Epiphany cake
The Epiphany Cake or King Cake (English King Cake or King's Cake , French Galette des Rois , Spanish Roscón de Reyes , Portuguese Bolo Rei ) is a traditional festive pastry that January 6, the day of the Epiphany (Epiphany), the feast day of three wise men is baked. With his help, the bean king is drawn.
history
In 1561, the book by Johannes Böhm “Mores leges et ritus omnium gentium” gives the first literary mention of the custom of baking a bean or coin in a king cake ( honey cake ). Martin Lienhart's Alsatian dictionary reports from 1572 “the bones are still being found in the king's kitchen on the holy three kings day”, and from 1625: “uff den hl. Epiphany maintain them king cakes to bake and in a iedwedern cake puts a bean , and who dan sameness bekompt who held wirdt for the king. "
The custom is said to have been widespread even before the Reformation. In a Düsseldorf monastery, the bean is said to have been replaced by a cake penny from 1607. Jacob Grimm connects the king cake with the Ascension Day in his dictionary .
Regional differences
The recipes vary widely from region to region, but what all three king cakes have in common is that a dried bean, almond, coin or other small object, nowadays often a small figure in the shape of a king or a baby, is baked in. If you come across this lucky charm while eating, you are king for one day . Different variations of the cake are widespread today, especially in Switzerland, France, England and Spain, Mexico and New Orleans and are increasingly being offered by bakeries in Germany.
In Germany
According to the guiding principles for fine baked goods , the king cake is made from sand mass with candied fruit. The old German king cake is made from a particularly heavy mass of sand, while the Rhenish type king cake is also baked in puff pastry.
In Switzerland
In Switzerland, the Twelfth cake is of sweet yeast dough made of molded into balls, placed flower shape and with flaked almonds and pearl sugar is scattered. Most Swiss don't bake their Epiphany cake themselves, but buy it with a golden paper crown to put on in the supermarket or at the bakery. A small plastic king is baked into this industrially manufactured three kings cake.
The almost forgotten custom of the bean king was revived in Switzerland in the 1950s by bread researcher Max Währen and created and implemented at the Richemont Technical School . The Bern insurance officer Max Wehren (1919–2008) received an honorary doctorate from ETH Zurich in 1979 for research into bread and pastry studies in his spare time .
The three- king cake that goes with it is now widely available nationwide and is very popular: Jowa AG alone, the bakery of the major distributor Migros , produced more than 500,000 three-king cakes in 2000, and around 250,000 cakes were produced at the Swiss food cooperative Coop. The Pistor as a supplier for the commercial bakeries in Switzerland, which among other things also supplies the king plastic figurines, gives the production volume for the bakeries with "several hundred thousand". The sales figures of the king figurines also indicate the enormous success and widespread use: in 2004, around half a million plastic kings were delivered to commercial bakeries, with Migros and Coop having separate figurine suppliers. A total of around 1.5 million Epiphany cakes are currently likely to be sold in Switzerland each year. Mathematically, this would mean a cake for every household, although the trend is still clearly increasing. Hardly any other custom is as widespread in Switzerland.
Offer in the department store
King in the cake
Three king figure, 3 cm tall
In Greece
In Greece, a coin is baked into the three- king cake called Vasilopita (literally: king's bread), which is traditionally consumed on January 1st.
In France
There are two types of cake in France . In northern France, the Galette des Rois is traditionally made from puff pastry, often with a marzipan filling. In the south there is the Couronne or the Gâteau des Rois, similar to the Catalan tortell, which is made from brioche dough and filled or decorated with candied fruit. A porcelain figure is hidden in each cake.
- Making the Galette des Rois
- Gâteau des Rois
In Portugal
In Portugal (and in Brazil ) the Epiphany cake is known as Bolo-Rei . It is made from yeast dough like brioche and decorated with candied fruit. The Bolo Rei came to Portugal via France in the 19th century; it is usually shaped like a crown (round with an opening in the middle).
In Spain
The Roscón de Reyes ("King's Wreath") is a traditional wreath cake made from yeast dough , which is baked in Spain from Christmas for the feast of the Three Kings on January 6th. It is available without a filling, with whipped cream, truffle filling, pudding cream or cabello de ángel .
Hidden in each is a porcelain figurine and a dry bean , which must not be consumed under any circumstances. Tradition has it that whoever finds the bean in his piece of cake has to pay for the cake for all guests. On the other hand, whoever is lucky enough to find the small porcelain figure will be crowned “king” by everyone. The wreath cake is decorated with candied fruits such as orange slices, red and green cherries and the like. Ä.
In Catalonia the same customs and a very similar cake are known as Tortell de Reis ("king cake"). It is filled with marzipan , cabello de ángel or whipped cream, among other things .
In Mexico
The tradition of the Rosca de Reyes ("royal wreath") was introduced to Mexico in the 16th century by Spain. The cake is made from yeast dough and usually without filling, only for the feast of the Three Kings on January 6th. The wreath cake is decorated with candied desert fruits such as dates , figs , etc. Ä.
Hidden in it are several porcelain or ceramic figurines of your choice. The tradition says that whoever finds a porcelain child has to make a successor to the festival and also bake tamales for all guests. The festival is then celebrated on February 2nd, the Fiesta de la Candelaria (Candlemas).
