"Dresdner Christstollen - Unique Christmas Cake" Dresden Local Custom Tip by Ekaterinburg

This has to be the food most associated with Dresden at Christmas and there were signs and shops selling it and advertising it everywhere. One of the trams was decorated with stollen images and kept flashing by like an enormous, animated, wiggling cake.

Like most things in Dresden Augustus the Strong had something to do with this tradition and in 1730 he got the members of the Bakers Guild to make a giant stollen weighing 1.8 tons. This laid the basis for the festival which happens in Dresden each December and over the years a legend has emerged which suggests that the stollen with its white layer of icing sugar is a symbol of the Christ Child wrapped in swaddling clothes. Definitely a little far-fetched but as I once considered a bottle of wine wrapped in a white cloth to be like a swaddled new-born, I can't really refute the idea.

The Stollen Festival is a huge and colourful affair with a procession through the Old Town and the election of a Stollen Maiden. A giant stollen is carried through the streets and the Grand Stollen Knife, which looks big enough to chop off a few heads with.

It all sounds way over the top but I was not surprised to read about this because every where I looked in Dresden I saw Stollen. Eventually I got to taste some and it was indeed light and delicious. There is a basic recipe but apparently every baker has his own variation usually handed down as a family secret.

Later in December, seeing stollen for sale in our local Lidl, I was quirte excited. However, it wasn't made in Dresden so I didn't buy it.

Website: http://www.dresdner-stollen.com