The Jealous Crumpet

A sweet little blog


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Happy Epiphany: Let Them Eat Cake!

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Today is the day that the three wise men FINALLY showed up to bring baby Jesus some sweet swag. In various parts of the world this is celebrated by eating a cake that has a trinket baked inside of it. The person that finds the trinket, without eating/choking on it, is dubbed king, given a paper crown and a year’s worth of bragging rights.

This year I spent Christmas in France with my husband and in-laws so so we celebrated Epiphany a bit early with Galette des rois (King Cake).

The french version of King Cake is lovely, with a buttery, flakey phyllo housing   sweet frangipane. The trinket or fève is of a nicer caliber than the misshapen plastic Jesus that typically adorns the American versions and can come in a variety of shapes and themes.

My mother-in-law has collected fèves most of her life and has a impressive collection tucked away in a coffee tin. Over the years people have added to her collection and she now has hundreds of miniatures.  There are nativity sets, Disney Characters, monuments, barn yard animals, 1920’s actors, books, etc. I love looking at the every Christmas when we visit.3

I ate my slice fastidiously, confident that THIS year I had the fève.  No fève. But no one got it, so we had to try again later than night at dinner.

I carefully ate tiny bits, not wanting to break or swallow the ceramic prize.  And the Queen was…

My husband. Every freakin year!

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The prize was an adorable ceramic book: Le Diamant de la Couronne (The Crown Diamonds.

But it wasn’t a totally loss for me.  After careful consideration and dagger looks from his wife, my husband dubbed me Queen of the King Cake and I got to wear the crown for a bit.

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Ignore the look of extreme jet lag and exhaustion.

It’s good to be Queen!

If you want to make your own King Cake you can get my recipe from last year. It is simple and easy because I am a lazy chef, but it was pretty tasty if I do say so myself.

https://thejealouscrumpet.com/2015/01/06/galette-des-rois/

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