Louisiana
The King Cake tradition in Louisiana, and in New Orleans in particular, was founded by French immigrants and dates back to the 19th century. These immigrants brought both the northern French galette des rois made from puff pastry with marzipan filling (now known as the French King Cake ) and the southern French variant of the brightly decorated yeast dough ring (now known as the King Cake ) to New Orleans, where both versions still exist today. Both varieties have in common that a small plastic baby figure, which symbolizes the newborn Christ child, is hidden in the cake (nuts, beans, peas or coins were used in the past). The finder is the king or queen of the day and has to host the next king cake party.
The ring-shaped king cake, made from brioche dough or Danish pastry dough, is baked in the Mardi Gras season or Carneval season , which in New Orleans lasts from Epiphany (January 6) to Shrove Tuesday, and on king cake Parties consumed. The cakes are decorated with icing and colorful sugar sprinkles in the traditional colors of Mardi Gras, green, purple and gold. The colors stand for justice, loyalty and power and are reminiscent of the jewels in the crowns of the wise kings who visited the baby Jesus. The cakes used to be baked at home, but since the 1950s they have been part of the range of bakeries and supermarkets and are sold in large numbers. The King Cake, which used to be mostly unfilled or only seasoned with cinnamon, has existed in many variants with different fillings, such as Cream Cheese and Apple , Triple Chocolate or Vodka, and is exported from New Orleans to many other states in the USA and beyond since the 1980s . At the end of the 1980s, the specialty aroused increasing interest from journalists who reported on the King Cake in national newspapers, which led to further growth in demand.
The variant made from puff pastry is a little rarer and is mostly produced and offered by French bakeries .
King Cakes in traditional Mardi Gras colors
French King Cake in New Orleans
literature
- Dominik Fugger: The Kingdom on Epiphany. A historical-empirical ritual study. Paderborn 2007.
- Konrad J. Kuhn: Dreikönigskuchen: A custom of the present between ritual function, archaization and commerce. In: Swiss Archives for Folklore, 105. Reinhardt, Basel 2009, pp. 109–126. Postprint available at http://www.zora.uzh.ch
Web links
- Newspaper article queens and kings made of plastic. Epiphany cake as a sales hit in the baker's year. In: NZZ , January 6, 2000 (PDF; 12 kB)
- Eliza Barclay: Is That a Plastic Baby Jesus in My Cake. National Public Radio blog post, February 17, 2012
Individual evidence
- ↑ John Carter Brown Library: Mores, leges, et rite omnium gentium . Lugduni,: apud Ioan. Tornæsium, & Guliel. Gazeium., 1561, pp. 266 ( archive.org [accessed January 21, 2018]).
- ^ Journal of the Society for Folklore . Berlin, Association for Folklore, 1891, p. 271 ( archive.org [accessed February 14, 2018]).
- ^ Dictionary network - Dictionary of Alsatian dialects. Competence center for electronic cataloging and publication processes in the humanities - University of Trier, accessed on February 14, 2018 .
- ↑ Otto “von” Reinsberg-Düringsfeld: The festive year. In manners, customs and festivals of the Germanic peoples . Spamer, 1863, p. 21 ( google.de [accessed on January 21, 2018]).
- ^ Robarts - University of Toronto: Journal of Folklore . Stuttgart, S. 270 ( archive.org [accessed January 21, 2018]).
- ↑ Jacob Grimm: German Dictionary: A - Biermolke. 1 . Hirzel, 1854, p. 643 ( google.de [accessed on January 21, 2018]).
- ↑ Claus Schünemann: Learning fields of the bakery - production: practical theory textbook for professional training as a baker . Gildebuchverlag GmbH, 2005, ISBN 978-3-7734-0165-6 , p. 415 ( google.de [accessed on January 21, 2018]).
- ↑ Delicatessen Switzerland. Retrieved December 5, 2018 .
- ↑ Origin of a custom. Retrieved December 5, 2018 .
- ↑ The Dreikönigskuchen and its unknown creator In: Der Bund from January 6, 2015
- ↑ Konrad J. Kuhn: Dreikönigskuchen: A custom of the present between ritual function, archaization and commerce. In: Swiss Archives for Folklore, 105. Reinhardt, Basel 2009, pp. 109–126. Postprint available at http://www.zora.uzh.ch
- ↑ Max Wehren and Karl Keller: Der Bohnenkönig , SR DRS 1957 (radio play archive SRF)
- ^ The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets . Oxford University Press, 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-931361-7 , pp. 552 ( google.de [accessed on August 15, 2019]).
- ↑ Roscón de Reyes - Three Kings Tradition in Spain (Accessed: January 6, 2014)
- ↑ a b c http://www.nola.com/mardigras/index.ssf/2012/02/history.html accessed June 9, 2014
- ↑ a b http://www.neworleansshowcase.com/hisofkincak.html#.U5WDXChMETB June 9, 2014
- ↑ a b https://www.kingcakes.com/lagniappe.php accessed on June 9, 2014
- ↑ a b Susan Tucker: King Cakes . In: The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Vol 7: "Foodways". Chapel Hill, 2007, p. 190
- ↑ http://www.npr.org/2011/03/04/134272508/new-orleans-haus-bringing-louisiana-food-culture-to-berlin accessed on June 9, 2014