Monday
Apr252011
Passover These Wrecks
April 25, 2011 During the celebration of Passover, it's traditional for participants to avoid all types of leavening, like yeast. In fact, you could say this is one of the most important, key features of the entire celebration.
So maybe someone should tell these bakers.
Let's hope it ages well.Now, before I start an Epcot here: yes, there *are* flour-less Passover cakes and pastries.
But I'm pretty sure this isn't one of them:
And if there's time, Google "Passover."And then return that Wonders of the Pyramids gift book.
Why do I bring this up?
Well...
Yeeeah.Hey, is this like wishing someone a "Merry Christian Lent"?
'Cuz I'm totally doing that now.
(Although, all things being equal, maybe I should write it on a chocolate bar.)
(Although, all things being equal, maybe I should write it on a chocolate bar.)
Thanks to today's Wreckporters Evelyn G., Amy K., & Alana M. for getting a rise out of these Wrecks.
Update from john: [rubbing temples] To those of you currently chilling in the Epcot Bunker™, yes, anyone can make a lovely Seder. Apparently there are [insert comment count here] non-Jews doing so.
It's still Jewish.
That is all.
Reader Comments (166)
Epcot update:
There are now fewer comments pointing out that some Christians have Seders than comments complaining about the aforesaid posts and duplicate comments calling for the duplicate comments to be deleted, so now the double-meta-Epcot alert is on ultra-red.
Susan - The elf dentist is Hermie :)
Anon @4:02, wv: Word Verification.
My wv: usedonsi. Wreckerators usedonsi spellings.
its not the yeast that isnt allowed, its anything with flour. potato flour and matza meal is allowed, although some people are stringent on that too.
that said, my passover cakes and cookies are out of this world!
I'm skipping the comments and heading straight to the bunker.
See ya tomorrow!
Kim in ID
FYI -- the grains rabbinically forbidden on Passover are: wheat, rye, oats, spelt and barley. Matza has to be made from one of these grains but the flour is "guarded" (watched) because according to Jewish law once the flour and water are combined for more than 18 minutes, it is assumed to be leavened.
However you can make some awesome Passover cakes without flour or with a base of ground almonds, walnuts, pecans, etc.
Has anybody pointed out that Jesus was Jewish yet? I'm not reading through all the comments, but the first few I saw mentioned the Last Supper, and I really wanted to point out that Jesus and his disciples were definitely Jewish, as is the Seder tradition. So saying that the Seder isn't strictly Jewish because Christians participate in it to honour the Last Supper is like saying... well, it'd be like saying that red can't be its own colour because purple has red in it or something. I'm not good at clever analogies, but my point is that it's wrong and Jen was right. FOR EPCOT!!!!!
All these comments (especially from Jewish folks) and no one realizes that Jen & John (love you guys!) are a week late - Passover was last week.
Really, no offense to the Jewish folks on here... but Cajuns have the best seders of all. They bake a real plastic baby in the matzoh and everything. It's legit. Do NOT argue with me. I am from near New Orleans, and I know.
--kate
Diane 1611- Passover lasts for 8 days and nights.
@Diane1611 It was last week and it's still this week. It's an 8-day holiday! Chag Sameach! (Happy Holiday!)
This non-Jew realizes that Passover ends tonight.
Oy.
This is a very stressful holiday.
Chag Sameach!
This post needs more Hanukkah Hams. And people missing the point.
WV: swetan... I'm just swetan it out in the bunker over here.
When I was in Catholic grade school, we had Seder meals every year. I always liked them, and got a taste for Matzo bread from them (you still couldn't pay me to eat radishes, though). At least we were a very accepting school, though I don't know of any Jewish kids who went. :)
who orders a cake for passover?
Did you really trademark "Epcot bunker?" 'Cause that made me laugh more than anything else!
BTW, someone once explained to me the different parts of the seder and what the symbolism means. It made me appreciate my Christian faith even more, knowing what Jesus and His disciples were sharing at the Passover supper.
And of course, now I also get the CW humor on the topic.:-)
@kate - that was awesome! I think we need a Jewish Seder Mardi Gras Passover unleavened fried donut King Cake in the Epcot bunker
Oh poor Jen. You only thought you were avoiding an Epcot by stating that there were Passover-appropriate cakes out there. Alas, those dang Epcots tend to pop up and bite you in the butt when you least expect it!
Sending you guys lots of wrecky love, like an anti-Epcot Care Bear stare. You guys rock!
Sorry, can't resist. Cocoa and coffee are actually seeds, not beans. Seeds are allowed during Pesach.
