Gustavus Adolphus pastry

Gustavus Adolphus pastry[1] (Swedish: Gustaf Adolfsbakelse) is a pastry traditionally eaten every 6 November in Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus Day, the death day of King Gustavus Adolphus the Great. It is especially popular in Gothenburg, a city founded by the king.[2]

Gustavus Adolphus pastry, with the king's portrait.
The winner of the 2003 competition.

The pastry was created around 1900. Candy with the image of the king was sold by a konditorei in Gothenburg since the 1850s.[2] The earliest mention of a pastry is from the Western parts of Sweden during the 1890s,[2][3] where the pastry probably was created around the festivities when a statue of the king was erected in Gothenburg on a square, that since then is known as Gustaf Adolfs torg[2][4] ("Gustavus Adolphus Square"). One Gothenburg bakery, Bräutigams, claims to have created it in the early 20th century, with the years 1905 or 1909 mentioned.[4][5][6]

Recipes for the pastry vary locally but most versions have a portrait of the king on the top, usually made of chocolate or marzipan.[2] In 2003, a competition arranged by Livrustkammaren and Gastronomiska akademien ("Gastronomic Academy of Sweden") elected a winner without the king's portrait.[7] The Swedish bakeries and konditoreis however preferred their old versions,[8] so the attempt to establish a standard Gustavus Adolphus pastry failed. Exactly how many Gustav Adolphus pastries are sold in November each year is not known. The newspaper Göteborgs-Tidningen in 2009 approximated the total Swedish sales and consumption to more than 10 000.[4]

See also

References
  1. ifood.tv. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
  2. "Gustav Adolfs-bakelsens historia" (in Swedish). Danska wienerbageriet. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
  3. Nationalencyklopedin, Gustav Adolfsdagen
  4. "Gustav Adolfs huvud ska vara i choklad", Göteborgs tidning 2011-11-06
  5. Brautigams Archived 2014-11-06 at the Wayback Machine, the web page of the bakery. In Swedish
  6. "Gustav Adolf-bakelsen 100 år" (in Swedish). Sveriges Television. 2009-11-05. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
  7. Ny standard skapad för Gustav Adolf-bakelser, Aftonbladet 2003-11-06 (Swedish)
  8. Nordiska museet: Gustav Adolfsdagen (Swedish)
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