As some of you might remember, last year I wrote about my fruitless search for Jesus in rosca de reyes. This year, though, with January and Kings' Day approaching, I got another shot at finding this elusive son of God.
Okay, so, if you're now wondering what the heck I'm on about, you haven't heard about this rosca de reyes tradition before, and you didn't read my post last year (shame on you!), here's the Reader's Digest version of what you need to know:
Rosca de reyes is a cake (or sweet bread) that's eaten here in Mexico and throughout the Hispanic world on January 6th, which is known as Día de Reyes (Kings' Day). In addition to that, rosca de reyes is, as it happens, baby Jesus's hideout 😲. Your sole mission - should you choose to accept it - is to find Jesus in the cake. And, if you are graced enough to be the one to find him, you get to (are forced to?) throw a tamale party on February 2nd, Día de Candelaria (Candlemas Day). Yay!
With me so far? Okay.
So, to find Jesus, you only need two things: a) a rosca de reyes cake and b) a healthy appetite. Your first order of business is, of course, to buy yourself the cake. Fortunately (or unfortunately), you don't need to travel to a small convent where a 100-year-old blind nun produces a single cake every ten years - or something similar - because you can actually find rosca de reyes in any supermarket near you (is it just me or is this news a bit of a letdown 🤔?).
There are many kinds of rosca de reyes cakes, different sizes, and even a chocolate option to rival the traditional one. The figurines in each cake look different and I've heard that there are even cakes which not only contain one baby Jesus, but two or three baby Jesuses 😲. Although this triplet Jesus thing could seem like some weird take on "Holy Trinity," I guess it's intended for parents who don't want their children to fight over who found baby Jesus. There's also a Star Wars rosca de reyes where, instead of baby Jesus, you try to find baby Yoda. But as cool as that cake sounds, this year I decided to go traditional.
Well... traditional with a twist, as my rosca de reyes was one that came with "a whimsical set of nativity figurines."
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| 🎵 Nativity Figurines! Gotta catch 'em aaalll! 🎵 |
To be honest, buying this type of rosca de reyes was not so much an informed decision as it was my last resort because the store was closing and there were no other kinds of cakes available. The danger of a rosca reyes cake like this is of course that you don't know which whimsical figurines you'll end up with. For all you know, you could end up completely Jesusless [cue the sad 🎻].
Needless to say, this brought back all kinds of childhood trauma and felt alarmingly like the Kinder turtle fiasco of 1991 (if you were born in the 80's, you might feel my pain), when you would use your allowance Saturday after Saturday to buy a new Kinder egg in the hopes of finally getting that diver turtle only to get the pan flute turtle that you already had seven of! But, as I said, I was out of options. Also, I was somewhat encouraged by the fact that when the nice lady at the supermarket gave me a piece of the cake to sample, I suddenly bit my teeth into a nativity figurine. Holy cow (it was a cow)! What were the odds? With luck like this, I felt a bit more optimistic about my purchase.
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| The cow present at Jesus's birth |
As I wasn't sure what you're supposed to do when you find a nativity figurine in your mouth at a supermarket, I decided to take the cow home with me to complete my future figurine collection (also, I figured the chances of the supermarket wanting to keep a nativity figurine that had just been in my mouth were probably pretty low). The cow also taught me the first rule of eating rosca de reyes cake: Chew carefully. If you bite too hard, you might chip a tooth!
Looking for Jesus
The second rule of eating rosca de reyes revealed itself pretty soon after I'd taken the cake home: You might as well just forget about enjoying the cake, since all your energy will go into finding Jesus!
Trying to find Jesus in rosca de reyes is actually more stressful than thrilling as you become paranoid about any tougher piece of fruit that you're chewing, worried that you might have just accidentally decapitated poor baby Jesus.
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| May contain Jesus |
And then there are the other figurines.
When I was just a couple of bites into my very first piece, I felt my teeth sink into something hard and I thought, Oh dear baby Jesus! Could it be that I already found thee on my first try? Well, the answer was... no. What I actually had found was one of the Wise Men (at least I think it was a Wise Man - if not, it was either Joseph or just some random dude).
Here's the evolution of finding this wiseguy:
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| Wiseguy flat on his face in cake |
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| Wiseguy still not looking very dignified with more than half of his body covered in cake |
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| Wiseguy numero uno all cleaned up! |
The good news was that there were supposed to be 3-4 figurines per cake, so it was still possible to find Jesus. But just as I was about to continue my search, Fiancé told me he had found something in his piece. I felt my heart rate rise. Could he have found Jesus?
(Well, I'll leave you on a cliffhanger for a while.)
Here's a play-by-play of his discovery:
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| The first sighting |
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| Behold wiseguy numero dos! |
When it turned out Fiancé had in fact found wiseguy numero dos, the feeling was bittersweet: On one hand, I was happy that he hadn't found Jesus (also, he's Jewish, so that would have been quite the oxymoron), but on the other hand, my initial fear that there would not be a Jesus at all in this particular cake was beginning to re-emerge. If there were 3-4 figurines per cake, then that meant we were either halfway or two thirds of the way through and still no Jesus!
Seek And You Shall Find
The next day I got home, I was determined to find Jesus. Remembering one of his catchphrases "Seeketh and you shall findeth" (or something to that effect), I was ready to put his theory to the test, and polish off whatever was left of the cake.
I kept eating my way through it, risking death by gluttony, and yet... no Jesus. But just as it started to look alarmingly like there would be no baby Jesus at the end of this rainbow, suddenly, when I was on my very last piece of the cake, something miraculous happened: there, tucked inside the cake under an almond and between two figs lay no other than...
..plastic baby Jesus himself!
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| TADAAA! |
Overjoyed, I sent a message to Fiancé: "Jesus found!"
"Good for you," he replied with a little (a lot) less enthusiasm, but I didn't care. I had completed my mission - I had found Jesus.
I celebrated my victory for a full five minutes until I suddenly remembered what finding Jesus actually meant: I would have to throw a tamale party (sigh).
Now, this might come as a shock to you, but I'm not a huge fan of throwing tamale parties. Apparently, though, I'm not alone with this sentiment. In fact, according to a Mexican friend of mine, this whole tamale party rule is the reason a lot of people avoid finding baby Jesus like the plague.
But I am nothing if not a woman of my word, so on the 2nd of February I got myself and my fiancé some tamales.
Tamales
If you've never heard of tamales, here's a what you need to know: Basically, tamales are a traditional Mexican dish made of corn-based dough that is steamed inside a corn husk or a banana leaf. There are many different types, some sweet and some savory. They look great, but to be honest with you (and in my humble opinion), they're a little meh.
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| Several different types of tamales and chocolate atole |
But - you may ask - why does the baby-Jesus-finder have to throw a tamale party i.e. what do tamales have to do with baby Jesus? Well, the answer is...
...I've no clue.
However, according to one theory, it's because tamales sort of look like a swaddled baby Jesus.
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| The resemblance is uncanny, eh? |
However, for me, the tamale party was just a necessary evil and finding Jesus was the main event. And, as so often happens, by looking for Jesus, I ended up not only finding him but also myself....
...not.
But I did find the whole nativity figurine set 👪. Well (*cough*) minus Mary and Joseph (and a camel and a sheep?) but maybe that's a goal for next year 😊.
Happy February, everyone!
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