Cascas, the Palm Sunday Breakfast

One of the typical pastries of Lent and Holy Week is cascas, which were part of the Palm Sunday breakfast. Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria referred to them as "rotlos" (a type of cake), due to their cylindrical, ring-shaped shape. They are made with coca bamba paste.

In Ciutadella, the bakery is making them again, following the publication of the recipe in the book "Sa cuina des poble de Menorca, repostería y pastelería" (The Kitchen of the People of Menorca, Pastries and Confectionery), and they are even made by order or reservation.

Casca, a ring-shaped pastry, like coca bamba or the Menorcan ensaimada, which in Ciutadella we call the ensaimada of Saint John, is eaten dipped in hot chocolate.

There is also a theory that it is a preparation inherited from Arab or Moorish cuisine, or it is even possible that, like coca bamba—the pastry is practically the same—it was of Sephardic origin and is part of the traditional cuisine of the Catalan-Occitan countries as a ritual sweet.

Pere Ballester already mentions cascas in his De re cibaria (a book of traditional Menorcan recipes) and defines them as hard pastries made with a base of raw bread or strong flour, eggs, sugar, oil, and lard. They could be empty or filled with marzipan, sugared cottage cheese, or jam…

The Alcover-Moll Dictionary says that "casca" is round with a hole in the middle—like the Roscón de Reyes—and was sugared or painted with egg.