Right here’s the way it’s eaten at our home:
After dinner, my household will get the cafecito prepared and calls everybody to the desk to slice the candy bread. Every member of the family slices their very own portion in flip, slicing slowly and methodically to see if they will get a peek at what’s inside. Everybody holds their breath because the particular person digs into the bread to see if the newborn figurine is there.
In the event you don’t get the newborn, you heave an enormous sigh of aid.
In the event you do get the newborn, the desk erupts as a result of it means you’re charged with internet hosting the household for a tamalada, or a feast of tamales, at your house. (In case you are a child and get the newborn, good luck to your dad and mom, as a result of the household will likely be coming to your own home all the identical.)
However the cake is greater than a candy vacation deal with. Every half symbolizes a part of the story of the Magi.
The bottom ring represents a crown. It’s an orange-flavored bread formed like an oval ring, though smaller muffins are generally spherical. The outside is crusty, however the inside is tender and spongy. It has a candy aroma of orange zest and cinnamon.
Subsequent are the jewels within the crown, or the toppings. Candied fruits, guava paste, cherries, figs and sugar prime the bread to make a colourful sample of pink, inexperienced and yellow. My favourite is the sugar paste, as a result of it jogs my memory of the topping on a concha, a Mexican candy bread roll. The toppings differ relying on the baker or bakery.
And at last, the figurine represents the newborn Jesus. Some muffins have just one child inside, however we regularly discover three or 4 within the cake at our desk — maybe so the burden of internet hosting may be shared.
I briefly thought-about making my very own cake this yr after not having the ability to discover one domestically. I scoured YouTube movies and naively determined that making one wouldn’t be an enormous enterprise. Fortunately, I met a Mexican girl from the identical area as my dad and mom, and he or she really helpful a bakery that produces an genuine rosca de reyes — identical to I keep in mind it.
Cake will not be the one Día de Reyes Magos custom. In some locations, resembling Spain, Mexico and all through a lot of Latin America, the three kings take the place of Santa. Youngsters depart their footwear out the night time of Jan. 5 and anxiously await the arrival of the kings — Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar — who introduced particular items to child Jesus.
Many households rejoice otherwise, although. Some play lotería, or Mexican bingo, after sharing the bread; some make champurrado, a Mexican chocolate-based scorching beverage; and a few don’t change items in any respect. My childhood celebrations included items some years, however my reminiscences at all times revolve across the cake.
After the rosca de reyes was sliced, we’d sit across the desk and tease the possible host, usually throwing out wild menu options. However the perfect half was waking up the next morning to take pleasure in one more slice for breakfast with my dad, who loves candy bread greater than something.
In lots of households, the cake marks the tip of the vacation season. My dad at all times retains all of our Christmas decorations up till the day after Día de Reyes Magos. For us, rosca de reyes means one final slice of Christmas magic.
