King Cakes are Here!
Tomorrow starts Epiphany and our French Pastry Chef Julien is sharing his Epiphany cake with us all! Julien hails from St Tropez France, and after his formal training in France, he landed in America where he worked in both California and Las Vegas before coming to Boulder as the Executive Pastry Chef at The Med. When the Med closed last year we were lucky enough to snag him for ourselves. Julien's wife Teresa is a sommelier at Black Cat in Boulder.
Epiphany, a Christian holiday celebrated on January 6th, marks the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of Carnival (which concludes with the beginning Lent). January 6th, which is 12 days after Christmas in the Gregorian calendar, is also known as Twelfth Night. It can get confusing to those not schooled in the tradition. Epiphany is also known as Three Kings Day, the Day of Kings and Feast Of The Kings (Fête des Rois in French). It’s the day that the Three Kings (les rois) appeared in Bethlehem bearing gifts for Baby Jesus. And it’s celebrated with a special cake, Galette des Rois (Cake Of The Kings, a.k.a. King Cake). HOW TO CELEBRATE EPIPHANY Epiphany is celebrated with parties for children and adults alike.
Whatever the food served, the “must have” is a Galette Des Rois, otherwise known as an Epiphany Cake. The cake is a frangipane tart. In France, people enjoy it throughout January, regardless of religious background. Composed of two circles of puff pastry (pâte feuilleté) with frangipane (almond-enhanced pastry cream) in between, each cake comes with a hidden charm or other trinket, called a fève, or bean†, baked into it. A gold paper crown, provided by the baker, sits on top. The person who gets the slice with the charm becomes “king” or “queen” for the day, and gets to wear the gold paper crown. But it’s an entailed honor: By tradition, the king or queen has to provide next year’s galette. Most people head to the nearest French bakery to buy a Galette Des Rois. Hiding some type of token in food is a pre-Christian tradition, with roots in the Roman feast of Saturnalia. When the Church later instituted the Feast of The Epiphany to celebrate the arrival of the three wise kings, the tradition of the bean in the cake remained. The Galette Des Rois as we know it first appeared in the 14th-century. Before the custom of the gold paper crown emerged (probably in the 19th century), the cake was covered with a white napkin and carried into the dining room. The tradition was adopted by other countries, to a more or less extent. In the south of France, the preference is for a brioche-style cake covered with candied fruit. In Western France, the cake is shortbread-style with fillings such as chocolate-pear and raspberry [source and recipe]. In the U.K., in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, fruitcakes with a hidden bean were covered in marzipan and topped with crowns. The day was reserved for revelry and games. During the French Revolution, when King Louis XVI was beheaded, the feast still occurred—but the cake was renamed “Gâteau de l’Egalité” (cake of equality). Even though the cake referred to the Three Wise Men, since the cry of the people was “Down with the King,” anything called “king” was renamed. In New Orleans a similar cake, called King Cake, is used for Mardi Gras, the bookend to the Carnival season. The cake is different—a yeast cake decorated in sugars the colors of New Orleans: purple, gold and green. There’s no crown.
Where Julian comes from near St. Tropez, their local celebration includes placing a “fève” which for us will be a small bean in the cake. The cake is then sliced, and the youngest person in the group will sit underneath the table and dictate who gets to eat each slice. When the lucky person finds the “fève” in their slice they then get to wear the golden crown and become king or queen for the night. They are supposed to throw the next party or buy the next galette or maybe just get stuck doing all of the dishes that night, but they will do so with the pride of finding the fève! Our King Cake is about 9", and will make at least 6 slices.
The bean or fève that comes with the cake was grown and saved by Rich Pecoraro at Masa Seed Foundation in Boulder, and the paper crown was cut by hand by Phillippa today before the sun even came up!
Here's a lovely rendition of Auld Lang Syne from Alexa Wildish. We had Alexa lined up for a farm dinner concert back in March of 2019 that was cancelled. Can't wait to have her come back to a Moxie party soon.