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 CafĂ© 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. :))