Epiphany Cake of the Kings

Hello my lovelies!!

We are deep into the “galette des rois” season (cake of the Kings), could I avoid posting a recipe? Certainly not…

I haven’t always been a huge fan of the frangipane-filled tart. Until that day, when I opened my pastry bible at the right page… I mean page 144 of the book “Sensations” from Philippe Conticini!! I know!! Him again! 😉

So to put it in a few words, this recipe is a killing!! But a delicious, soft, smooth killing with a perfectly balanced taste of almonds.

(photo above taken in January 2020 with “reverse” puff pastry)

The recipe isn’t difficult to follow actually, but, as always, you get the right tips from the Chef that will ensure success at each time. You will start with a vanilla custard, then an almond cream and that’s it!

The assembly of your galette is an important part of your success here, this is why I will show you most of the step by step.

I decided to make several galettes and I chose round fluted pastry cutters from De Buyer, it will give a nice shape to the borders of your Kings cake.

For the frangipane, I also used round pastry cutters in order to have a perfect distribution on the puff pastry. It is important that you don’t put cream on the side of the pastry in order to have a good adherence between the two puff pastries…

Super important step now… Do not forget to bury the bean in the almond cream!! I may insist a little bit on this point, but it happened to me a few times!! 😉 and once you’ve placed your pastry on top of the cream, it’s going to be very messy!!

I added then the top puff pastry (I made marks with the tip of a paring knife, you can make the shapes you want).

Finaly, I added a egg and milk mixture to have a nice golden color!

You will probably notice that I used puff pastries that I bought at the supermarket (I was lazy on that part I admit) and look how it turned out! 🙂 But you can make your own puff pastry, it’s really much better ! Or with homemade “reverse” puff pastry as below.

(Photo taken in January 2020)

Shall we now? The recipe, Chef!

Print Recipe

Epiphany Cake of the Kings

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Serves: 10 Difficulty: Medium Price: $

Cooking Time: 2 hours

Ingredients

• 2 puff pastries (280 g each)
• 200 g vanilla custard (recipe on the blog)
• 2 eggs (90 g approx)
• 110 g butter at room temperature
• 110 g almond powder
• 110 g iced sugar
• 60g white rhum
• 1/2 teaspoon of flower salt
• 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of milk
• A little bit of iced sugar for the final glazing

Instructions

1

Make 200 g of vanilla custard (recipe in "basics" on the blog)

2

Mix the butter with almond powder and iced sugar in your food processor.

3

When you get an homogeneous mixture, place the whip in your food processor and add the eggs one by one.

4

Add the vanilla custard and keep whipping slowly (speed 2 on a scale from 1 to 6).

5

Add the flower salt and the rhum and whip again at hight speed (speed 5 on a scale from 1 to 6).

6

Set aside in your fridge for 15-20 minutes so that the cream thickens.

7

Unroll your puff pastries.

8

Mound the frangipane cream in the center, do not get closer than 1 cm-1,5 cm form the border.

9

Place the bean in the cream!

10

Decorate the second pastry with the tip of a paring knife.

11

Place the second pastry on the first one.

12

Make sure not to leave air bubbles between the cream and pastry. Press gently the edges together.

13

Make 5 cuts to help the steam get out of your galette during baking.

14

Beat the egg and milk and brush the cake.

15

Set aside in your fridge for 45 minutes.

16

After 35 minutes, preheat your oven at 175 degrees.

17

Brush again the cake with the egg and milk mixture.

18

Bake for 30 minutes.

19

At the end of the baking, remove your galette from the oven, and turn the oven on 250 degrees.

20

Sprinkle the cake with iced sugar.

21

Place the galette in the oven for one minute (no more!)

Notes

The second layer of egg and milk mixture gives a nice golden color to your frangipane Kings cake. If you have too much almond cream, don't put all of it on your pastry, otherwise it will run out.