World News for Students of English

11-12-2014 07:00

Visitors browsing the Christmas market in Dresden have got more than they bargained for. A giant piece of stollen.

Stollen is the German Christmas cake which Dresden is famous for. To mark St Nicholas’ Day, a giant version of the cake was displayed in the old city centre.

Tens of thousands of people watched the three-tonne stollen cake being carried on a horse-drawn carriage, as it made its way to the Striezelmarkt, the Christmas fair for the annual stollen fest.

The cake was cut by the head baker with a stollen knife, measuring 1.2 metres. Slices of this traditional cake then went on sale for a good cause.

Sixty-five bakers were busy for 3.5 weeks stirring, tasting and baking the giant masterpiece. More than one tonne of flour, 750 kilograms of butter, 200 kilograms of sugar and 1.5 million sultanas were used, as well as many litres of Jamaican rum.

The Dresden Christmas Market, or Striezelmarkt, has been held annually since 1434 and is named after an old word for stollen first mentioned in the early 14th century.

Difficult words: browse (to walk and look), bargain for (be prepared for; expect), mark (celebrate), fair (market), annual (happening every year), slice (thin piece), cause (movement; ideal), stir (move a spoon round and round in something), masterpiece (amazing achievement), sultana (a small, light brown, seedless raisin).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com