Vostochny Keks (Eastern Cake), Tsar-kulich — a Nizhny Novgorod culinary creation, conceived and popularized in the spring of 2004 as part of the Capital Status program.
Nature of the Phenomenon
Originally, the plan was to create and publicize a kulich — an Easter cake — of unprecedented size.
The meme arose from a mistranslation of the cake's English name: "Eastern Cake" (a cake from the East) instead of "Easter Cake" (a Paschal kulich). The error is believed to have originated in the project authors' press release.
The meme was spawned by a news bulletin from the NTA-Privolzhye agency, with the memorable headline: "Nizhny Novgorod's Tsar-kulich may be entered in the Guinness Book of Records as an Eastern Cake."
Coverage in the Mass Media
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22.04.2004 11:39
Nizhny Novgorod's giant Easter kulich may be entered in the Guinness Book of Records as an Eastern Cake. The thing is that the English equivalent of the Russian word "kulich" is "Easter cake" ("Eastern cake"). NTA-Privolzhye was informed of this by a source close to the creation of the kulich. According to the source, the application to have the Nizhny Novgorod record included in the Guinness Book is still under consideration, and no response has been received from the Book's London headquarters. To recap: for Easter, a unique Tsar-kulich was created in Nizhny Novgorod — the largest Easter kulich in the world. The kulich, which fed more than 5,000 Nizhny Novgorod residents, weighed 641.2 kilograms, stood 147 centimeters tall, and measured 110 centimeters in diameter. It was baked according to a special Stroganov recipe, which kept it from going stale for a long time. To produce this culinary marvel, 14 rings were baked and joined together with Easter fondant icing. As a result, when the kulich was cut, each person received a proper piece complete with "glaze," regardless of how deep into the cake their slice came from. Russia's new world record was registered by Aleksey Svistunov, president of the PARI agency and editor-in-chief of the Russian Book of Records. |
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Interesting Facts
- Like other creations produced under the "Capital Status" program of Presidential Envoy Kirienko Sergey Vladilenovich, the kulich was given the prefix Tsar in addition to its own name.
- Another phrase from the same dispatch that became a popular meme in its own right was the closing line: "…NTA-Privolzhye was informed of this by A source familiar with the making of kulich."