La ''Galette des Rois'', the king's cake: the delicious recipe and workshops you can do around with the kids...

Hi guys!

For this months of January, "the king's cake" will be my subject. In France, the tradition of serving this frangipane-filled tart can be traced back to the 14th century. A small bean, coin or porcelain fève is baked inside the cake, and whoever receives the little favor is then crowned king or queen of the day, to ensure no cheating, the youngest goes under the table and select to who goes each piece of the cake. Then the crowned king pick his queen or the crowned queen her king.

Last year was my first time baking this King's cake and I realized how easy it was I could not believe it! A lot of recipes are available on the net but usually they are on the heavy side using only an almond cream filling, the secret is to mixed the almond cream with some pastry cream, believe me, much lighter, less sweet and delicious!

So this year I made our King's cake, the crowns and the fève with the kids, we had a really good time!!!

The making of the "fève":
For that we used the modeling clay FIMO, you can of course make any shape you want, it just needs to be not bigger that 2x2 cm, when you finished with you shapes, bake them at 110º for maximum 30 minutes and then they become hard like plastic.

The modeling clay, FIMO

Matilda and Manu in the making...

And Jack...

Jack's snake...

And I made tiny little pastries...

The making of the crowns:
Easy peasy, let them draw the shape of crown and decorate them with stickers, sequins, anything you have in hands...

  

The making of the King's cake: 

The King's Cake:

You will need :

- a pastry cream

- an almond cream
- 2 tablespoons of Disaronno (italian liquor) or rum

- 2 already made puff pastries

- an egg
-1 fève

for the pastry cream, you will need:

- 3 egg yolks 

- 80 g sugar

- 2 tablespoons flour

- 400 ml milk

In a bowl, mix the eggs with the sugar and the flour.
Add the hot milk into the bowl, mix well
Put this mixture in a saucepan, let it cook at low/medium heat, stirring at all time until it thickens.
Let it cool down, then put it aside in the fridge covered.
Your pastry cream is done!

for the almond cream, you will need:

- 3 egg yolks

- 125g finely grated almond

- 100g sugar

- 125g room temperature butter

Mix the soft butter with the sugar until smooth and pale.
Mix in the yolks and the grated almond.

Your almond cream is done!

Preheat your oven at 180º C.

To make the "frangipane", the filling of the King's cake, mix the pastry cream with the almond cream.
Add the liquor, mix very well.
Paint the edge of the first puff pastry with the egg yolk (2 cm).

Spread the frangipane in the center.
Add the fève. If using the one you made in Fimo clay, wrap it first in foil.
I made this one in porcelain so no need to wrap it.

Put delicately the second puff pastry on top, try to not leave any air inside and press the edge.

Paint allover the tart with the egg yolk (add  a drop of water if you want to make the yolk more liquid).

Decorate with a small knife, be careful not to pierce the puff pastry.

Make 2 or 3 incisions for the air to escape during the baking.
Bake for 25/30 minutes or until nice and gold.

And ta daaa!!!!
A beautiful galette des rois!

And there you have it! Wonderful time with the kids in the making with a delicious cake to enjoy all together at the end!!! Mmmmmh, bon appétit!!

Miss Drey

Hi guys!

For this months of January, "the king's cake" will be my subject. In France, the tradition of serving this frangipane-filled tart can be traced back to the 14th century. A small bean, coin or porcelain fève is baked inside the cake, and whoever receives the little favor is then crowned king or queen of the day, to ensure no cheating, the youngest goes under the table and select to who goes each piece of the cake. Then the crowned king pick his queen or the crowned queen her king.

Last year was my first time baking this King's cake and I realized how easy it was I could not believe it! A lot of recipes are available on the net but usually they are on the heavy side using only an almond cream filling, the secret is to mixed the almond cream with some pastry cream, believe me, much lighter, less sweet and delicious!

So this year I made our King's cake, the crowns and the fève with the kids, we had a really good time!!!

The making of the "fève":
For that we used the modeling clay FIMO, you can of course make any shape you want, it just needs to be not bigger that 2x2 cm, when you finished with you shapes, bake them at 110º for maximum 30 minutes and then they become hard like plastic.

The modeling clay, FIMO

Matilda and Manu in the making...

