Christmas Cake (Kurisumasu Keki)
Have you ever watched anime or read manga and you see the main character buy some Christmas cake followed by an event where they either trip and drop the cake or bring it to eat it with family, friends, or significant other. Well this article is about those Christmas cakes that you see and some tidbits about Christmas in Japan.
In Japan, a Christmas is celebrated with Christmas chicken as KFC marketed it as a Christmas Chicken Dinner. Christmas is also perceived as when romantic miracles happen like if someone invited you for Christmas Eve alone there is more than just friendship implications. Something that has also become a tradition is eating Christmas cakes! According to japan-guide 73% state that they celebrate Christmas with a cake.
A Christmas cake (kurisumasu keki クリスマスケーキ) in Japan is simply a sponge cake frosted and decorated with strawberries. The most typical cake is a shortcake with whipped cream and strawberries. In Japan, you can make this cake or buy it at a local convenience store or order from bakeries or hotels.
Some different types of cakes are a chocolate cake, chocolate shavings, roll cake, green tea cake, and even character themed Christmas cakes.
Currently, there have been butter shortages in Japan so the Christmas cake has to be made with a margarine substitute because if they imported butter than the price of the cake would have to be raised higher. Earlier in the year, there was already signs of a shortage of butter and in May 7000 tons of butter had to be imported limiting 1 stick per customer, but it barely made a difference.
The other options of dessert is also donuts, ice cream cake, and cupcakes.
An interesting fact is that back in the 1980s the term Christmas Cake means unmarried woman after the age of 25 as in unsold after the 25th but since then, and fast forward to the present, not many people know about it because times have changed. The average age of marriage has been changing and getting older and older so this term is now history.
If you would like to order a Christmas cake and live in California check with your local Nijiya, Marukai, and Mitsuwa.
If you would like to bake the cake here is a recipe.
Here is a video tutorial to make a Christmas cake from Cooking with Dog
Have you ever had Christmas cake? Do you recall any anime or manga scenarios with Christmas cake? Give us your thoughts below.
No comment