There are more than a dozen cakes in the new collection, all served with sweet toppings that reflect centuries of meaning and symbolism.

In Japan, the New Year’s period is filled with important traditions that have been passed down over the years. There’s the custom of putting up special kadomatsu pine decorations to welcome the gods to your home, as well as the practice of handing out otoshidama money gifts to young family members, and while little changes in terms of staid traditions, when it comes to food, big companies and retailers are constantly combining the old with the new to attract our interest year after year.

Japanese retail chain Ginza Cozy Corner is one such company that does a fantastic job of thrilling customers with their special limited-edition offerings, and this year they’ve taken the concept of the traditional osechi New Year’s boxed meal to new places with a collection that’s cute, tasty, and filled with all the traditional symbolism you’d expect to find at this time of the year.

At the centre of the collection is the Cake Osechi, which comes in a boxed set of nine mini cakes for 2,376 yen (US$21.08) or 12 for 3,024 yen. Osechi, in its traditional savoury form, is known for containing a variety of foods chosen for their auspicious connotations, and this cake set does an impressive job of including some lucky New Year’s symbolism of its own.

The nine-piece set contains several tarts, one with an image of a cute dog, in reference to 2018 being the Year of the Dog, and another designed to resemble the distinctive citrus-topped kagami mochi New Year’s rice cake decoration. The kadomatsu pine tree decorations are there too, sitting on either side of the set as they would outside a front door.

The 12-box set contains all the same mini cakes as the nine-piece set, with the addition of a gold-flecked chocolate cake and two cheesecakes for extra sweetness.

In addition to the mini cake sets, Ginza Cozy Corner will be adding a couple of small sponge cakes to their limited-edition range. There’s the Year of the Dog Cake for 540 yen…

▼ And the Daruma Cake, also for 540 yen.

If you prefer to celebrate with a whole cake, you can try the beautifully decorated New Year’s Greetings Fruits Cake for 3,132 yen.

The New Year’s Greetings Eight Assorted Cakes saves time on cake-cutting with a beautiful array of slices topped with New Year’s decorations for 3,348 yen.

And to help celebrate the New Year, Ginza Cozy Corner will be giving away a free Dog Sable cookie to the first 50 customers at each store who buy a cake on New Year’s Day.

 

With so many special treats on offer, any of these cute creations are sure to be a hit with friends or family during the New Year period. The only trouble will be choosing which one to enjoy for yourself as you wrestle with those sweet-denying resolutions!

Source, images: PR Times