The baker Luc De Weerdt from the Brussels municipality of Sint-Gillis is once again planning to put a small piece of real gold into four of his epiphany cakes. In many parts of Belgium people buy one or more epiphany cakes from their local bakery or supermarket. The cakes each contain a small figure. The person that gets the figure in their piece of the cake gets to wear the cardboard crown that comes with the cake. The tradition is a fun way to conclude the festive season with family and/or friends.
For the past few years, the De Weerdt bakery in Sint-Gillis (Brussels) has been putting real gold coins into a few of the epiphany cakes it sells. The idea has proved to be a commercial success.
Last year De Weerdt sold no fewer than 3,000 epiphany cakes in the run up to 6 January. Baker Luc De Weerdt told VRT News that "The initiative would appear to be both original and mediagenic. Once a year I get customers from all over Belgium coming to the shop”.
It’s the 4th year that Luc De Weert has been putting gold coins into his cakes. The news that you have a chance, albeit small, of finding a piece of gold in a cake has spread like wildfire and “last year we even had people that had come from West Flanders to buy one of our epiphany cakes. Last year I baked 3,000. This year I am aiming for 4,000. I started baking on Sunday. It will be all hands on deck this week. Epiphany is on 6 January, but people continue to ask for the cakes until halfway through the month”.
500 euro
A gold coin worth 500 euro will be put four of the cakes. "You could take the coin to a jeweler, but most customers choose to bring the coin back to me in the bakery and exchange it for 500 euro. The gold coins are only in the epiphany cakes that we sell on 6 January. Last year all the winners made themselves known to us”.
Luc De Weerdt has been running his bakery in Sint-Gillis for 33-years now. "Epiphany cakes have always been my big speciality. The recipe comes from the Van Eeckhout bakery where I used to work. The recipe is at least 70 years old”.