Kingly pastry cake

ON January 6, the feast of the Epiphany, the French enjoy 50 million Galette des Rois to celebrate the Festival of Kings. The flaky pastry cake has a soft filling of delicious frangipane. Inside is hidden a Feve. Originally it was a broad bean, but nowadays it is more likely to be a tiny porcelain or hard plastic figure.

The ‘Kings’ being celebrated are Balthazar, Gaspar and Melchior who came on the Epiphany – to the manger to shower baby Jesus with gifts. But what is the significance of the broad bean? Well, apparently this legume is similar in shape to the human embryo and is the first to emerge from the ground after winter. It represents the gift of the earth, fertility and new life.

The ceremony of the Galette des Rois dates back to the middle ages, but I first came across the tradition when I au-paired in France in the 1960s. Madame asked me to pop around to the local Boulangerie to collect a special galette. It resembled a gateau pithivier but was accompanied by a gold paper crown.