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Twelfth cake

58

From the mid-18th century to the end of the 19th century, Twelfth cakes were very popular, but they had been

mentioned in poems and other literature more than a century earlier. The cake was traditionally baked on the 5th of

January for Twelfth Night, or the eve of the feast of Epiphany, which – as the name suggests – falls on the twelfth night

of Christmas.

The cake was decadently decorated with elaborate scenes of feasting, with little people and filigree made of a white

glaze, which was shaped in intricately carved wooden molds. Crowns seem to have been the most popular decoration

and are rarely missing from illustrations of the cake. In the British Museum, you can find pictures of gigantic Twelfth

cakes that had to be carried by several footmen. In the Illustrated London News of January 1849, an engraving of

Queen Victoria’s Twelfth cake appeared. It was an immense cake with an entire company on it, with a violin player and

sugar trees.

In Victorian London, people gathered around the Twelfth cake for games. Special playing cards were developed

with different characters, and everyone had to behave like the character on his or her playing card for the rest of the

evening. In his 1648 work, the poet Robert Herrick explained that a bean and a pea were hidden in the Twelfth cake,

and those who found them in their piece of cake were crowned to play king or queen.

Towards the end of the 19th century, Twelfth cakes finally merged with the Christmas cake. Nowadays, Twelfth cake

is not commercially made, and few people remember it.

This recipe is based on the first published recipe for Twelfth cake from John Mollard in 1802. The authentic recipe

traditionally makes a very large cake with more than 3 kg (about 7 lb) of flour and 2 kg (about 4½ lb) of currants.