Rich Spiced Sweet Bread

This is typical of the sweet yeast breads that are made in the Valley of JL Oaxaca for the Days of the Dead, November 1 and 2. Often they are simple round loaves that are inset after baking with cameo-like images done in colored sugar and special decorative materials—for example, a woman’s face with golden earrings.

Gabriel Cruz Aguilar, a master baker in the town of San Antonino in the Valley of Oaxaca, uses this dough for his Days of the Dead loaves. In his wood-b