If you ask a Portuguese person what dessert says Christmas, you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t say it’s the Kings Cake or in Portuguese the Bolo Rei. Kings Cake is a traditional Portuguese cake that is only eaten between December 25th and January 6th. In many Portuguese homes, Christmas isn’t over on December 26th, it’s over on January 6th or Epiphany (Three Kings’ Day). For anyone who wasn’t raised in a Christian home, Kings’ Day is the day that the Three Wise Men or Three Kings visited baby Jesus with gifts. The cake itself, which is actually more of a sweet bread, is shaped like a wreath or a crown with a hole in the centre and decorated with candied fruit and nuts. It is absolutely delicious. This cake isn’t difficult to make but it’s so time-consuming but the end result is totally worth it.
