Do you know that today I called the best bakeries in my area and none of them sells a traditional Twelfth Night cake? With the resurgence of interest in old religious celebrations, I’m rather surprised. I want to serve a Twelfth Night cake to family members and neighbors this Friday to honor the end of the twelve days of Christmas, the season of the Ephinany. So I guess I’m going to have to bake one myself.

The sixth of January marks the day the wise men arrived to meet the baby Jesus. It’s a great time to wave cake-filled forks in the air, since everyone is staving off the depression that can descend when the Christmas tree comes down and the season of warmth and love appears to be over.

But it’s not! There’s more to celebrate! It’s my feeling that if bakers knew of the opportunity here, they’d be selling Twelfth Night cakes right and left. But since the cake historically is baked with one dry bean imbedded within it (or a porcelain figure of Baby Jesus), perhaps these bakeries fear lawsuits from customers who’ve choked. Party guests who find the imbedded hard nugget in their slice of cake become the queen or the king of the festivities and can order other guests around however they like. My friend Cristy West, a storyteller and folklorist, used to throw Twelfth Night parties–I was lucky enough to get the bean one year.

I found some good Twelfth Night resources online ranging from this excellent and authentic Twelfth Night cake recipe
(you have to scroll down) to material about how George and Martha Washington were faithful preservers of this Anglican tradition (not much beloved by America’s early Quakers). Here’s a sweet picture of what the French call the feve, or porcelain figurine, that can get baked inside the confection. And here’s a general history of the whole affair in more religious terms.

Do not despair, the season of blessings and revels continues! It’s next week I’m worried about.