[Sca-cooks] King Cakes/Twelfth Night Cakes

[johnna holloway]

The best source to look at for this is Bridget Henisch's
Cakes and Characters which Prospect Books published back
in 1984.

She goes into the full history of the bean cake tradition.
I'd summarize it but it's long and involved and the knee is
just killing me tonight. Robert Herrick mentions it in his
poetry in the 17th century and there's a recipe from 1620. She
mentions that they were sold on the streets in Paris and
that was a street cry for the "Gastel a feve orrioz". I'm not going
to try to get the accent marks placed in proper location there.
She gives it as as the "cake with the king's bean." This would
be very late 13th century for a twelfth cake.

Johnnae llyn Lewis   Johnna Holloway

david friedman 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?
> > Elizabeth/Betty Cook