The Twelfth Night is a festival in some branches of Christianity marking the coming of the Epiphany and concluding the Twelve Days of Christmas,the cake traditionally celebrating Epiphany in France is called a galette des rois and consists of flaky puff pastry layers with a dense centre of frangipane.
Tradition holds that the cake is “to draw the kings” to the Epiphany. A figurine, la fève, which can represent anything from a car to a cartoon character, is hidden in the cake and the person who finds the trinket in their slice becomes king for the day and will have to offer the next cake and gets to wear the Twelfth night crown.
Originally, la fève was literally a broad bean (fève), but it was replaced in 1870 by a variety of figurines out of porcelain or—more recently—plastic. These figurines have become popular collectibles and can often be bought separately.
Formerly, one divided the cake in as many shares as guests, plus one. The latter, called “the share of God,” “share of the Virgin Mary,” or “share of the poor” was intended for the first poor person to arrive at the home. I know that in all cultures we have lost so many traditions and customs and I love researching and discovering foods related to these, I wish that we all joined in a little more with the true spirit of Christmas rather than the over commercial version that it has now become.
I made this delicious cake to share with my friends Fiona and Andrea yesterday, we sat enjoying tea, gingerbread and this delicious flaky delicacy, we laughed, we chatted and had a very fun and festive afternoon, I felt that we embraced the true meaning of coming together and sharing food, it was really lovely. I love the tradition behind this cake but I will also make it at other times of the year as it is so easy and delicious.
I am not sure if I will be able to add any new posts before Christmas, but please check out the Christmas section as there are so many lovely inspirational recipes there to enjoy, I hope you all come together with your loved ones, enjoys some truly fabulous food and make many wonderful memories.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to One and All
100g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
1 medium egg and 1 egg yolk, beaten
100g ground almonds
2 tablespoons of rum ( I used Baileys as I didn’t have rum & it was gorgeous)
500g puff pastry (homemade or shop brought)
a dried bean (optional)
beaten egg to glaze
icing sugar, for dusting
Heat the oven to 200C, 180 fan, gas mark 6.
Cream together the butter and sugar with an electric beater until pale, fluffy and white. Gradually beat in the eggs. Fold in the almonds and rum. You can play with this recipe and use different booze, different nuts, a fellow foodie Twitter friend suggested half almonds and half chopped pecans which I think would be lovely and give it some bite, also pistachios would be lovely.
Halve the pastry. Roll out one half to a 3mm thickness and cut out a 23cm diameter circle. Lay on a baking sheet.
Leaving a 2.5cm border, spreading the filling on to the pastry circle, doming it slightly in the middle. Push in the dried bean if using, into the mixture. Brush the border with beaten egg.
With the remaining pastry, roll out another circle just a little larger than the first. Place on top, easing the pastry over the almond mixture, and sealing and trimming the edges.
Decorate the edge of the pastry with scallop shapes using the back of a knife at regular intervals. Decorate the top by scoring curved cuts radiating from the centre to the edge; don’t cut right through the pastry. Chill until firm.
Bake for 30 minutes until golden and risen.
Dust with icing sugar and brown under a hot grill to glaze, watch it carefully as it will burn really quickly, if you have a blow torch this may work better.
Serve at room temperature.
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