TENTH DAY of CHRISTMAS:
St. Titus’s and St. Gregory’s Day
On this Tenth Day of Christmas, we celebrate the feast days of St. Titus, disciple of St. Paul (first century), and St. Gregory, bishop (541)… not to mention St. Rigobert and St. Ramon. But to be honest, even with so many good saints to celebrate on the Fourth of January, there’s not much in terms of ceremony to attach to these guys. And maybe that’s just as well, for the Tenth Day of Christmas is perhaps best marked as a day of preparation for what lies ahead: Twelfth Night and Epiphany, which, in some places, mark the biggest celebrations of the season. For those who keep Christmas well, it is only fitting to close the Yuletide festivities with a bang, and it will take some doing to prepare for that proper close.
Here’s a recipe for one of the Epiphany traditions in our house: Three Kings Cakes. You will need three loaf pans because the recipe yields three cakes, one for each of the Magi: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. The Magi will arrive on the Sixth of January, just in time for these delightful cakes that are flavored with honey and rose water, flavors of the ancient Mediterranean world, flavors they certainly knew well in their day. Perhaps the aroma, like the star, will help them along as they wend their way across the land.
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THREE KINGS CAKES
makes three cakes
For the Batter
1 cup butter
generous 3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups currants
3 cups applesauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
4 cups flour
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream together the butter and the sugar, then add the eggs and vanilla. Beat smooth before adding the remaining ingredients. Grease 3 loaf pans (about 8″ x 4″ x 3″ or so) and divide the batter amongst the pans. Bake for one hour, or until a toothpick poked into the center of each cake comes out dry. Let the cakes cool in their pans on a rack.
For the Syrup
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cinnamon stick
6 whole cloves
2 tablespoons rose water
Once the cakes are baked, combine the syrup ingredients, except for the rose water, in a saucepan over medium heat. Once the sugar dissolves, add the rose water. Remove the cinnamon stick and the cloves and then pour the hot syrup over the cakes in their pans, divided equally amongst the three cakes. The syrup will soak into the cakes. Allow to cool completely before unmolding from the pans. Serving the three cakes on three platters makes for a nice presentation on Epiphany Day.
If you have trouble finding good rose water, we happen to sell the stuff at our website. Our rose water is made by the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Community in Maine, from their line of culinary herbs and herbal teas that we’ve been selling at conviviobookworks.com for years now. It’s one of the most delightful flavorings you’ll bake with, adding a mysterious and delicate flavor not just to these cakes, but also to apple pie, cookies, and even French toast. It’s pretty wonderful.
Come tomorrow, we’ll be hanging paper star lanterns in our house, filling up the Christmas punch bowl once again, and cooking up a hearty meal. Twelfth Night and Epiphany mark feasts that almost rival Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, where our journey first began. Somewhere on the horizon there are three old men following that star, nearing their destination, and la befana is at her cleaning; she has her broom in hand, and she’s ready to sweep away the festivities. But that’s another story for another day. Perhaps tomorrow.