Also called Three Kings cake, galette des rois, gâteau des rois, roscón de reyes, rosca de reyes, bolo-rei, Twelfth cake, Dreikönigskuchen
A cake baked for Epiphany, the Twelfth Night after Christmas, with a bean, figurine or plastic baby hidden inside. Whoever finds it is crowned king or queen for the day and is said to have luck for the year, along with the duty of providing next year's cake.
TraditionEuropean and Latin American Epiphany custom; Louisiana Mardi Gras custom
RegionFrance, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Louisiana, Germany, Switzerland, England
EraMedieval to present; first North American record 1649
Moon◐ Any moon
DayAny
ElementEarth
Difficulty●●○ Moderate
TimeAn afternoon to bake, one gathering to share
Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.
The working
Bake or buy the cake for Twelfth Night (5 January) or Epiphany (6 January). In Louisiana the season runs from Epiphany to Mardi Gras.
Hide one dried bean, whole almond or charm in the cake. If you use a plastic baby, press it in from underneath after baking, not into the oven.
Warn everyone at the table that there is something hard inside, and keep the cake away from small children who might swallow the charm.
Follow the French custom for fair shares: the youngest person sits under the table or turns away and calls out who gets each slice as it is cut.
Whoever finds the fève wears the paper crown and is king or queen for the evening. Make a toast to their good luck for the coming year.
Agree, as tradition holds in New Orleans, Spain and Portugal, that the finder provides next year's cake or hosts the next gathering.
Keep the bean or charm somewhere safe as a small token of the year's luck, then return it to next year's cake.
Take care: A hidden bean, almond or plastic baby is a choking hazard, so tell every eater and keep the cake away from young children. Do not bake plastic charms; insert them afterwards. Check for nut allergies before using frangipane or an almond fève.
Versions across time and place
i
Twelfth cake and the Bean King
English Twelfth Night custom · 16th to 19th century
English households baked a rich cake with a bean in one side and a pea in the other. The man who found the bean became king for the night and the woman who found the pea his queen. Pepys recorded the choosing of a king and queen by cake in January 1660. The custom faded in the Victorian era, but the Baddeley Cake is still cut at the Drury Lane Theatre under an 18th-century actor's will.
Uses: Fruit cake, Dried bean, Dried pea
Recorded in: Twelfth cake (Wikipedia); Samuel Pepys, Diary, Twelfth Night 1659/60
ii
Rosca de reyes and Candlemas tamales
Mexican Catholic custom · Colonial period to present
In Mexico and much of Latin America the oval bread holds a figurine of the Christ Child, recalling the Holy Family hiding from Herod. Whoever finds it is considered blessed and must take the figurine to church on Candlemas, 2 February, or host a party that day, usually with tamales.
Uses: Sweet bread ring, Candied fruit, Child Jesus figurine
Recorded in: King cake (Wikipedia), section on roscón de reyes
iii
Bolo-rei
Portuguese Christmas and Epiphany bakery custom · From 1829
The crown-shaped Portuguese cake, full of nuts and crystallised fruit, came from the southern French gâteau des rois through Lisbon's Confeitaria Nacional, which opened in 1829. It is eaten from early December to Epiphany, and whoever finds the dried fava bean pays for next year's cake.
Recorded in: King cake (Wikipedia), section on Portugal
History
Choosing a mock king by a bean hidden in festive food is old in Europe; it is often linked to the Roman Saturnalia, though that connection is a popular belief rather than a documented line of descent. In Christian practice the cake honours the Magi who visited the infant Jesus. The earliest known reference to a king cake in North America dates to 1649, when a French settler at Port Royal in Acadia, now Nova Scotia, owed the lord of the manor a round cake with a black bean in it on the eve of the feast of Kings.
In France the galette des rois became a puff-pastry cake filled with frangipane, sold with a paper crown and a small porcelain fève, while the south kept a brioche crown. In Louisiana the cake became tied to Carnival in the 20th century, and its purple, green and gold sugar has been standard since 1872. The small plastic baby stands for luck and prosperity, and bakeries often leave it outside the cake for the buyer to hide because of the choking risk.
