God's Kitchels
Where a mayor hurls pastries at kids
Wandering around Saffron Walden some twenty years ago, I found a trove of old cookery books in one of its many second-hand bookshops, now sadly closed down. One book contained a wealth of old East Anglian recipes, including an intriguing one that mentioned the ‘Bury St Edmunds Kitchel.’ Unfortunately, pages were missing so I only read half of the story, then lent the book to someone and never got it back. More time passed, and the Kitchel remained unbaked and unknown.
Years later, I picked up my research where it left off, but any hope of a close link to Bury St Edmunds, where I live, were dashed. It seems the kitchel prefers Essex and, in particular, the port town of Harwich, although it is also baked and eaten in Aldeburgh, a Suffolk seaside town. Known more popularly as ‘God’s Kitchel’ or as ‘God Cakes’ in Coventry, where they were traditionally given by godparents to godchildren at the start of the year these little pastries are also thrown to the crowds by the mayor of Harwich at the annual Mayor-Making ceremony in May in a tradition that is more than 400 years old.
The origins of the word ‘kitchel’ are obscure; their lineage reaches back to the 11th century at the very least. The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘kichel’ (and offers an alternative spelling of cicel) as a ‘small cake’. A connection with the German for cake- ‘Kuche’- is suggested as is the Yiddish ‘kikhl’, which commonly refers to a small sugary cookie. In Anglo Saxon, ‘cicel’ is both a ‘morsel’ or ‘little mouthful’ but is also linked to ‘circle’. The Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language (1838) supposes that the origin is Anglo-Saxon, yet there is no specific reference to cake.
Edward Moor, in A Dictionary of Suffolk Words and Phrases (1823), describes the kitchel as “a flat Christmas cake, of a triangular shape, with sugar and a few currants strow’d over the top – differing, only in shape, I believe, from a bun. Cocker says “Kichel is Saxon – a kind of cake of God’s Kichel, a cake given to God-children when they ask blessing of their God father.” By triangular, he means more of a cornet shape, like a triangular apple turnover. It has been suggested that the kitchel’s original triangular shape represented the Holy Trinity, as do the three cuts in the top.
Mentioned by Chaucer1 in The Summoner’s Tale, the ecclesiastical court servants of Chaucer considered the kitchel a worthy enough and acceptable recompense for soul-saving. Evidence then that a cake that appears, to our modern palates, as fairly modest, was a great, infrequent treat back in the day, based on a tried and tested combination of pastry and dried fruit that served as an efficient fuel delivery system for hard-working bodies and a way of getting through the lean period between November and late March when little fresh fruit was on the market. Households would preserve grown and foraged fruits, but the dried fruit we associate with mince pies and Christmas puddings— sultanas, currants, citrus peel, and raisins—were comparatively expensive and beyond the reach of many households. During the medieval period, foreign exploration led to the trading of exotic spices and dried fruits, which could survive treacherous months at sea; rarity and expense meant they tended to be kept for high days and holidays— at least for ordinary families.
Locals in Harwich, Aldeburgh and other East Anglian towns say kitchels are also known as ‘Catch Alls’ because the cakes were thrown to the crowds by the mayor each year (and more on this later) to symbolise the showering of his blessings upon the town. In 1935, the local newspaper of Harwich and Dovercourt describes the town ceremony as a “good custom for godfathers and godmothers every time their godchildren asked them for a blessing to give them a cake which was a ‘gods kitchel” and cites the saying “ask me a blessing and I will give you a kitchel” as a common one.
A 1905 guidebook describes this practice as “a curious custom, many many hundreds of years old.” In Aldeburgh, kitchels were baked and sold on New Year’s Eve, and monumental amounts of bad luck are foretold for those who do not order at least one ‘kichel’ per family member. As F A Qutt says in his book, ‘The County Coast,’ the kitchel “must be eaten before midnight or the worst of ill luck was predicted for folks who failed to partake of these cakes and even now, it is said, there is no one in the town so daring as to nibble a crumb of them after the new year had dawned.”
Staff at the Cabin Bakery in Dovercourt, a neighbouring town, begin baking more than 400 kitchels in the early hours, ready for delivery to the Guildhall and local schools – unlike centuries before, every child who wants one will get a kitchel. The town clerk and staff wrap each individually.
The cakes are thrown from the Guildhall’s windows in a ceremony held on the third Thursday in May, symbolising the spreading of goodwill amongst the poor of the town by the newly elected mayor who walks through the streets back to the Guildhall after attending a formal ceremony at St Nicholas church, resplendent in bicorne hat, mayoral chain and scarlet frock coat with black pantaloons worn underneath. The children of Harwich accompany the mayor and await the town crier whose proclamation: “Catch a kitchel, if you can!” is the cue for the mayor’s appearance at the window. Hands outstretched, the children await the shower of cakes.
Some recipes for Gods Kitchels specify shortcrust pastry; others use puff. I have tried both and prefer the lightness of the latter. I have also seen versions with added rum or brandy. Despite the dried fruit, the sweetness quotient isn’t that high (sugar was a luxury ingredient once upon a time), so you might want to add a little extra or serve your kitchel with custard or sweetened cream.
Gods Kitchels
3oz butter
1 tsp mixed spice
10oz currants
4oz chopped candied peel
4oz ground almonds
450g puff pastry
milk to brush
Preheat the oven to 400F/ 200C/ Gas mark 6. Grease a large baking sheet.
Melt the butter over low heat in a decent sized heavy bottom pan and add the currants, spice and peel along with the ground almonds and stir them well, ensuring they are all incorporated. Set the mixture aside and allow to cool.
Divide the puff pastry into half, roll each half into two evenly sized oblongs and place one of them carefully onto the greased baking sheet. Evenly spread the dried fruit mixture over the pastry base, ensuring you leave a margin around all four edges. Moisten the edges with some milk, then lift the second sheet of pastry carefully over the top. Seal the edges by crimping (you might have an excess, which is fine to cut off with a sharp knife before you crimp and seal.
Mark the pastry lightly into squares with a very sharp knife. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until puffed up and golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before cutting into squares, using the knife marks as a guide. Sprinkle with a little caster sugar (I like to use golden) and serve.
little BFI film from 1962 filmed in Harwich, and a news report from 2024’s ceremony.
I love this look back at Harwich and Dovercourt’s retail past.
Even ASDA has a recipe!
Give us a bushell whete, malte, or rice,
A God’s kichel, or a trippe of cheese.
Fascinating! Switzerland has a bread roll-throwing from windows tradition as well, for eager children waiting below.
Not quite tossing Little Debbies (or pan dulce) off the back of a lorry.