Gallette des rois

It's Twelfth Night, the day when the Christmas decorations traditionally come down (as did mine this morning)

Over 30 years ago we went to France for Christmas in our camper van.  I remember how cold it was and the frozen toothpaste! I also remember the French people all going tothe cemetaries with flowers and the amazing chocolate creations in the patisseries.

After Christmas I saw the Gallette des rois in all the boulangeries and supermarke. They looked most tempting so of course I bought one (without knowing the tradition).

Twelfth Night is also the Feast of Epiphany (arrival of the Wise men to visit baby Jesus in Bethlehem) and the French tradition refers to this.

The Galette de rois or King's Cake is a delicious puff pastry tart filled with an almond filling. It contains a small figure buried inside the tart ( a bit like the old sixpence hidden in the Christmas pudding here) and comes with a cardboard crown.

I found out afterwards that whoever gets the figure becomes king for the day and wears the crown.  The blip is of my figure and crown which luckily I kept.  This figure is ceramic and apparently these traditional ones are now collector's items as modern ones are mostly made of plastic.