That "Happy Passover Kaufmans" may be my new all-time favourite wreck. It has everything: sprinkles, artlessly applied ugly-coloured squiggles, thick icing lumps, illegible, ill-planned writing, hilariously misinterpreted instructions, and a probably inappropriate apostrophe. The fact that it's a leavened cake for an occasion mandating unleavened would be "just the icing on the cake" except that it's the icing on the icing on the cake.
Just when I was starting to worry that all the best wrecks had been done and there was nothing left to come but derivative works.
It's the thought(lessness) that counts! Or, if you're not especially religiously proper...then you'll understand how cakes and their messages can transcend everything that's gospel.
should write it on a chocolate bar. Ha ha ha!!!!! You evil woman. Have you been reading my blog? ; )
I don't know if I can post from here in the bunker but RE: "Although, all things being equal, maybe I should write it on a chocolate bar." I actually saw that in the 1980's at a chocolate & confections store but I'd forgotten it until just now. :D
@anonymous at 11:55- I know that "mystifying" song!! (and I read ALL of the posts so I know I'm not the only one)
-Barbara Anne
P.S. (sticks head out of bunker and yells) Sandra Lee!! (draws back into bunker and slams door shut)
for god's sake people! take a dang joke and quit being so literal! why is it that no one can just laugh and say "oh that's funny" as opposed to - i must now show of my stunning intellect and make you feel like a terrible person for making a joke. We need to start a coalition....
Anonymous @ 3:16 PM (the first Anonymous, that is) said:
"By the way, Christians participating in a Seder are like Americans celebrating Guy Fox Day... any excuse for a party, right?"
I don't remember seeing any Guy Fox cake wrecks blogs... surely there are some out there... Guy Fox, anyone? ;)
Oh words can't express the scariness of those cakes.. honestly what on earth were they doing? Lol they manage to wreck just about anything and do it with gusto apparently.
(Way) back in college, I remember my non-Jewish friends were excited that the cafeteria was offering bagels at breakfast. They were served with a sign "for Passover." Sigh. At least they tried - didn't do any research - but they made many students happy.
MissNay---"not a lot of food"? I don't think that you attended a typical Jewish Seder. Every Seder that I have ever attended or hosted had a lot of food. Our usual menu---gefilte fish, eggs, popovers, chicken soup with matzah balls, fruit salad, baked chicken, green beans, popovers, matzah, charoses, and for dessert, fruit, chocolate covered matzah, kosher-for-Passover brownies and flourless chocolate cake. Not to mention wine. (Traditionally four cups...) I hope that you can attend a "real" seder someday.
(I know that many churches have seders, but whenever we have non-Jewish friends or neighbors join our family at a seder, they say something like "Wow, this isn't anything like the seder that we had at church!" Not that there's anything wrong with "church seders" but they are not what most Jews would call a traditional seder.)
Perhaps it's just the late hour working on me, but I have been having a good time (no, really!) reading the comments tonight, though what really made me LOL was when the bunker door opens and Barbara Anne yells, "Sandra Lee!!" That just made my day complete, thanks... :D
I was laughing as hard at some of these comments as I was at the cakes. Love this blog and it's readers.
I also find it funny that people are calling for Earth Day cakes when that's what started the Epcot problem to begin with.
These cakes=SO NOT Kosher!
And I've seen some beautiful kosher cakes for Passover!
"I want sprinkles" on my Epcot cake please…
I'm glad I read all the way to the bottom - I missed the "Guy Fox" comment earlier...you've got to be kidding me. Or is it Epcot bait? Now I'm paranoid...
Coughcough...(Guy Fawkes)...coughcough...
Great, now SL will know where the Bunker(TM) is. That does raise an interesting question: are wreckerators allowed in the Bunker(TM)? I can't begin to imagine what she might serve -- or what she might do to the decor of the place (shudder). John (thoJ) might have to renovate it -- fortunately, he knows a thing or six about that stuff.
Fawkes
Guy Fawkes
It's freakin' Guy Fawkes.
Expecting an Epcot Part the Third (fourth?) over the "Guy Fox" comments. He doesn't have whiskers and a bushy tail, ya know.
It's Guy FAWKES.
*Searching under rocks and behind trees* WHERE'S THE BUNKER!?!?! Let me in! Let me in! LOL
Sad truth.....I only read the comments when I see the "Epcot" warning posted. Then I laugh until I cry. Again. AFTER I've laughed to tears over the wrecks.
Thanks, J, J and #1! You guys (and gals) ROCK!!
Unleavened does not mean without flour, it means without leavening -- something to make it rise -- which would have been yeast in the old days. Cakes aren't made with yeast, they are usually made with baking powder or baking soda, though they can be made without either if put them together correctly the eggs act as the leavening.
The idea is, flat breads only.
