It’s not Holiday Season in the Book Blogging World until the Advent Tour starts! Last year I sang an ode of cod and I’ll continue to stick to food, if that’s ok with you.
I’m sharing the day with Amy, Angel, Charlotte and Chris, so hop on over to their side of the blogosphere once you’re done here.
Let me introduce you to another compulsory part of every Christmas side-table in Portugal: the Bolo Rei (King Cake). We eat it throughout the holiday season, until about Kings Day (6 January).
It’s doughnut-shaped, and full of dried fruit, inside and out. It symbolizes the crowns of the Three Wise Men: full of jewels! Apart from the fruit, there are two surprises inside: the feared fava bean and the “brinde” or gift. If you get the slice with the bean you must buy next year’s Bolo Rei, but the gift means good luck, although today they’re all but extinct.
When I was a kid, the gifts were tiny metal figurines that I religiously collected. Back then they were only wrapped in a piece of paper before being inserted in the cake dough, but now the world is a much more dangerous place.
Over the years food safety regulations increased to a point where some bakeries started giving the gift separately, so that you could put it in the cake at your own risk. Now gifts are completely outlawed.
*sigh*
Anywhoo, in my innocence I thought there was nothing more originally Portuguese than Bolo Rei, so you can imagine my surprise when my boyfriend, hearing of my plans for this post, tells me that it’s actually a French tradition. A bit of Googling confirms: it was probably invented during the reign of King Louis XIV, but was banned during the French Revolution, only to be back under a more revolution-appropriate name – gâteau des san-cullottes (cake of those without knee-breeches), the name for the radical militants of the lower classes.
The recipe was only brought to Portugal from Paris at the end of the 19th century.
So yes, the origin might be French, but surely we now took over as its symbolic owners, especially when so many cities across the country bake huge Bolo Rei for the whole community, and after the Guinness Book of Records awarded Matosinhos with the prize for biggest Bolo Rei in the world (2.500 Kg, 17 meters, thank you very much).
Recently there have been variations on the Bolo Rei (apricot, chocolate), but I’m a purist. Just because they’re shaped like a Bolo Rei, sold during the time of Bolo Rei and called Bolo Rei, it doesn’t make them a Bolo Rei!
Happy Holidays everyone!
24 comments
Comments feed for this article
December 3, 2011 at 10:02 am
Liburuak
They have something really similar in Spain (and, Wikipedia tells me, Spanish America) too, so it seems that it passed through there before it ended up in Portugal. It’s called “roscón de reyes” or “rosca de reyes”, meaning “kings’ ring”. Interestingly the Spanish Wikipedia site claims that its origins go back to the Romans and apparently the first testimony referring to such a roscón appears in Navarra in 1361. It’s a mystery, this roscón.
December 3, 2011 at 10:59 am
Marg
Thanks so much for participating in the tour and sharing about Bolo Rei. It just looks so pretty doesn’t it!
December 3, 2011 at 11:29 am
nymeth
The “brinde”! I collected those as well. It’s sad that they’ve disappeared, though now that I think about it, it IS kind of a wonder that no one ever chocked on one and died 😛
December 3, 2011 at 11:52 am
Joanna
I’m not a big fan of dried fruit in cakes but this sure looks pretty!
December 3, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Charlotte
That looks delicious! Such a pity that gifts are outlawed, though!
December 3, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Leeswammes
Thanks, interesting to read about. A pity about the gifts. In the old days, there were pennies (just one) in the English Christmas pudding – not sure if they do that now, not the shops, at least.
December 3, 2011 at 3:44 pm
amymckie
Wow, this sounds super tasty and exciting. Also, I’ve always loved that the Day of Kings is my bday. lol
December 3, 2011 at 3:47 pm
Cat
It is a pity about the gifts, oh well. You can’t count on people actually being smart about what they are eating these days. 😉 This sounds like a cool tradition and a much tastier looking fruit cake. Thanks for sharing!
December 3, 2011 at 4:28 pm
sprite
In the southern part of the United States, people make King Cakes between Christmas and Ash Wednesday, but they use wild food coloring instead of dried fruit to decorate their desserts. They only have one item in the cake (and I think many bakeries give it to you for insertion) and it’s the baby Jesus — and finding it designates you as the next person to have to have a party (featuring another cake, of course).
December 3, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Kailana
This looks enjoyable! Thanks for joining in for the tour again this year!
December 3, 2011 at 8:11 pm
Pepca
Looks delicious! We have a similar tradition of making raisin cake bread for the time between Christmas and Three Wise Men.
December 3, 2011 at 8:17 pm
Rikki
They look very yummy! What a pity that they abolished the gifts for good now. It’s a shame that they try to think for everybody nowadays instead of letting people take some rensposibility!
And what a disappointment to find thay the national tradition is a French one! Still, it is a good one and I am sure the Portuguese have made it their own.
December 3, 2011 at 9:38 pm
Tiina
That looks delicious! Thanks for sharing! Here in Finland we put an almond in the Christmas rice porridge. The one who gets the almond, gets to make a wish.
December 4, 2011 at 6:06 am
betty
This sounds delicious! I never heard of it, so thanks for sharing this special part of your Christmas celebration!
May you enjoy the rest of the season as you prepare for Christmas day!
betty
December 4, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Cam (epiBloguer)
Wow, I’ve never heard of this tradition! Sounds fun. Too bad they banned the little trinket you can hide inside it. =)
December 4, 2011 at 7:36 pm
booksnyc
What a great tradition – and the cake looks so festive! It’s funny how liability conscious we have all become and the impact it has on our traditions and holidays – Halloween, Christmas ,etc.
Thanks for sharing this tradition!
December 5, 2011 at 3:19 am
Court
Mmmm, sounds delicious!! Thanks for sharing this tradition with us!
December 5, 2011 at 1:05 pm
Portugal property for sale
Looks much better than old Christmas pud I never did enjoy chomping on an old “did’nt know where’s it been” 20p coin. I think this should be the new pudding at Xmas
December 5, 2011 at 8:18 pm
carol
It’s actually rather interesting how traditions migrate from one place to another. Thanks for sharing.
December 6, 2011 at 8:01 pm
faith hope & cherrytea
what a gorgeous cake! thanks for sharing all the info…
December 6, 2011 at 8:29 pm
Tami
Fascinating and fun tradition – no matter what it’s country of origination. It’s sad that the world has moved to a place that such things are discontinued. Thanks for sharing and Merry Christmas.
December 8, 2011 at 10:12 am
Alex
@y’all: thanks for dropping by everyone! Hope to meet you on your own blogs during the Advent Tour’s other dates.
Happy Holidays!
December 12, 2011 at 12:32 am
Fran Coleman (@BooksAndBey0nd)
How fabulous! I had this a few years ago when my new landlord & his family presented us with one at Christmas to “seal the deal” of our friendship when he bought the home we are living in now.
Now 7 years later our families are best friends. Him and his family were our gifts that Christmas in 2005.
They are from Portugal, an island.. Madeira Island (I think I spelled it wrong)
Thank you for sharing this with us 🙂
<a href="Advent Tour Day 11
January 6, 2016 at 7:18 pm
Christmas in Portugal: Bolo Rei | Eating The World
[…] a fava bean, but in more modern times, a charm), a practice which has now actually been outlawed […]