Mexico City has its own giant mega-rosca

As many Mexican families celebrate Three Kings Day with the traditional rosca de reyes bread, so does the government of Mexico City, but in a monumental way: its bread is more than 1,500 meters long.

Bakeries have dedicated the last few days to prepare for the demand for the King’s Ring, the Mexican version of a king’s cake.

Several plastic baby Jesus figurines are hidden inside the bread, and whoever finds one must throw a tamales and atole celebration dinner on February 2, Candlemas Day.

In Mexico City, bakeries such as El Camino prepare a portion of what has been called the mega-rosca, which is put on display and served to citizens in the city’s zócalo.

A tradition of recent creation, serving rosca to chilangos began at the turn of the millennium. Since then, the bakers at El Camino have been part of the festivities.

The 15 employees began preparations at 6:00am Tuesday for their mission, to deliver 250 of the mega-rosca’s 2,500 pieces in time for cutting and serving it yesterday afternoon.

Bakery manager Julián Fernández explained to the newspaper El Universal that the rosca is a fine pastry prepared with flour, eggs, butter, dried fruits and other ingredients.

 

A long process starts after all the ingredients have been mixed. “We have to let the dough rest, then shape it and let it rest some more. After it has fermented, everything’s ready to go into the oven,” said Fernández.

This can be one of the busiest seasons for the bakery and its employees. Besides preparing their allotment of the mega-rosca, their regular customers have been buying up to 1,200 roscas of all sizes every day since early in the week.

This year, the city’s huge rosca weighed 9.4 tonnes, measured more than 1,500 meters in length and was prepared by more than 2,000 people. It circled the zócalo’s esplanade twice, and was enough to share late yesterday afternoon among close to 250,000 people.

It was served with milk and coffee at an event hosted by Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera that featured a visit by the Three Wise Men themselves.

Source : Mexico Daily News