La galette des rois

Here are a few images of what we've been walking by this week in our nearby bakery windows:

All these cakes, or "galettes" are to celebrate the Epiphany that happens here in France the first Sunday after New Years.  It is to recognize the day that the three kings, Melchior from Europe, Gaspar (or Caspar) from Asia and Balthazar from Africa, arrived in Bethlehem to see baby Jesus. Consequently, these cakes are called "les galettes des rois".

As you'll notice in these photos, there are two main types of cakes to choose from in our town.  The first is the traditionally Southern France doughnut shaped cake with candied fruit on top.  The second is a flaky pastry cake filled with an almond, butter, eggs and sugar filling called "la frangipane" that hails from the north of the country. As none of these options had chocolate as an ingredient, Lily wasn't too bothered about which one we brought home, but the remaining three family members were hands-down for the flaky pastry option.

Here's our galette.  And, we sort of ate it for lunch... only it.  Please note though, we all had a super healthy dinner tonight.

I read that this day was originally a pagan festival when the Romans celebrated Saturnalia, their festival of the winter solstice.  It was during this celebration that the Romans would bake a bean, "une fève", in a cake and the slave that found it was allowed to be king for the day.

The French still talk about the fève to be found inside, but today it's a little figurine of one of the Wise Men and whoever finds the mini-king in their slice gets to wear the crown and be queen or king for the day.

Here's the little guy who popped out of Grace's piece of galette.

Dum-da-da-dum!!  Introducing Queen Grace for the day.

I think I'll tuck Grace's little king away and take him back home just in case I actually try to bake a home-made version of this frangipane filled galette back in my British Columbia kitchen in 2018!