The “Cakes of the Kings” tour of France
There are many variations of the King Cake!
First rustic cake — actually a simple ball of bread dough enriched with available “luxury” ingredients: eggs, butter, cream, honey or sugar, candied fruit.
Still brioches: the “ Gacéenne galette” and the “Lauragaise galette” which both contain apple-fruits, while others are adorned with pralines such as the “Bourbonnaise” and the gleaming “Saint-Genix cake”!
As it was a question of designating a king, there are those who had the idea of shaping the brioches in the shape of a crown. This is the form adopted by the "kingdom", the aptly named Provençal king cake, made with olive oil and decorated with candied fruit, or the Bordeaux king cake with its filling of granulated sugar and citron confit.
Likewise, the "Saint-Flour horned brioche" which must have as many horns as there are gourmets: under the horns hide a bean and large pieces of pralines which will bleed red when cooked.
There are also half-risen brioches such as the "fouace de Vendée" which is sometimes found in a twisted version, and the curious "galette bressane" which is covered with cream, sugar and lemon zest, the pizza way.
When puff pastry, the galette des rois is above all a Parisian tradition.
The puff pastry is also present (sometimes in the company of brioches) in Touraine, Lorraine and Normandy. It is often garnished with almond cream.
Elsewhere again, we feast on very flat pancakes, almost in bread dough as in Sologne (we bake them in the very hot bread oven, before the batch), or in more or less shortbread dough, enriched with almonds, like the “nantaise”, flavored with rum, that of Lorient with semi-salted butter, with its scent of bergamot and its decoration of angelica, or the very modest but so good “charentaise”.
Almost enough to eat a different one every day in January since the custom is now to draw the Kings throughout the month!
