National Kouign Amann Day Date in the current year: June 20, 2024

Kouign amann (pronounced “queen ah-mahn”) is a Breton cake that originated in the commune of Douarnenez in the Finistère department of Brittany around 1860. Its name is literally translated from the Breton language as “butter cake”.

According to one of its origin stories, kouign amann was accidentally invented by a baker named Yves-René Scordia, who had to improvise with leftover bread dough when he unexpectedly ran out of desserts. He combined the dough, a healthy amount of sugar, and the “laminating” technique used to make croissants to create a buttery cake that has since become popular across the world, from the United States to Japan.

Kouign amann is a round multi-layered cake similar to puff pastry. Traditionally, it is baked as a large cake and cut into slices before serving, but many bakeries, especially in North America, have started to serve individual cupcake-sized cakes, called kouignettes (literally “small cakes”).

Kouign amann consists of yeast-leavened dough with layers of butter and sugar folded in. According to the traditional recipe, the cake must contain 40% dough, 30% butter, and 30% sugar. Kouign amann is baked slowly to achieve a layered structure resulting from the butter puffing up the dough and a caramelized sugar crust. The resulting cake resembles a muffin-shaped croissant, sugary and crispy on the outside and soft and moist inside.

The origin of most unofficial food days is unclear, but National Kouign Amann Day is a pleasant exception. The holiday was created in 2015 by b. Patisserie, a San Francisco bakery that specializes in French style pastries. The date was chosen to commemorate the day the bakery opened. It was approved by the Registrar of National Day calendar, and the rest is history!

To celebrate National Kouign Amann Day, buy this delicious pastry from your local bakery or try your hand at baking it yourself, and invite your friends for tea or coffee with kouign amann. Don’t forget to snap a picture before eating and share it on social media, using the hashtag #NationalKouignAmannDay.