The Palmer's: Gallette des Rois

Gallette des Rois in french means Kings Cake. Yesterday, with Niels' help, I made one! This is the first time I've ever made and even though it didn't taste exactly like the one's I had in France, it was still yummy and it looked like it should have. The Kings Cake is "associated with the festival of Epiphany in the Christmas season in a number of countries, and in other places with the pre-Lenten celebrations of Mardi Gras / Carnival. It is a popular food item during the Christmas season (Christmas Eve to Epiphany) in Lebanon, France, Belgium, Quebec and Switzerland (galette or gâteau des Rois), Portugal (bolo rei), Spain, and Spanish America (roscón or rosca de reyes and tortell in Catalonia), Greece and Cyprus (vasilopita) and Bulgaria (banitsa)" (Wikipedia.com).

My parents were telling me on Sunday about how the Spanish Branch they're in for their inner-city mission how they celebrate the Wise Men finding the baby Jesus on January 6th and how they had a cake with a trinket in it that was usually of the Savior as a baby. I immediately thought of the gallette des rois and wondered if was celebrated for that reason (I admit I didn't know of the significance of this in the month of January in France while I was there) and so I decided to find out, and it was because of the Epiphany. I immediately thought of making one to have as a family home evening treat. I googled one and found a recipe at this site http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2010/01/homemade_galette_des_rois.php. It wasn't that difficult to make. I couldn't find one ingredient so we substituted it, even though I found that nothing could really substitute it. The ingredient I couldn't find was the Orange Flower Water and we used water and a little orange zest. This type of water is more for aroma and has more of a flower-y type flavor and not really orange. We did what we could, and like I said, it still came out good. The website also tells you how you go about serving the cake which is "Have one of the guests (usually the youngest) hide under the table if he's willing, or at least cover his eyes or turn his back to the table. Cut the galette into servings and, for each serving, have the guest decide who should have it. If your guests are unfamiliar with the tradition, make sure you warn everyone that a fève may be hiding in their slice. Whoever finds it is king/queen for the day, receives a paper crown, and gets to pick his/her queen/king (or king/queen for that matter) by giving her/him the second paper crown" (key: feve=little procelain trinket or a dried bean).

I found my two crowns I won as a missionary and one of the trinkets, so I washed it and put it in the cake. Here are some pictures:

It doesn't looke the best, but hey, it was my first try at it