@davidatn: Hahahaha, oh that is so sad. That is the kind of gaffe my university would probably make, too! One time I went to a religious round table, and they served--I kid you not!--crab rangoon and bacon-wrapped mini hotdogs. It was hilarious, but also kind of insulting. After all it was a *religious* round table! And reps from the Muslim Student Union attended, too!!
@Barbara Ann...you crack me up! =D
And finally, just to fuel the Epcot...Guy Fawkes! *laughs maniacally*
SANDRA LEEEE!!!! *jumps into bunker and slams door*
wv: kidisate: adj, satisfied by one's own childish behavior
*moan* Sorry Jen. I got what you meant immediately. This is an equal opportunity wreckaration blog (which I so love) and I had to laugh when I saw some of the things foisted off on my Hebrew friends for Sedar. It made some of the "lamb" cakes not as bad. No holiday or holy day is safe from bad taste or black/red icing it seems!
And yes, other faiths can celebrate a Sedar if they wish. But, the holiday/holy day belongs to the Hebrew people. The rest of us are guests.
As to the question of yeast Marama, in an orthodox house hold the food can't even come from a place where yeast is in the building. So if the cakes were made in a place that makes bread, nope, they can't be eaten or even enter the house.
Ow ow ow ow ow. I can't tell what's worse, the wreckerating, or the absolute horror that passes for Jewish education these days.
What is prohibited are foods and food byproducts whose production places any of the "five grains" (wheat, oats, barley, rye and spelt) together with water for long enough for fermentation to begin (considered to be 18 minutes).
Regular flour is not allowed because it is often processed with steam. Baked good must either be baked in under 18 minutes, as with matzah, or using a "flour" that's made from finely ground matzah. Yeast, being a fungus, can be totally kosher for Passover.
Certain Jewish communities have a tradition of not eating other grains, pulses or legumes. These traditions vary by location and exist either to prevent confusion as to what items are prohibited or because the harvested items are often cross-contaminated with the five grains. The most stringent traditions are followed by Ashkenazi Jews.
So uh... did you guys know some christians do seder dinners? I mean... duh guys... *hope my sarcasm is obvious* lol I can't even read all the comments. So silly!
Remember how all the "Epcot" people were actually wrong?
Well that's also what's going on here!
The Last Supper was probably not a Seder. It was described only as a "Passover meal." Seders are not just any "Passover meals." They are Passover meals eaten according to very specific rules, i.e., with a seder plate, with specific times at which to drink wine, lean, read parts of the story of Exodus, etc. These rules are set forth in the Haggadah; the earliest known copy of the Haggadah dates back to the 10th Century:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haggadah_of_Pesach
It's pure speculation to imagine that Jews in the 1st Century ate their Passover meals in any particular order. And there would have been rather extreme differences between a celebration of the first night of Passover during Jesus' time, which was during the time of the Temple and therefore would have involved consumption of the Paschal lamb, which was a central part of the Passover ritual at the time.
I read the blog every day. I always laugh and enjoy each one. Here's the thing, though:
Is it sad that I quit bringing a book to read during my lunchbreak at work because I spend that time reading the comments in the Epcot worthy posts?
Also, in terms of the presence of yeast, not only can't we make things out of flour if yeast is used in the building, we can't make things out of (wheat, spelt, rye, oats, or barley) flour if the flour hasn't been made into matzo first. Matzo must be baked within 18 minutes of the flour first getting wet. This is because there can be airborne yeast and dough may leaven spontaneously if allowed to sit for too long (although usually dough doesn't leaven appreciably in that short a time. The 18-minute limit is a pretty extreme precaution).
"Let Them Eat Cake said...
Joining you in the bunker. Please pass the Manischewitz. What are you watching? Oh, "The Hebrew Hammer". Good choice."
Bahahahaha! Best comment! Made me actually laugh out loud.
<3 CakeWrecks!
First thing I break Passover with tonight might have to be cake, in honor of this post. Mmmm.... cake...
Personally, I love the fact there are passover cakes, the irony is too delicious. I really didn't think you'd end up covering this holiday just because of, you know, the lack of cakes traditionally included in this holiday. Too bad it turned into an epcot, I thought your post was hysterical. Too many people stuck in semantics.
Are Daiseys kosher?
My kashrut diatribe has been preempted by Lauren's!
Interestingly while some yeasts are kosher for Passover (such as those used in making wine), others (like nutritional and breadmaking yeasts) are not because they're usually cultivated in a grain-based medium and it's impossible to completely extricate the yeast from the grain products in a way that satisfies the rabbis.
I came back to read the Epcot posts and loved Ellen's song!
Also laughed at Kate's (7:32) Cajun seder and the Buddhist seder.
"Sandra Lee" (closes bunker)
This whole post had me laughing, but the comments had me laughing just as hard. I love this blog!