In order to teach my children all about French culture, I decided to start a new tradition: bake a king cake for Epiphany or Three Kings’ Day, which is January 6th. Traditions vary from region to region. This year, I wanted to make a cake. Next year, I may opt for a galette (pastry) instead.

King Day Breakfast

We had a lot of fun with it. I hid a LEGO mini-figure in the cake and asked the youngest member of the family to sit under the table and decide who should get each slice.

The youngest sits under the table and decides the order of the slices.

The person who gets the slice with the mini-figure gets to wear a crown and be king or queen for a day. I am no Martha Stewart, but I managed to manufacture a card stock crown while the cake was baking. My daughter glued some beads on it and we stapled it to close it. In France, bakeries will sell the cake with a paper crown.

She happened to get the mini-figure in her slice

What do you know? She got la feve (fava bean in French, which is traditionally what they put in these cakes a long time ago). Maybe I should look for a baby for next year, as I hear they also use them in these cakes.

We crowned her queen for a day.

We had fun and thus started a new family tradition, all the while learning something extra about French culture. Vive la reine!

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