French King Cake

A couple of days ago it was the Epiphany, and a French tradition calls for a delicious type of cake to be eaten around this time of the year. It consists of some layers of puff pastry and frangipane in the center.

Although I do like most of the different aspects of cooking and baking, making puff pastry is not part of my skill set, hence I bought some pre-made one that keeps for a couple of days refrigerated and, as experience has demonstrated, gives great results.

The frangipane, on the contrary I do make myself:

• 100 grams of almond powder (3 1/2 ounces)
• 100 grams of castor sugar
• 1 egg
• 25 grams of butter (1 ounce)
• 15 grams vanilla sugar (1 tbsp)
• 1 tbsp rum
• 2 or 3 drops almond extract

Mix the butter with the sugar until it is homogeneous, then add the remainder of the ingredients and mix for a couple of more minutes.

Take a little less then half of the puff pastry and role out into a circle of 23 cm (10 inches); roll the remainder into a circle of 25 cm (11 inches). Put the smaller pastry circle into an oven dish, add the frangipane in the middle and distribute until 2 cm (1 inch) from the edge of the pastry.

Add the remaining pastry circle on top and use a fork to seal it all around to prevent leaking of the filling. Streak the top with some egg yolk and put at a cool place for 15 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 240 deg C (465 Fahrenheit) and bake for 35 minutes after making a small hole in the middle to allow the steam to escape.


Smells wonderful, tastes even better!!