Ok, whoever didn’t swoon when they heard about the new Ladurée make-up line is obviously dead inside. For the REST of you, let’s take a look at what’s in store when Les Merveilleuses de Ladurée launches in Japan on the 29th of this month.
Like the late 18th-century French “Marvelous Ones” that undoubtedly inspired the line, the pretty packages of sweet eye shadows, luscious lipsticks, and flower petal blushes are a delicious mix of femininity and decadence that we Ladurée lovers have come to expect. The collection is slated to launch in Europe in the fall, followed by the U.S. at the end of 2012. Until then- we can only dream…
photo © myfrenchcountryhome.com
While in the U.S. the holiday season has been over and forgotten about for nearly a week now, things are still going strong here in France. This week, on January 6th, France will celebrate the Epiphany, the day the 3 Kings arrived to see the baby Jesus. Here in France, the Epiphany is celebrated with a Galette des Rois- a special “kings cake” made of layers of puff pastry and filled with chocolate and pear, apple, or the more traditional frangipane (an almond-flavored paste). Although pretty yummy by itself, the highlight of the Galette des Rois is finding the fève. The fève is a small, ceramic figurine which is baked inside the cake. Typically, the cake is sliced, and the youngest child in the household gets to determine who gets which slice. Whoever finds the fève in their slice of cake gets to wear a paper crown and be King (or Queen) for the day. I can imagine that in the U.S. 
a hard, pointy figurine baked into a cake would be considered a safety risk, but that’s not at all the case in France, where you’ll see lines of galette-hungry customers snaking out of bakeries across the country.
If you want to take part in the festivities, why not try this simple Galette des Rois recipe at home? A quick search on ebay pulls up a small (and pricey) selection of French fèves, but you can also do like they do in New Orleans and bake a small plastic baby in your “King Cake” instead. You can find the mini babies at any store that sells baby shower decorations. Vive le roi et vive la reine!
- © parisian party, january 2010
With less than a week to go before Thanksgiving, it’s about time that I announce the winner of the parisian party Thanksgiving Pie Giveaway! Both Alisa from Sweat Pea Baking and I were so thrilled with all of the comments and positive feedback that we received on this. A HUGE thank you to everyone who took the time to post on this blog, as well as share and retweet about the giveaway on Facebook and Twitter. So, without further ado, the winner is ….Linds, who also happens to write a sweet blog called “Greetings From the American Girl“. Linds will receive a mixed box of a dozen holiday mini-pies, baked fresh from Sweet Pea Baking.
Thanks again for playing along, everyone. And I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving- wherever you happen to be celebrating!
