The round cake for the Twelfth Night
They were, later, prepared with oats, wheat or rye, and sugared with honey.
Directly derived from Roman cakes dedicated to Janus, the role of those 'pancakes', eaten with pleasure at the beginning of January, was to make those who were eating them look backwards in the past year in order to make a review of it and to make forecasts.
The first charms were introduced into the cakes by the Latin peoples and were the symbol of the the forecast of a male baby in the family. Later, the Christian religion absorbed this believing by substituting it by Jesus child.
In the early times of the Middle Age, this pastry was transformed as a kind of a brioche and was prepared in different ways according to the regions : in Roussillon (south region of France, close to Spain), they were stuffed with candied fruit, in Nivernais (between Paris and Burgundy), they were stuffed with marzipan (almond base), in Jura (mountain on the French-Swiss boarder), they were stuffed with cottage cheese , etc...
The original (first) recipe of the pastry for this cake differs from the traditional flaky pastry by the addition of eggs and cream into the primary flour/water pastry (before the turning and rolling after incorporation of the butter).
Today, why not doing your own 'cake of the Twelfth Night' ? Use a home made flaky pastry (English translation is available on the AFTouch site) or purchase it already prepared.
Recipe of the Cake of the Twelfth Night
leave a message or a photo