Every year in January, France celebrates an old Christian Holiday: l’Epiphany
It is now celebrated by anyone who enjoys gathering with friends and family to share la galette des Rois. For this celebration, you will need the following ingredients: a delicious almond cake with a hidden trinket, the youngest guest, a crown and, a little suspense. La galette is a round puff cake with a crunchy amber tint made with frangipane. You know it’s delicious when it smells like butter.
Inside the cake, there is a hidden trinket. Traditionally it was a real edible fava bean. The legend tells us that the one who finds the fava bean is made King or Queen and will have the honor to provide the next galette. But some sneaky ones would swallow the bean to avoid buying the next one! That’s how nowadays beans are trinkets made of porcelain.
The galette is cut into as many portions as there are guests, plus one slice to share for the poor. The youngest-supposedly the most innocent soul, is going to hide under the table with closed eyes, and randomly picks who will be served the first slice of cake. The kid will pick one guest at a time until everyone is served. The suspense and excitement are already traveling the room, and every guest and kid is hoping to find the bean.
Someone oversees a little hard object in the slice they are eating.
Hurray, C’est la fève*!
Somebody gets the golden paper crown and gives it to the lucky one who is now crowned King or Queen for the entire day.
On that special day, anybody can become King or Queen and get to choose their other half. The others still get to spend a good time while eating a special cake called la galette des Rois.