Let Them Eat Cake — King’s Cake
Tradition is one of the best gifts we can give to our children. With arguably the most popular holiday of the year behind us and decorations neatly tucked away, we asked the Village community to share traditions from around the world with us.
By Nazila P., Parent of Upstanding Unicorn Lila
At the beginning of every year, French bakeries are filled with a special cake: la galette. More than just a cake, this pastry is a beloved tradition. La Galette des Rois originally was associated with the festival of Epiphany at the end of Christmas season.
Like all French people, our family celebrates the Galette des Rois. Although it is not a religious celebration in France anymore, everybody celebrates it and likes to eat King’s cakes. French people actually spend almost the whole month of January eating King’s cakes: at work, at school, at home and with friends and family.
The King’s cake contains one or two hidden surprises: a dried field bean and/or a tiny porcelain figurine called the fêve. The person who gets the figurine in their piece of cake gets to wear the paper crown and is the king or the queen for the day. They also will have to offer the next cake. At work for example, the person who gets the “fêve” has to buy another cake for the following days and this is why we end up eating King’s cakes twice a week at work in January.
This year, even in the United States, we were lucky to get invited several times for the Galette. In the picture below, we were invited to a friend of our daughter’s, whose mom made us one “Galette des Rois” and one “Gateau des Rois”.
Depending on which region of France you are in, the type of King’s cake can be different.
- “Galette des Rois” is a puff pastry cake usually filled with frangipane, a cream made from sweet almonds, eggs and sugar.
- “Gateau des Rois” (King’s cake), also called “Couronne de Rois” (king’s crown) is an O-shaped brioche with candied fruits and sugar on top. It is common in the South of France, around the Mediterranean Sea.
The tradition is for everyone to gather and cut the famous cake. The youngest child, our daughter and her friend, went under the table to name who gets each slice of cake. This is the tradition to ensure a random distribution of the cake slices, as everyone wants to get the fêve. Whoever finds the charm hidden inside his or her piece of cake is crowned king/queen and brings the next cake. The fêve figurines have become popular collectibles, and our children usually fight for them.
This year we ate some very good cakes, but we had no crowns and no figurines, so our children were a bit disappointed. We have to plan and import some porcelain figurines from France for next year!
Lila’s and Adam’s collection of “fêves” from France