an excuse to eat cakes all month long

This month has been the month of Epiphanie, where it is perfectly acceptable to eat sugary sweet cakes - Galette des Rois (Kings’ cake) - all month long. These cakes can be found in any boulangerie (french bakery) throughout France.

So what is… La Tradition?

1. With friends and family at the kitchen table, you nominate one person (often one of the kiddie winks) to crawl under the table and be the le main innocent.

2. Someone else needs to be the distributeur des parts (maybe one of the adults).

3. In french they say ‘tirer les rois‘ which means the distributeur cuts the galette into pieces and serves each piece to the person whose name has been called out by the child under the table (this ensures no cheating apparently!)

4. Lovingly mange (devour) the galette until someone announces that they have found la fève (a tiny porcelain figurine or trinket, sometimes a king or something else religious, or sometimes animals etc depending on the theme of the boulangerie).

5. Now is the time to crown the person who found the feve as the king or queen for the day, with a gold paper crown (included with the cake).

I am amazed at whether this tradition sends thousands of frenchies to the dentist with chipped teeth or prove to be a health hazard for littlies swallowing the little feve. Apparently not. It’s funny.

Two versions exist: the brioche (sweet cake) with fruit confits or the the flaky puff pastry one filled with frangipane below. I have tried them both and personally, I prefer the brioche but I also have an adversity to almonds so that might explain it. They are both extremely delicious. Luckily I was not subjected to wearing the silly paper crown