For Armenians, Sarkis is the patron saint of love and youth. They celebrate his feast day yearly at the end of January or early February. It is a very common holiday, and with any holiday, comes traditions. For Saint Sarkis day, Armenians make special types of desserts and one that stands out is a specialty of the Armenian community in the town of Anjar. It is a delicious vegan cake that by the name Koumba. Koumba or Kumba is usually prepared and consumed the night before the holiday. The fun part is that whoever is making the cake has to also hide a coin it. This coin is the lucky coin. Whoever ends up with the piece that has the coin will have the luckiest year among all ! So go get your coin, and scroll below to learn more about the Kumba recipe!
St Sarkis Koumba/Kumba – Գումպա Recipe
St Sarkis Koumba/Kumba – Գումպա
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cups olive oil
- 1/2 cup boiling water
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup raising
- 1/4 cup dried apricots diced
- 1/2 cup walnuts or almonds chopped
- 1/4 cup pine nuts extra to garnish
- 1/2 cup sesame seeds
Spices
- 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp mahlab
- 2 tsp baking powder
The Lucky Coin
- 1 piece coin wrapped in foil to hide inside for the lucky slice
Instructions
- Place the flour in a large skillet over medium-low heat and stir gently until the flour turns a light tan color.
- Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the sugar, spices and baking powder.
- Add the olive oil then the boiling water and mix until a thick dough is formed similar to a cookie dough; add the honey, nuts, raisins, apricots and mix to combine.
- Spread the dough in a greased (best to use sesame paste to grease the pan) and floured round pan (9 to 12″ in diameter), inserting the foil-wrapped coin.
- Cut a piece of plastic wrap and place it over the dough and with your fingers pat the dough to smooth it out.
- Sprinkle sesame seeds on the surface and garnish with almonds or walnuts or other nuts.
- Bake at 350F for about 25 minutes until the surface is dry and golden brown.
- Cool and Serve!
Recipes such as this one are hard to find. They aren’t commonly found in cookbooks. Our grandmothers are the ones who pass them to us. Now, it falls upon us to cherish and keep these recipes, and more importantly, these traditions – it’s actually very easy when the ask is simply bake a vegan with a lucky coin hidden inside of it.
That’s it for our Kumba recipe. For more cool recipes like this one, check the Food section of this blog !
Thank you for sharing this recipe. So looking forward to making this vegan Սուրբ Սարգիս cake.
This sounds delicious I need to give this recipe at try!
Thank you for sharing this special recipe from your culture. I agree that these are only given through word of mouth through generations. Will try it.