Galette des rois, the French king cake with a prize inside

What is a galette des rois?

The kings’ cake. Two flat rounds of puff pastry, sealed around a layer of frangipane, an almond cream, and baked until the top is glossy and the pattern scored into it has puffed. Somewhere inside is a fève, a tiny charm, and the cake comes from the bakery with a gold paper crown.

The kings are the three wise men. Epiphany, on 6 January, marks their arrival in Bethlehem, and in France it has become the cake’s day more than the church’s. In practice the galette runs all month: bakery windows fill with them after New Year, offices have one on Monday mornings, and families have several.

How does the fève work?

The rules are strict, which is the fun. The galette is cut into one slice per person. The youngest child goes under the table, where nobody can see the slices, and the person cutting asks, “C’est pour qui ?”, who is this one for? The child calls out a name for each slice. Nobody gets to choose their own.

Whoever bites on the fève is king or queen, puts on the crown and, in many families, chooses a partner. In some households the king buys the next galette, which is how January keeps going.

In Sacha’s family in Paris it went exactly like this: the youngest under the table, calling out names, and no telling who would end up with the crown. When he was growing up the fève was porcelain, usually a tiny Jesus or Mary from the nativity. Some bakeries now hide a fève you can eat instead. He considers this a step down, and the porcelain ones were, he says, better.

Bite carefully. A porcelain fève is meant to be found, not swallowed.

Where does it come from?

The game is older than the cake. During the Roman Saturnalia, roles were reversed for a day and a slave could be king. Since the Middle Ages, in France, Switzerland and Belgium, cakes called galette or gâteau des rois have hidden a fève, and whoever found it took the title.

The fève was a real bean at first, a dried broad bean baked into the dough. Around 1875 porcelain figurines began to replace it, and they never stopped: saints, kings, animals, cartoon characters, miniature croissants. Collecting them has its own name in French, fabophilie.

Why is there no fève at the Élysée?

Every January the French bakers present a giant galette to the president. Since 1975, under Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, it has had no fève and no crown, because a president of the Republic cannot be made king, even for an afternoon. In January 2026 the Élysée galettes measured about 1.20 metres across and weighed about 7 kilos each.

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Frangipane or brioche?

Frangipane, by a wide margin. In a 2019 survey for the French bakers’ confederation, 80% of French consumers chose the classic puff pastry and frangipane galette, 16% the brioche version and 4% apple or chocolate.

The brioche one, often called gâteau des rois or brioche des rois, is a crown-shaped brioche scented with orange blossom and topped with candied fruit and pearl sugar. It is the southern tradition.

Galette des rois recipe with almond paste

The French filling is made from almond flour, butter, sugar and eggs. In the United States, almond paste is easier to find than almond flour in some shops, and it works well. Almond paste is ground almonds already mixed with sugar, so the filling needs less added sugar and comes out a little denser.

For one galette, beat 225 g (8 oz) of almond paste with 30 g (2 tablespoons) of sugar until it breaks down, then beat in 115 g (½ cup) of soft butter and 30 g (¼ cup) of flour, then about three beaten eggs, a little at a time, until smooth. Use it exactly like the frangipane in the recipe below. Do not use marzipan, which has more sugar and will not set the same way.

Galette des rois in New York

New York’s French bakeries sell galettes in January, usually by preorder from the end of December. When Frenchly surveyed the city in January 2024, the list included Dominique Ansel in SoHo and Flatiron, La Bergamote in Chelsea, Épicerie Boulud on the Upper West Side and downtown, Ladurée, Millefeuille, Le Petit Parisien and Julien Boulangerie in Manhattan, and Colson Patisserie, French Tart Deli and Charlotte Patisserie in Brooklyn. Prices ran from about $35 to $72 for a whole galette, depending on size.

Bakeries change and so do prices, so call or check before you go. Order early for the weekend nearest 6 January, when they sell out.

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