Lark-Shaped Buns

In old Russia larks were seen as the harbingers of spring, and sweet buns (zhavoronki) were baked in their image to welcome the new planting season and the prosperity people hoped it would bring. In Ivan Goncharov’s novel Oblomov, the hero Oblomov has a famous dream in which scenes of his childhood are replayed. He recalls the flurry of springtime activity as the lark buns are baked in the kitchen. Each year his mother supervised their preparation, asserting she’d have to renounce spring en