French King Cake
Quand j'avais cinq ans, j'adorais la Galette des Rois! (When I was 5 years old I loved King Cake). I don't know why I'm sometime intimidated by french recipes especially french baking, but I have been missing out for so long whenever I remember this special childhood King cake that has a hidden "feve" or ceramic saint figurine such as baby Jesus. This cake resembles more like a pie and the cream filling is almond base. Whoever receives the slice with the hidden figurine is crowned king or queen for the day. When I told my son that I was making this cake, he dropped what he was doing and led me immediately to the kitchen to start baking. We didn't even wait for the cake to cool down before serving because he couldn't wait to taste it. Give it a try if you feel like fantasizing about France. I cannot wait to go back and visit my Parisian birthplace. Ah, I can hear accordion music playing as the boys and I stroll dans Champs Elysee. Anyway, this French King Cake is simple to follow! If you can find it at your french bakery, definitely try it too. 
Recipe
Prep time: 15 min / Cook time: 30 min
Ingredients:
Pillsbury Dough Sheet
1 egg + water (egg wash)
For almond cream filling:
5 tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar
1.5 cup almond flour + 1 TBSP almond flour
2 eggs
1 Tbsp orange juice (optional)
3 -4 drops of almond extract (optional)
a bean or cranberry as the “feve”
For Glaze syrup topping:
1 Tbsp sugar
4 Tbsp water
Steps
Preheat your oven to 375 F. Softened butter by letting it sit in room temperature or microwave 30 seconds in a safe bowl. Using a food mixer, place butter in and whip it good for a minute then add sugar and continue to mix at medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs and mix until smooth. Next, add the almond extract and mix again. Place almond filling in the refrigerator.
For the dough, open the can as directed and lay out the sheet on a clean surface and cut sheet in half. Place one half of the sheet onto a 9” or 9.5” glass pie pan and gently stretch the dough to wrap all over the pan. Cut the excess dough that is hanging over the edge of the pan. Save the extra dough for the crust later. Set the other half dough sheet aside.
Pour the almond filling into the pie pan. Place your choice of feve anywhere inside the filling (mine was a raisin). Take the other half dough sheet and lay on top of the filled pie and gently stretch the dough to the edge of the pan. If you don’t have enough to stretch over the edge, it’s okay. Pinch the dough edges together along the pie pan grooves. It doesn’t have to be perfect. If you want to use the excess dough that was cut off, take a rolling pin and go over the excess dough a few times to flatten the dough and cut into strips. You can braid or twist the strips and place around the pie pan edge along the grooves.
Mix 1 yolk and a few tablespoons of water to create your egg wash to create a golden look on your pie. Use any brush such as a bbq brush to gently apply the egg wash all over the pie,
Bake your pie for 25 minutes until golden.
Meanwhile, create your syrup glaze by heating a small pot of the water and sugar in a boil until sugar is dissolved.
5 minutes before the pie is ready, take out the pie and using a brush or folded paper napkin, dip into the glaze and brush all over the top of the pie. Place pie back into the oven to bake for a few more minutes (2-3 minutes) or until golden.
Make a foil crown by folding aluminum foil a few times and leave enough foil for the top of the crown so you can use scissors to cut triangles off the top part of the crown (optional). See who wins to be the king or queen of the day! Bon apetite!
Create a crown out of aluminum foil.
“L’etate, C’est Moi!”
-Louis XIV
a little crisp on the outside and delicious almond filling on the inside