And Jack...

Jack's snake...

And I made tiny little pastries...

The making of the crowns:
Easy peasy, let them draw the shape of crown and decorate them with stickers, sequins, anything you have in hands...

  

The making of the King's cake: 

The King's Cake:

You will need :

- a pastry cream

- an almond cream
- 2 tablespoons of Disaronno (italian liquor) or rum

- 2 already made puff pastries

- an egg
-1 fève

for the pastry cream, you will need:

- 3 egg yolks 

- 80 g sugar

- 2 tablespoons flour

- 400 ml milk

In a bowl, mix the eggs with the sugar and the flour.
Add the hot milk into the bowl, mix well
Put this mixture in a saucepan, let it cook at low/medium heat, stirring at all time until it thickens.
Let it cool down, then put it aside in the fridge covered.
Your pastry cream is done!

for the almond cream, you will need:

- 3 egg yolks

- 125g finely grated almond

- 100g sugar

- 125g room temperature butter

Mix the soft butter with the sugar until smooth and pale.
Mix in the yolks and the grated almond.

Your almond cream is done!

Preheat your oven at 180º C.

To make the "frangipane", the filling of the King's cake, mix the pastry cream with the almond cream.
Add the liquor, mix very well.
Paint the edge of the first puff pastry with the egg yolk (2 cm).

Spread the frangipane in the center.
Add the fève. If using the one you made in Fimo clay, wrap it first in foil.
I made this one in porcelain so no need to wrap it.

Put delicately the second puff pastry on top, try to not leave any air inside and press the edge.

Paint allover the tart with the egg yolk (add  a drop of water if you want to make the yolk more liquid).

Decorate with a small knife, be careful not to pierce the puff pastry.

Make 2 or 3 incisions for the air to escape during the baking.
Bake for 25/30 minutes or until nice and gold.

And ta daaa!!!!
A beautiful galette des rois!

And there you have it! Wonderful time with the kids in the making with a delicious cake to enjoy all together at the end!!! Mmmmmh, bon appétit!!

Miss Drey

A pretty fairy tea party...

 Hi lil'guys!

Matilda has been asking me for a tea party for a few weeks now, just with her closest friends... And because it was just for a play date, I decided to go for the lowest budget that I could go for, so here it is what I came up with...

Any party, small or big needs a pretty invitation,
Matilda drew sweet fairy version of her guest friends and herself, I wrote their name on top of each silhouette, then I photocopied them 6 times (5 guests + 1 for Matilda for keepsake), cut each little fairies in a petal shape; I had some pretty paper in my "art" cupboard, I glued my 6 petals into a flower on it, then cut the edges following the petals, I finished by cutting two circles and glued them in the center as heart of the flower...
Of course at the back, I wrote the the details of the party, the date and the time, the address and a little map if necessary, a phone number/email address with a date to RSVP. I do write usually the programme of the party but it is not a must. Here are them!!!....They are so cute!!!...

For the Fairy Tea Party table,

We will need obviously tea cups and saucers, pretty plates for the "finger food" and a cupcake stand (they are so elegant on a party table...) So i got some paper cups, dessert plates and normal paper plates, all in white...

First, I took a small paper plate and cut the edge like this...



Then I took a bigger one and cut the edge as well like that...

I took a cup that I glued upside down in the middle of the big plate (with white glue),

And the small plate on top, like this...

To make it a little bit more fancy i added a cup on top, that I cut in half first, and finished off with the same pattern of the plate... Then glued little half plastic marbles to my stand a little shiny... There you have it, a beautiful fairy cupcake stand...

Ok, now the tea cups, we will need paper cups and the dessert size paper plates.



Cut the paper cup as shown above...
You will end up with this.




Then secure the long bit under the cup, it should hold by itself but if you are not too sure you can glue it with white glue.



And I finished the tea cup by glueing a little plastic marble at the top of the handle.

For the saucer, a paper dessert plate that I cut all around the borders like flower petals.
Here is the result... Beautiful fairy tea cups and saucers..

 

 


For the food, I made some fairy wand biscuits for each of the guest.



