[Sca-cooks] King Cakes/Twelfth Night Cakes

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 10:16 AM 3/8/03 -0800, you wrote:
>I've heard of traditional Twelfth Night cakes, where there is a bean
>or something baked into it and whoever gets the bean is king for the
>day, and I have been told that of course this goes way back
>in history, by the usual undocumented hearsay-type sources. Does
>anyone know of any actual period references to this custom?

Yes- and naturally it's in storage... AFAIK, it goes back at least to the
14th-15th c, and that was how the Boy Bishops were chosen, by getting the
bean in your cake. Usually St Nicholas' Day. My guess would be that Barbara
Hanawalt or Shulamith Shahar have info, as a start. Wish I had my books
handy :-(

'Lainie
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