In Japan, Christmas cake is a popular tradition for December 25th. Many Japanese students believe that this tradition comes from America, but Americans don’t traditionally eat a layered sponge cake for Christmas. Around the world, there are two main types of cake that are served as “Christmas cake”.
Christmas Cake with Dried Fruits:
In the UK, Christmas cake is a dark, heavy, thick cake called “fruitcake”. It is made of dried fruits and contains a lot of alcohol. (See Easy Retro Christmas Cake) It is covered in marzipan and sometimes also royal icing.
Fruitcake is also traditional for Christmas in Ireland, English-speaking Canada, Jamaica, India, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, and other former British colonies. There was a past American tradition to serve fruitcake , but it is not common anymore. (In America nowadays, any cake can be a Christmas cake!)
Germany, Italy, and Portugal also traditionally serve cakes with dried fruits for Christmas, but their cakes are slightly different from British-style fruitcake:
Desserts similar to Stollen can also be seen in countries neighboring Germany, such as Belgium’s/The Netherlands’ “Cougnou”.
In some parts of Europe, marzipan is mixed into the Stollen or put in the center of the loaf. The marzipan center is similar to Banketstaaf (a Dutch Christmas pastry).
Panettone is a popular Italian dessert at Christmastime. It is filled with candied and dried fruits.
There is a similar dish in Ukraine called Paska, although it is more commonly served at Easter.
The Bolo Rei, or King’s cake, is basically a ring-shaped fruitcake.
In another Spanish-speaking region across the world, one can find Pinoy Golden Fruitcake. Looks tasty!
Christmas Sponge Roll Cake (“Yule Log”)
Although “Christmas cake” refers to a fruitcake in the UK, British people also serve another type of cake at Christmas, called the “Yule Log”. “Yule” refers to the period of time after the darkest day of the year, originally celebrated by Germanic cultures. Despite the Germanic name for the cake in English, the other countries that eat this type of cake for Christmas are French-speaking areas (France, Belgium, Switzerland, French Canada, Luxembourg and Lebanon).
Other Christmas “cakes”
Almond Cookie Tower
Kransekake (Norway) or Kransekage (Denmark) is a traditional dessert for any major celebration, whether a wedding or a holiday. It is made of almond flour, confectioner’s sugar, a little salt, and egg white. The icing holds together the layers of wreathes.
Christmas Bread
In Central and Eastern Europe, Christmas dessert is even more bread-like than the Germanic Stollen. In Poland, makowiec (known in Hungary as beigli) is popular at Christmas. Babka is also popular at Christmas in Poland, though it is originally an Ashkenazi Jewish dessert. Another Ashkenazi Jewish bread, challah, is a similar bread type to the Czech Republic’s “Vánočka”.
A similar dessert is known in Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia, North Macedonia, and Greece as Kozunak.
That’s all for now! Which Christmas cakes would you like to try?
