EDINBURG — It’s a familiar and comforting aroma for bakeries — the smell of sweet bread filling the environment as pastries of various flavors are on display here at La Mexicana Bakery.
Christmas decorations adorned the walls of the bakery adding a festive atmosphere to the shop. A fitting feeling for the holidays.
At the corner of the shop sits a rack of trays with oval-shaped pastries decorated with membrillo — gummy-like candies.
They’re more commonly known as Rosca de Reyes, and they’re a familiar sight here as they prepared for Día de los Reyes. This is a holiday celebrated in Latin culture which celebrates the three kings who brought gifts to baby Jesus.
Hector Davila, owner of La Mexican Bakery in Edinburg, explained that over the years the preparation of a Rosca has changed due to people wanting to add different flavors to the bread.
“There are some people who like them plain inside, some people who like it with cajeta, there are some people who like it with cream cheese just to make it with a different taste, but we like to keep it as a more traditional way — just the plain rosca with a baby Jesus inside,” Hector said.
His daughter, April Davila, 27, added that although they stick to the traditional Rosca they do add a little something here and there to the flavor.
“It has a tangy, orangey, sweet taste. The candy makes it sweet and I know that we add an orange zest to it,” April said. “It’s unique but also traditional.”
The bakery makes three different Rosca sizes — small, medium, and large. According to Hector’s son, Valentine Davila, 28, the smaller Roscas tend to sell out first.
Regardless of the size, however, the same love and attention goes into baking these traditional pastries.
“We like to keep it overnight so that they can rise and have that fluffy feeling to it,” Valentine said. “We could just bake them like that but if we make them too quickly they stay low and flat, so we like to take our time so they can rise.”
Before leaving the bread overnight, however, they decorate the bread with candies called membrillos that symbolize the gifts presented by the three kings.
Although the candies symbolize important aspects of the tradition, perhaps the most memorable detail of the Rosca is that it contains a hidden plastic baby. According to tradition, whoever cuts the piece with the baby they then have to buy tamales for their family in February.
“Whoever gets the baby Jesus, traditionally makes a tamalada on Feb. 2, which is the Dia de la Calendaria,” Hector said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the bakery had received five more Rosca orders making it a total of 20 orders that day. The total has been in the hundreds at this one bakery alone.
“We have about 200 orders just for tomorrow besides the ones that are out for sale,” Hector said, adding they used to receive many orders but now that more supermarkets have them available, not many people place as many orders from bakeries.
Although the Rosca is a pastry specific to the first week of January, Valentine said that even after Día de los Reyes they continue to receive calls asking for Roscas.
April added that they’ve often received calls in February, March and April, including people sometimes asking for them in July.
The bakery, located at 723 E. Sprague St. in Edinburg, is open daily from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. except Sundays when their hours are 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Mondays when they’re closed.
