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Stunning layers of white cream adorning a fluffy cake with plump strawberries atop—this has lengthy been the picture of Japanese Christmas confectionary. However, do you know that Christmas muffins have been solely first offered in Japan in 1910? And that the ever present ichigo shotokeki (strawberry shortcake) solely hit the cabinets of this nation in 1922? Actually, it took all the way in which to the postwar interval, in 1952 to be precise, that the strawberry shortcake Christmas cake turned extra accessible to most of the people and cemented its place in Japan’s Christmas imagery (and stomachs throughout the nation). To grasp the historical past of this tasty custom, we have now to peek into the previous of Fujiya, a storied Japanese confectionary maker.
Introducing Christmas cake to Japan
Photograph: iStock: fazon1
Fujiya, now with branches throughout the nation, is a patisserie that was initially based mostly in Yokohama. In 1910, Fujii Rinemon opened his first store in Motomachi, the upscale neighborhood adjoining to the Yamate and Kannai districts the place the overseas inhabitants of Yokohama lived and labored. Because the Meiji period dawned, the Motomachi space blossomed and the streets have been quickly dotted with cafes, outfitters and bakeries. The Fujiya retailer was on the vanguard of this explosion of western tradition in Yokohama the place many abroad customs and wares unfold to the remainder of the nation.
Certainly, in December of the identical yr it opened, Fujiya provided the primary Christmas cake offered in Japan. Organized merely with silver ball decorations, the cake was a single layer glazed with white fondant frosting, made by mixing sugar and water. However, the distinction with at this time’s decadent contemporary cream concoctions was not merely aesthetic; the cake was not a Japanese sponge cake—recognized now because the shortcake— however slightly a fruit cake, steamed within the oven and product of plums, dried fruit like raisins and alcohol.
1921 was a very bustling Christmas and a fateful one for Fujii. With enterprise booming, thanks partially to a craze that yr for embellished muffins, he opened a second retailer. To his shock, his buyer base was additionally altering from overseas prospects to Japanese. In 1922, Fujii got here up with a particular cake to promote at his two retailers, impressed by what he had discovered learning overseas in the US.
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