The Galette des rois tradition

The Galette des Rois (King Cake) tradition is one of my favorite traditions that I've done every year here and I never thought to tell everyone about it! I usually do this with Thibaut's parents, but since I'm not in Alsace anymore I had to have my own little party for it. King cake is sold in bakeries and stores just a few weeks out of the year, in the middle of January. It's a flaky cake with a filling, usually something called frangipane or sometimes chocolate or apple. There is a trinket or charm (called une fève in French) baked inside of every cake, and when you buy the cake it comes with a crown. When it's time for dessert, you heat up the cake, cut it evenly for as many people are there are, and you choose someone (usually the youngest, or in this case Thibaut since it was for his birthday) to go under the table and call out names for every plate. The person that finds the little charm inside of their piece becomes king or queen for the day, and gets to wear the crown.

I swear we didn't cheat, but we had 2 king cakes this year, and Thibaut and I both got the charms! So we were the "king and queen" of the day. His charm was a little loaf of bread and mine was a random character from Narnia. The charms can really be anything. I have a little collection that I've kept from the past couple of years!

Unfortunately it's not possible to find these cakes in the States, except for in New Orleans. The tradition there is that you have to find the little baby that's baked into the cake, and whoever finds it has to buy the next cake. Not very fun! One of my friends won it once and hid it in her pocket because she didn't want to buy the next cake! I think I prefer the French way.