Winter’s End Begins With Cake

For centuries mid-winter woes would inspire the human spirit to create celebrations to mark the transitional time in nature and life from the dark winter into the light of spring, optimistically celebrating (and sacrificing for) the oncoming longer, warm days and gift of abundance. This historic day and this blurb both end with an ancient cake full of tradition and surprise!

The Romans had Saturnalia & Compitalia , the Picts had The Clavie, the Norse had Yuletide , the French had Feast of Fools , the early Britons had what the Anglos later named and christianized Twelfth Night, the Church evolved bits of all of it into Feast of the Epiphany. on January 6th, and still in modern times, world wide many different cultures start their carnival season on this day.

These end of the winter celebrations were a way for communities to come together worship in their own ways on long dark nights. Feasting and drinking, sometimes swapping roles from servant to master, some times crowning a false king for the night but most always with selecting a “sacrifice”  to ensure a fruitful and blessed year to come. Pre-christians would have sacrificed a farm animal or even their neighbor masquerading as the King-for-a-day. With the establishment of Christianity came a drastic transformation of these seasonal celebrations. The christian calendar marks January 6th as Epiphany, world wide and has for centuries. In order for the medieval church to get villagers on board with this christianity “thing”, often times they would incorporate elements of the old local pagan traditions into the new christian holidays. Such as modern day Carnival.  

Epiphany, January 6, is the official end of the Christmas season, but it also kicks off Carnival season in New Orleans, and around the world. Although some people use Carnival and Mardi Gras interchangeably, they are actually different things. Carnival is a time to eat, drink and be merry before the rigorous fasting and sacrifice during Lent. It is filled with parades, balls and other celebrations leading up to Mardi Gras, which is French for “Fat Tuesday.” Mardi Gras is always the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. Carnival officially ends at midnight on Fat Tuesday and Lent begins. (History & Tradition, Mardigrasneworleans.com)

Modern Carnival traditions reflect many of those old pre-christian winter celebrations: gathering at mid winter, hiding your true self behind masks and costumes, unbridled feasting and drinking, mischievous behavior, and all culminating with a sacrifice… Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent, eventually arriving at Easter and spring. 

CELEBRATING WITH THE KING CAKE

The delicious tradition of King Cake at Carnival time has roots to going back to even early Greek and Roman midwinter feasting traditions but is most commonly associated with the early medieval King of The Bean and Twelfth Night Cake. Historically on this night a special cake was made for the community to share. Often elaborately decorated but baked with a hidden bean or pea inside. The person finding the bean became “King of the Bean” or “Lord of Misrule,” organizing games, songs, and feasts. In earlier pre-christian times this King of the Bean would have any thing he wanted for this night from your jug of wine, to your favorite pig, to even a little revelry with your wife! But alas when the morning came that lucky slice of cake with his privilege to be Lord of Misrule for the night came with a price. Often he was scarified at dawn to ensure abundance and good health for crops and community in the spring. January 6th is also the first official day you can eat King Cake and the first official day of Carnival/Mardi Gras season in New Orleans. And many carnival celebrations around the world have their own ‘king cakes’ handed down historically; The Portuguese have Bolo-rei , the French have galette des rois, and the Spanish have roscón de reyes.

The traditional New Orleans Carnival King Cake are oval-shaped sweet bread (similar to a cinnamon roll dough) decorated with purple, green and gold sugar icing representing justice, faith and power and inside it hides a small plastic baby symbolizing the baby Jesus, with the lucky finder becoming “king for the day” and also responsible of brining the next cake to the party!

MY KING CAKE RECIPE

On January 6th, in the deep south of America (Louisiana and New Orleans way) you’ll find friends and family gathered around that first King Cake of the carnival season, hoping to grab the slice hiding the plastic baby and to be crowned King or Queen of the night, obligating them to throw the next party of this season of revelry leading up to Mardi Gras most special day, Fat Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday) and the beginning of Lent.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup lukewarm milk
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons dry yeast
• 3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup melted butter
• 5 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh lemon zest
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• Several gratings of fresh nutmeg

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• ¼ cup condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• Purple, green and gold sugar crystals
• 1 dry bean (a big fave bean is best) or plastic baby to hide in the cake after baking

Cake Directions:

1. For the cake, pour the warm milk into a large bowl.
2. Whisk in the granulated sugar, yeast and a heaping tablespoon of the flour, mixing until both the sugar and the yeast have dissolved.
3. Once bubbles have developed on the surface of the milk and it begins to foam, whisk in the butter, eggs, vanilla and lemon zest.
4. Add the remaining flour, cinnamon and nutmeg, and fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients with a large rubber spatula.
5. After the dough comes together, pulling away from the sides of the bowl, shape it into a large ball.
6. Knead the dough on a floured surface until it is smooth and elastic, about 15 minutes.
7. Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a draft-free place to let it proof, or rise, for 1 1/2 hours or until the dough has doubled in volume.
8. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
9. Once the dough has risen, punch it down and divide the dough into three equal pieces. Roll each piece of dough between your palms into a long strip, making three ropes of equal length. Braid the ropes around one another and form the braided loaf into a circle, pinching ends together to seal.
10. Gently lay the dough on a nonstick cookie sheet and let it rise until it doubles in size, about 30 minutes.
11. Once it’s doubled in size, place the cookie sheet in the oven and bake until the braid is golden-brown, about 30 minutes.
12. Remove the cake from the oven, place on a wire rack, and allow to cool for 30 minutes.

Icing Directions:

1. While the cake is cooling, whisk together the powdered sugar, condensed milk and lemon juice in a bowl until the icing is smooth and spreadable. If the icing is too thick, add a bit more condensed milk; if it’s too loose, add a little more powdered sugar.
2. Once the cake has cooled, uck the bean or plastic baby into the underside of the cake and, using a spatula, slide the cake onto a platter.
3. Ice the top of the cake and sprinkle with purple, green and gold sugar crystals while the icing is still wet.

** January 6th Epiphany marks a day of celebration when the wise men arrived to the manager where Jesus was. To only then a few weeks later mark their form of  ‘sacrifice’ with Lent, the next christian calendar event a few weeks later when they give up something they enjoy for the weeks leading up to Easter. 

And today across the deep south of America (Louisiana & New Orleans way) you’ll find friends and family around that first King Cake of the season hoping to grab the slice hiding the plastic baby (or bean) and be crowned King or Queen of the night. No more worry about being sacrificed for good spring crops, just an obligation to throw the next party with a King Cake!

** Some scholars have proposed that the Nordic Yule was celebrated on the full moon of the lunar month following the winter solstice, Jan 4th this year.