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The French King Cake

Posted on janvier 4th, 2009 by claudie.
Categories: Non classé, cuisine, culturel, french king cake.

“La galette des rois or the Cake of the kings is a cake  celebrating the Epiphany and traditionally sold and consumed a few days before and after this date. In modern France, the cakes can be found in most bakeries during the month of January. The cake consists of flaky puff pastry layers with a dense center of frangipane.

Tradition holds that the cake is “to draw the kings” to the Epiphany. A figurine, which can represent anything from a car to a cartoon character, is hidden in the cake and the person who finds the trinket “la fève” (literally the broad bean) in their slice becomes king for the day and will have to offer the next cake. Broad beans were initially used, but they were replaced in 1870 by figurines out of porcelain or - more recently - plastic. Nevertheless, these trinkets are still called “fèves.” As there is a wide variety of figurines, they are popular collectibles and can often be bought separately. Individual bakeries may offer a specialized line of fèves depicting diverse themes from great works of art to classic movie stars and popular cartoon characters. The cakes are usually sold in special bags, some of which can be used to heat the cake in a microwave without ruining the crispness of the cake. A paper crown is included with the cake to crown the “king” who finds the fève in their piece of cake. To ensure a random distribution of the cake shares, it is traditional for the youngest person to place themselves under the table and name the recipient of the share which is indicated by the person in charge of the service.”

Wikipedia is an excellent way to explain this tradition in France.

Today was the day to taste this cake but I didn’t… I will cook one next sunday with family and fest my birthday in the same time.

A journalist, on TV gave this adress: http://doriannn.blogspot.com/

saying it was an excellent recipe and very cheap about 5 euros. I will try it and will give the recipe to you depending my result! this blog looks very nice for cookers but only in french language.

Here the King cake I bought last year for my birthday.

 Jean-Baptiste Greuze, ‘’Le gateau des Rois'’, 1774 (Musée Fabre). Shows King cake tradition.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze (21 August 1725 – 4 March 1805) was a French painter.

I found this painting on Wikipedia, of course.

Tomorrow, holiday comes at end! And I wish you all a great great week!

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