The 6th January means all the Christmas decorations are down. Something I find rather depressing to be honest – it feels rather like undoing Christmas But it shouldn’t feel like that because the 6th January is actually Epiphany which used to be, in the past, a day of celebration on par with Christmas Day itself. A day of fun and celebration. Ok so in this day and age we don’t really celebrate Epiphany but it still does mean one very important thing that I do every year – make (and eat) a Galette des Rois.
This rather unprepossessing “cake” is supposedly made to celebrate the arrival of the Three Kings at Bethlehem. It actually isn’t a cake as we would think of one, it’s buttery puff pastry filled with almond frangipane cream and, in my version, fresh pears, although you could used tinned or leave out altogether. It really is absolutely yummy. You need to make one – diets don’t count on feast days after all!
In France it is the centre of the main fun of the day. They serve the Galette with a gold paper crown on top and put a charm in the Galette (a bean or a China figure) and the person who finds it becomes king or queen for the day and wears the crown – and then everyone has to do as they command. I am sure you can imagine just how much fun that could turn out to be – particularly if you are the one wearing the crown! Continue reading