Epiphany in detail.
Why am I attempting this? Bruno, feel free to correct any of my errors in explaining this French tradition. I know other Christian countries also celebrate Epiphany, some more so than Christmas.Epiphany (6th Jan) celebrates the arrival of the three kings with their gifts. If you have a sister who lives in a French-speaking country, she can buy a pretty cardboard crown and little ceramic king and send you the recipe for the galette des rois, which I would describe as an almond paste pie. Very yummy. You hide the king in before baking and whoever has the piece with him inside gets to wear the crown. I think it is called a feve because it used to be a hard dried bean.
Further details Bruno? Does the finder of the feve get to be king for a day? Do people ever put money or other things in the cake? And why can't you bake any old cake recipe? And what does galette mean?
The above pic is a google image, and I think the little man looks more like a pastry chef, or a pastry chef apprentice than a king. Which could perhaps put someone in the position of pastry chef apprentice for a day. Wearing a crown.
posted by John and Sharon @ 17:02
4 comments
4 Comments:
hahahaaha! aaahhh
Such a good teacher...hmmm that would be a fun tradition to start...
I so want to be apprentice to the king for a day now.
I wonder..can it be a non almond cake for those who may have allergies...?
Thank you for clarifying...sounds like a great tradition! Do you have to use a special (non-plastic) king so that he doesn't melt?
Some further details:
All the feves I've seen are ceramic, but not always kings! In fact I don't know why I didn't buy the set of 6 Harry Potter feves I saw a few years ago - EVERYTHING becomes commercial!!
Apparently you can get different flavours - my bakery had apple ones, but I don't know if it's just an apple pie or what makes it keep its galette-ishness.
Further tradition: the king or queen puts the feve into the glass of someone of the opposite sex and then there is both a king and a queen!I've never seen any special treatment of the king or queen, except they get to wear the crown and call themselves king or queen. So it doesn't REALLY matter if it lasts longer than the meal.
That's all I got. I'll get Bruno to answer more of your questions later.
Also, if that pastry chef apprentice ever ends up in my galette, I'm going to have to stop fighting fate and give up this life and start a new one as a P.C.A.!
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