Seville’s close connection to its history is one of the characteristics that gives the city a personality that many travelers enjoy. In Seville, you can see for yourself that history is alive and present. It isn’t just a dusty story. Rather, you can perceive Seville’s history is every stone and around every corner. Seville’s affection for its cultural inheritance translates also to its gastronomy. And the best way to understand this is by sampling its historic pastry shops.

The recipes of Seville’s well-loved sweets have been preserved in establishments (some over one hundred years old) where aromas fill and seep out of the pastries’ display cases. There, you can find and taste specialties like tocino de cielo (a flan-like dessert but sweeter and creamier), cortadillos de cidra (square cakes with the texture of a muffin, filled with Asturian cider paste), tejas de almendra (thin and hard rounded almond pastries)... and many other exquisite treats.

The 6th of January is the festival of the Three Kings, a big holiday in Seville. During the entire week, families get together to eat the traditional Roscón de Reyes (similar to the New Orleans style King’s cake) for breakfast, snack, or dessert. The Roscón is a light cake made with a sweet dough. In Seville, the dough is enriched with orange blossom water and adorned with slices of colorful glazed or candied fruit. The cake is then usually filled with whipped cream, although nowadays it is sometimes filled with a pudding-like filling or a transparent sweet filling called “angel hair” - cabello de ángel. A “surprise” is baked into the cake - a bean. According to tradition, whoever’s piece has the bean has to pay for the cake. If you are in our city, you can purchase a Roscón in many bakeries and pastry shops as well as grocery stores and markets.