Recipe of the biscuit:

50g soft butter
75g sugar
1 egg yolk
1teaspoon clear honey
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 teaspoon milk
125g flour

Baking tray
Baking paper
Star cutter
Skewers

Fondant, different colors
Icing pens

Preheat your oven at 180°C

1- Beat the butter and the sugar until white and fluffy, then mix in the egg yolk.
2- Stir in the honey, vanilla essence and milk. Add the flour into the bowl, then mix with a spoon.
3- Use your hands to squeeze the mixture until you make a ball of dough, if too dry add a drop of milk, if too sticky add a spoon of flour.
4- Sprinkle a work surface with flour, then roll out the dought until it is about 5 mm thick. Use the cutter to cut out the stars.
5- Cover the baking tray with the baking paper, then put the stars onto it, and finish by inserting a skewer in each of them. Squeeze the scraps into a ball, roll them out again and cut out more shapes.
6- Bake them for 6 to 8 minutes, then carefully take them out of the oven. Leave them to cool on the baking tray.
7- Sprinkle a work surface with icing sugar, then roll out the fondant until is about 2-3 mm thick. Use the same cutter to cut out the stars.
8- Wet with a little water a star biscuit, then top it up with a star fondant, press lightly over to stick them together. Write the name of the guest with the icing pen.

I obviously made some cupcakes...

You will find the recipe in a previous post dated of April 23th, 2012.

I just found those Lavender Petal Baking cups, they are from the brand Wilton ( check out their website, they have amazing stuff! ) I thought there were beautiful and perfect for my fairy theme, but seeing the result!!... I was blown away!! They are just exquisite!...



As it was not for a party, I didn't make too much food, I served my homemade lemonade and I bought some sweets.

Now, everything is in the set up of the table, I picked all the little fairy toys that Matilda had, I spread a white table clothe, arrange the tea cups and saucers, the cupcake stand, found a Playmobil plant stand that I used to showcase my magic wand biscuits, place every toys carefully on the table, then the food. Matilda came back from the garden with beautiful flowers she picked from the garden, so of course we placed them on the table, here are some pics...

Now the activity,

We made some fairy wings,
What we need...

Wire,
Strong tape,
Different pieces of fabric,
String
Beads
Fake flowers, leaves,
Some elastic.


1- With the wire make a 8 shape, see below in red.
2- Secure it with the tape, see below in green.
3- Pull up each wing like the purple arrow shows you below.

Now, you have the structure of your wings.

4- Cut long pieces of fabric, then use them to hide the wire going around it many times...


5- When you done, the fun part starts, use the fabric, the flowers, the leaves to decorate the wings as you like, secure them with the tape, or use the metal stalk which comes usually with those fake flowers.
6- Make the kids bead the strings when they need your help so if you are already with someone else they don't get bored!
7- Then use the beaded string to finish the look of your wings!



8- Finish by putting the elastic for your fairy to wear her wings.
Take a 70 cm long elastic which it is represented in orange, see below. Attached it at its middle on the top of the wings, see orange dot. Then take first extremity, make a knot where the green dot is, and the second one where the red dot is.



Here is a few versions you can end up with... and of course you can make crowns and wands the same way! Have fun!...

Matilda and her friends had a wonderful time!

Artistically yours,
Miss Drey.

 Hi lil'guys!

Matilda has been asking me for a tea party for a few weeks now, just with her closest friends... And because it was just for a play date, I decided to go for the lowest budget that I could go for, so here it is what I came up with...

Any party, small or big needs a pretty invitation,
Matilda drew sweet fairy version of her guest friends and herself, I wrote their name on top of each silhouette, then I photocopied them 6 times (5 guests + 1 for Matilda for keepsake), cut each little fairies in a petal shape; I had some pretty paper in my "art" cupboard, I glued my 6 petals into a flower on it, then cut the edges following the petals, I finished by cutting two circles and glued them in the center as heart of the flower...
Of course at the back, I wrote the the details of the party, the date and the time, the address and a little map if necessary, a phone number/email address with a date to RSVP. I do write usually the programme of the party but it is not a must. Here are them!!!....They are so cute!!!...

For the Fairy Tea Party table,

We will need obviously tea cups and saucers, pretty plates for the "finger food" and a cupcake stand (they are so elegant on a party table...) So i got some paper cups, dessert plates and normal paper plates, all in white...

