A Brussels bakery, Boulangerie De Weerdt in the municipality of Saint-Gilles, is replacing the bean in two of its traditional Epiphany cakes with an 18-carat gold coin with its logo this year.
On 6 January, many bakers across the country celebrate Epiphany by selling galettes des rois (French) or driekoningentaart (Dutch): a traditional cake composed of two circles of puff pastry sandwiching a frangipani filling.
On Epiphany, the day that the Three Kings ('les rois' or 'de drie koningen') visited the infant Jesus is celebrated with the cakes. Each cake has a crown on top and there is always a trinket - usually a bean or a small figure - baked into it.
While many no longer remember or pay importance to the story behind the holiday, the aim remains to gather with loved ones and share the cake with them. The person who gets the slice with the trinket in it gets the crown and has earned the right to be king (or queen) for the day.
In the De Weerdt bakery in Saint-Gilles, the cakes are available from today (Monday), but clients will only have a chance to win one of the two gold coins if they buy a cake on 6 January.
"We are going to give away two coins of 18-carat gold with the initials of the bakery as the bean," the bakery announced on social media. Each coin would have a value of more than €200.
Anyone who wants to take a shot at buying one of the two cakes with a gold coin, can do so on 6 January until 18:00.
