The baker's calendar
Every festivity has its cake and its date. This is what comes out of the oven through the year, and when to order it.
January and February
6 January · Epiphany
The tortell de Reis: a candied-fruit brioche ring with a bean and a little king hidden inside. Find the king and you wear the crown; find the bean and you pay for the cake.
3 February · Saint Blaise
Blaiets: vanilla or lemon biscuits stamped with the saint's image. They are taken to be blessed, and tradition ties them to sore throats. To order.
Fat Thursday · Carnival
Coca de llardons, made with egg, sugar, flour, pork crackling and almond. It opens the carnival season. Order from the week before.
14 February · Valentine's Day
Cakes to order for two: chocolate, strawberry or whatever you fancy. Two days' notice and it is ready.
Lent and spring
Lent
Bunyols de Quaresma, plain or cream-filled, fried and rolled in sugar. We make them every Friday through Lent.
19 March · Father's Day
Saint Joseph's day. Assorted pastries and burnt cream, which in many houses here is the dessert of the day.
Easter
The mona: godparents give it to their godchildren. Sweet bread with a hard-boiled egg, or chocolate with a figure on top. Ordered during Palm week.
23 April · Sant Jordi
Pa de Sant Jordi, with sobrassada and cheese, striped like the Catalan flag. Plus cocas to go with the rose and the book. To order.
May · Mother's Day
Decorated cakes made to measure. Tell us the name, the design and how many people, and we build it.
Summer
Corpus Christi
Cocas and sweets for the dancing egg and the flower carpets. To order.
24 June · Saint John's Eve
Coca de Sant Joan: with crackling, candied fruit, or cream and pine nuts. The longest night deserves all three. Two days' notice.
29 June · Saint Peter · Reus main festival
Coca de vidre and festival sweets, to take out to the street or leave on the table while the parade goes by.
Autumn and Christmas
11 September · Catalan National Day
Cakes with the Catalan flag, to order, for the lunches of the day.
25 September · La Misericòrdia
Reus's smaller festival. Cocas and assorted pastries all week, because the festival is not just one day.
31 October · All Saints
Panellets with pine nuts, coconut or almond, and ossos de sant. We start the week before and they sell themselves.
Christmas
Nougat, neules and yule log. Orders close on 20 December: after that the oven simply cannot take more.
Need it for a date?
Tell us what and when. For the big festivities, a few days' notice helps.
Photographs: Coca de llardons and Coca de crema (public domain) and Pa de Sant Jordi by Darth vader 92, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.