French King Cake/Galettes Des Rois

A king cake sometimes called as king's cake or three kings cake is a type of cake associated with the festival of Epiphany in the Christmas season in a number of countries.. It is popular in Christmas season in France, Belgium and Switzerland etc.

The French king cakes have a small trinket often a small plastic baby, sometimes said to represent Baby Jesus inside, and the person who gets the piece of cake with the trinket has various privileges and obligations (such as buying the cake for next year's celebration).In France, the cakes can be found in most bakeries during the month of January. The cake consists of flaky puff pastry layers with a dense center of frangipane ( a cream prepared with almond powder,eggs, butter, sugar and almond essence)..The cakes are usually sold in special bags, so that can be used to heat the cake in a microwave without ruining the crispness of the cake. A paper crown is included with the cake to crown the "king" who finds the trinket in their piece of cake. To ensure a random distribution of the cake shares, it is traditional for the youngest person to place themselves under the table and name the recipient of the share which is indicated by the person in charge of the service.The person who gets the trinket is declared the King or Queen of the day. Every year we used to buy this king cake and this year i prepared at home to give a trial, the cake turned out fantastic..

2nos Puff pastry sheet
1cup Almond powder
2nos Eggs
1/4cup Sugar
1/4tsp Almond essence
1/4cup Butter (room temperature)
1no Egg yolk
1tbsp Milk

Beat the butter, sugar together in a bowl until they turns soft, add the eggs one by one and finally add the almond powder & almond essence, mix everything well and keep the bowl in fridge for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 400F, line a baking tray with a baking sheet, add the milk to the yellow egg yolk and beat well.

Place a puff pastry sheet ,brush the edges of the pastry sheet with the egg-milk mixture..pour the already prepared almond mixture over the pastry sheet and spread them evenly,dont spread over the brushed egg mixture.

Place the another pastry sheet over and give a press over the edges,so that they get well stick...

Make a small hole in the middle of the pastry sheet and with a knife make some lines over the pastry sheet as ur desire, brush now the pastry sheet with the remaining egg-milk mixture and bake in middle rack of the oven for 20-25minutes or until they turned brown.