Delicious French traditions - Bûche de Noël et gâteau des rois

I'm going to depart from my normal blog today because I want to talk about cake. 

Yeah! Cake! 

The first cake, Bûche de Noël, is a beautiful confection.  The Bûche, or log,  is traditionally made out of a rolled sponge cake and decorated to look like a log, a yule log.  The log is often bedecked with meringue mushrooms, a Père Noël, little presents and topped off with a sprinkle of powdered sugar to represent snow.  This delicious dessert is a Christmas tradition throughout France.  You can find them at the boulangerie (bakery) or in the grocery market. The traditional form of the cake is the log but you can find fancy modern translations of the log or others made of ice cream and small individual log cakes.  I'm sure that they all taste wonderful!

http://www.marmiton.org/recette-noel/buche-de-noel_1.aspx

Historically, celebrating with a bûche de Noël stems from the pagan celebration of the winter solstice.  Families had different customs of burning a giant log that was supposed to last several days.  Some people would douse the log with wine or salt, others would say prayers, and the ashes would be saved for use throughout the year.  Today, in France,  the cake form of the yule log is eaten prior to and after Christmas.

Check out this blog that explains the history of the yule log - very interesting!

Recipe for bûche de Noël

The other two cakes are eaten after Christmas in the days leading up to Epiphanie.  The first cake, galette des rois (king's cake), is made of puff pastry and almond cream.  The ones that are made in the local bakery are round and puffy.    See recipe for galette des rois here. The second cake, gâteau des rois or couronne des rois, mostly served in the south, is a ring brioche decorated with slices of candied fruit and sugar.  These cakes are particularly beautiful with the different colored candies. 

See the recipe for gateau des rois here.

The baker in Saint-Tulle let me take pictures of her gâteau des rois.  She took the galette out of a bag just so I could take a picture.  The ones with the fruit on top came in different sizes. The cheapest one was 5 Euros and the most expensive was 20 Euros.

Epiphany is the holiday celebrating the presentation of the three kings to Jesus.    This holiday is often celebrated in France by eating one of the above cakes(not the bûche).  Both cakes have a fève (bean), hidden inside. There are all types of customs that surround the kings cake.  

• After the cake is cut, the youngest person in the family, who is sitting under the table, decides who gets which slice.
• The person who finds the fève is crowned king for the day.
• The only person who can't be crowned king when finding the fève is the President of the French Republic. The French monarchy was dethroned and no one is taking any chances these days. 

Originally, the fève was an actual bean.  Today the fève can be any sort of ceramic figurine; a Magi, a santon, a chararater from a film or almost anything.  I bought a Ratatouille collector's box of fève from the supermarket.  I can't wait to show them to my students.

Sophia bought these at a garage sale

I could not resist!  I had to buy this to bring home and show to my students.  How adorable!

January is a fun time to celebrate with cake.  I hope you try one of the recipes.  Invite some friends over, bake a bean into your cake and make someone the king or queen for the day.