Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Joyeux Nouvel An!

Our good friend Mireille grew up in France and is now a translator in Toronto. She is always showering us with generous and decadent food gifts and just this week introduced us to a wonderful French tradition. She sent us a beautiful Epiphany Cake made of puff pastry and filled with an almond paste - delicious!







But the cake also came with a few seasonal surprises. Baked into the almond paste is a tiny procelain figurine. Tradition has it that whoever finds the figurine in their piece gets to wear a crown - Queen for a day. How great is that?!

Lucky me, I found this little guy when I was cutting my way into it so out came the crown (if the crown fits...!). It's a bit tough to make out from my photo but it's a little chef who has fallen flat on his face into a layer cake with icing on his hat and is not looking too happy about it. Thobors Boulangerie Patisserie Café is the fabulous bake shop where she bought the cake and they are running a contest with 3 great prizes for those who bring their figurines back - dinner for two, Champagne, and $75 in merchandise from the bakery - so I've shipped the little guy back to Mireille in the hopes that she's a winner.

Thanks for introducing us to this tasty new tradition, Mireille!...M

1 comment:

imquilternity said...

How nice! Your New Years cake sounds yummy! And finding a treasure inside it is somewhat like the danish tradition of finding the almond inside their pudding. I can't seem to think of the name of it now, but it's the same idea. Only a figurine would be way better than an almond. :))