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March 3, 2014

Galette des Rois (King's Cake)


Since it's Mardi Gras tomorrow I thought I'd post about the Galette des Rois (King's Cake) that I made a while ago.  Full disclosure: I had intended to make the cake at the beginning of January, just in time for Epiphany, but laziness got the better of me.  Luckily the cake is equally appropriate for Fat Tuesday, the day before Lent.  

My first introduction to galette des rois was in Dijon during my junior year study abroad.  I had moved over to France right at the beginning of January and all the bakeries were selling these frangipane filled puff pastry cakes.  I learned at school there was a fève, a figurine or trinket, buried inside each cake and whomever found it was crowned king or queen for the day.  

For my cake I used some homemade puff pastry and the filling came from David Lebovitz.  Most people don't have the time or inclination to make the laminated pastry from scratch, neither do I normally, so feel free to use the store-bought kind.   Be a little stingy when filling the cake with frangipane because you may end up with a bit of an explosion like I had!  In honor of the Lunar New Year I used a tiny ceramic horse to put inside. 

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous3/03/2014

    where did you get that darling ceramic horse? it would make a great gift for a friend of mine.

    ReplyDelete