First, I took a small paper plate and cut the edge like this...



Then I took a bigger one and cut the edge as well like that...

I took a cup that I glued upside down in the middle of the big plate (with white glue),

And the small plate on top, like this...

To make it a little bit more fancy i added a cup on top, that I cut in half first, and finished off with the same pattern of the plate... Then glued little half plastic marbles to my stand a little shiny... There you have it, a beautiful fairy cupcake stand...

Ok, now the tea cups, we will need paper cups and the dessert size paper plates.



Cut the paper cup as shown above...
You will end up with this.




Then secure the long bit under the cup, it should hold by itself but if you are not too sure you can glue it with white glue.



And I finished the tea cup by glueing a little plastic marble at the top of the handle.

For the saucer, a paper dessert plate that I cut all around the borders like flower petals.
Here is the result... Beautiful fairy tea cups and saucers..

 

 


For the food, I made some fairy wand biscuits for each of the guest.



Recipe of the biscuit:

50g soft butter
75g sugar
1 egg yolk
1teaspoon clear honey
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 teaspoon milk
125g flour

Baking tray
Baking paper
Star cutter
Skewers

Fondant, different colors
Icing pens

Preheat your oven at 180°C

1- Beat the butter and the sugar until white and fluffy, then mix in the egg yolk.
2- Stir in the honey, vanilla essence and milk. Add the flour into the bowl, then mix with a spoon.
3- Use your hands to squeeze the mixture until you make a ball of dough, if too dry add a drop of milk, if too sticky add a spoon of flour.
4- Sprinkle a work surface with flour, then roll out the dought until it is about 5 mm thick. Use the cutter to cut out the stars.
5- Cover the baking tray with the baking paper, then put the stars onto it, and finish by inserting a skewer in each of them. Squeeze the scraps into a ball, roll them out again and cut out more shapes.
6- Bake them for 6 to 8 minutes, then carefully take them out of the oven. Leave them to cool on the baking tray.
7- Sprinkle a work surface with icing sugar, then roll out the fondant until is about 2-3 mm thick. Use the same cutter to cut out the stars.
8- Wet with a little water a star biscuit, then top it up with a star fondant, press lightly over to stick them together. Write the name of the guest with the icing pen.

I obviously made some cupcakes...

You will find the recipe in a previous post dated of April 23th, 2012.

I just found those Lavender Petal Baking cups, they are from the brand Wilton ( check out their website, they have amazing stuff! ) I thought there were beautiful and perfect for my fairy theme, but seeing the result!!... I was blown away!! They are just exquisite!...



As it was not for a party, I didn't make too much food, I served my homemade lemonade and I bought some sweets.

Now, everything is in the set up of the table, I picked all the little fairy toys that Matilda had, I spread a white table clothe, arrange the tea cups and saucers, the cupcake stand, found a Playmobil plant stand that I used to showcase my magic wand biscuits, place every toys carefully on the table, then the food. Matilda came back from the garden with beautiful flowers she picked from the garden, so of course we placed them on the table, here are some pics...

Now the activity,

We made some fairy wings,
What we need...

Wire,
Strong tape,
Different pieces of fabric,
String
Beads
Fake flowers, leaves,
Some elastic.


1- With the wire make a 8 shape, see below in red.
2- Secure it with the tape, see below in green.
3- Pull up each wing like the purple arrow shows you below.

Now, you have the structure of your wings.

4- Cut long pieces of fabric, then use them to hide the wire going around it many times...


5- When you done, the fun part starts, use the fabric, the flowers, the leaves to decorate the wings as you like, secure them with the tape, or use the metal stalk which comes usually with those fake flowers.
6- Make the kids bead the strings when they need your help so if you are already with someone else they don't get bored!
7- Then use the beaded string to finish the look of your wings!



8- Finish by putting the elastic for your fairy to wear her wings.
Take a 70 cm long elastic which it is represented in orange, see below. Attached it at its middle on the top of the wings, see orange dot. Then take first extremity, make a knot where the green dot is, and the second one where the red dot is.



Here is a few versions you can end up with... and of course you can make crowns and wands the same way! Have fun!...

Matilda and her friends had a wonderful time!

Artistically yours,
Miss Drey.