This simple recipe for a light and golden, orange-flavoured, plaited Easter bread comes from a 1961 edition of Home Baked: A Little Book of Bread Recipes by George and Cecilia Scurfield. Published in Britain, the book was aimed at the novice bread baker and the authors included a chapter called ‘Coffee Breads from Abroad’. Most European countries have recipes for traditional breads eaten on festive occasions – usually made from ordinary bread dough enriched with butter or oil and eggs and flavoured with dried fruit and spices. I have made many of them over the years, but this modest recipe has become a favourite. It probably can’t claim to be authentically Russian, but it is pretty, delicious and completely reliable.