a big monkey, the bakery “did not make a lot of them because it was huge," Lluís proudly said remembering the design. 

If the figurines are not sold, at Canal, they "normally melt them" but before Easter, godparents buy chocolate as a present, while the sponge cake is mainly eaten on Easter Monday. Therefore, Lluís Estrada Canal hopes they will not need to melt any figurine.