Chocolate Orange King Cake (Galette des Rois)

La galette des Rois, or king's cake, is made every year to celebrate Epiphany. For those who don't know, epiphany is a Christian holiday that celebrates the Magi visiting baby Jesus. January 6th is the official day of Epiphany, but in France, we usually celebrate it on the Sunday between the 2nd and the 8th.  

This delicious treat is a flaky puff pastry with a sweet filling. The traditional filling is a simple almond cream, or frangipane, but this year I felt like a change. To the basic frangipane recipe I added melted chocolate and Grand Marnier (or orange extract for the kids).

Before serving, it's customary to hide a small figurine in the galette. Whoever gets the piece with the figurine is king (or queen) for a day. In reality, the winner is anyone who gets to have a slice of this delicious dessert.

Frangipane Petit Four with Raspberry Mascarpone Frosting

We hosted another tea party yesterday and I made some polenta tartlets and individual apricot pies. I had some leftover dough and almond cream from each, so I combined the two and baked them until they became dry. The result was similar to a "petit four sec". I had made eggplant rollups for dinner as well, so I used the leftover mascarpone to make a butter cream frosting which I then smeared onto each petit four. It worked like magic.

If an almond cream tart and a polenta tartlet had a baby, my frangipane petit four would probably be the result. Improvising with leftovers is a lot of fun. Sometimes it doesn't work out, but when it does, the result is true culinary innovation.  If you have no other use for the leftovers, it's the perfect time to experiment and be creative.

Apricot Tart with Almond Cream and Kaffir Lime Ginger Glaze

I was in the mood to bake today. I thought about making apple tartes amandines but everyone said they were bored with this flavor. So to please the whole house, I paired the almond cream with fresh ripe apricots. In France, you would order "une tarte amandine aux abricots, s'il vous plait!" in a patisserie (bakery). You probably won't learn this phrase in any French for tourists books, but I'm telling you, it's essential for your survival .

For the glaze, I had Laura's apricot pie jelly, a few kaffir lime leaves left that I did not used for my sweet and sour pineapple soup and some fresh ginger. It gave a nice kick to the apricot.

I know what you're going to say about my family. How spoiled are they?