Same in England, at least traditionally. There’s a song about the Twelve Days of Christmas etc. I think the old thing to do was cook two Christmas cakes and keep “feeding” one of them with brandy until Easter, when you covered that with marzipan to make something called a Simnel cake. Also I think you were supposed to actually make those cakes at the beginning of October, so it’s a pretty obvious example of a historical practice of preserving the harvest, with religious significance attached after the fact. I think I might get back into it, I love a bit of traditional food culture.
Same in England, at least traditionally. There’s a song about the Twelve Days of Christmas etc. I think the old thing to do was cook two Christmas cakes and keep “feeding” one of them with brandy until Easter, when you covered that with marzipan to make something called a Simnel cake. Also I think you were supposed to actually make those cakes at the beginning of October, so it’s a pretty obvious example of a historical practice of preserving the harvest, with religious significance attached after the fact. I think I might get back into it, I love a bit of traditional food culture.