On January 6, The Feast of Epiphany or Little Christmas, a holy festival honoring the wise men coming to the infant Jesus, is celebrated.  This is one of the most popular eating traditions in France.  A "fève" - a small china figurine - is hidden in the galette before baking. The lucky guest who gets the fève is crowned king and chooses his queen among the other guests. This takes place all over France in every family, between friends and work colleagues. The children absolutely love the game.

Make the frangipane: In a bowl of a food processor, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Mix in the two eggs, the rum, the vanilla and the almond essence process. Add the ground almonds and flour, process together until you have a smooth paste. Reserve in refrigerator.

Roll the dough: Divide the pastry in half. Roll each half into a round disk of dough, one of 12-inch and the second of 13-inch diameter and let rest in cooler for 30 minutes.

Make the egg wash: Mix together until homogenize egg yolk and cold water and reserve.

Assemble: Place the 12 inches diameter pastry disk on a 12-inches pizza tray, and spoon the frangipane onto it, leaving a 1-inch margin all around. Hide the "fève" in the paste. Paint the pastry margin with the egg wash . Place the second round of pastry on top and gently press edges together. Trim any excess of dough around the tray with a knife . Press the dough with a fork , all around the edge and brush all over the top, with egg wash. Using the point of a wood skewer, make a lattice or star-shaped pattern on the pastry surface, but do not cut through the filling. Make a small whole in the center, to allow the steam to escape. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Bake the Galette for 30 to 35 minutes until the pastry is crisp and brown. Transfer to a rack and cool. When cool, serve with a gold crown on top, made with your own fair hands. Eat and discover who will be king or the queen of the feast, then crown them!

History: The history of the King's Cake travels back to the pre-Christian religions of Europe where a man was chosen to be the "sacred king" for a year and then sacrificed to ensure a good harvest. The method of choosing who would be the sacred king was through a King's Cake. A small nut or bean would be placed inside a cake before it was baked and whomever received the piece of cake containing the nut or bean was chosen as the sacred king. This tradition was carried down through the generations but was altered as the Christian religion became more prominent. The King's Cake was introduced to New Orleans with the French settlers around 1870 and is still a large part of the Carnival Season and Mardi Gras today.

The modern day King's Cake is centered around the Carnival Season which begins on January 6th. Also known as the Twelfth Night or Epiphany, January 6th is the day that the three Kings visited baby Jesus and brought him gifts. Christians all over the world celebrate this day by exchanging gifts and baking a cake in honor of the three Kings, the King's Cake. Today the cake is the center of many Mardi Gras festivities including King's Cake Parties that take place throughout the season of Mardi Gras. The cake is baked into the shape of a circle, some say to represent the unity of Christianity, others say to represent the circular path that the three King's took to visit baby Jesus in order to confuse King Herod who was following them with plans of killing the Christ Child.

It is adjourned with the colors of purple, green and gold to represent the three Kings. A plastic baby Jesus is now baked inside the cake instead of nuts and beans that were originally used. The concept behind the cake remains the same, whoever receives the piece of cake that has the baby Jesus is responsible for baking the next cake and hosting the next King's Cake party in order to continue the festivities.

Hundreds of King's Cakes are baked during the Mardi Gras season and enjoyed by everyone. Tradition says that the cakes are only to be baked between the days of January 6th and the first day of Lent - the Mardi Gras season.