Hallo (hello)! My name is Yohann and I’ll be your new Dutch blogger from now on.

Moving on to some business, I have a story for you that’ll bring a tear to your eyes. Wait, those are happy, mushy, gushy tears. Just a month ago my nephew was born. He’s a healthy, happy bouncing seven and half pound baby. He poops and pees on me all the time, but he’s so cute I don’t get mad.

Anyway, I was invited to have some Beschuit met muisje; in honor of my newphew’s birth. It’s a yummy Dutch tradition to serve Beschuit met muisje to any guests who visit the house of a newborn. Beschuit met muisjes literally means biscuits with little mice. No worries! It’s not actually made of real mice. (Thankfully).

Beschuit met muisjes are round and made of bread, butter and aniseed. Beschuit means biscuit, but it’s not a biscuit in the American sense of the word for biscuit. It’s more like a thick, crusty cake/bread. The aniseeds are supposed to represent the tails of little mice. Of all the animals you could choose to put on a cake, why mice? Well, the mouse symbolizes fertility in the Netherlands. Get it? Mouse = fertility= baby born (how that baby was conceived = fertility) and on and on.

Depending on the sex of the child, the color of the cake differs as well. This is easy. What would be the sex of the child if the cake is pink? A girl of course! What about a blue cake? Boy! This one’s a little tricky. What about a white one? Hermaphrodite! No, just kidding! White cakes symbolize the birth of a boy. What about an orange cake? Whether boy or girl orange cakes symbolize the birth of a member of royalty. The Dutch royal household traces its lineage to the House of Orange, hence its name.

This one goes out to my nephew Fijne Verjaadag (Happy Birthday)!